YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Bought with the income
of the
ALFRED E. PERKINS FUND

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^ -e

-A

THE

LIFE AND TIMES

William Lowndes Yancey

A HisTOKY OF Political Pakties ii^ the United States,
FROM 1834 TO 1864; Especially as to the Oeigin
OF THE Confederate States.

BY ,

JOHN WITHERSPOON DuBOSE.

After the convention of 1787, these differences culminated, in 1861, in blood,
but not in treason.— il/A'. History by General R Ii Lee.
A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestry
will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants. — Macaula-y.

ROBERTS & SON, BIRMINGHAM.
MDCCCXCil.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892,
I)Y
JOHN WITHERSPOON DuBOSE.
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress,
AT Washington, D. C.
all rights kesekved.

RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED
TO
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

AUTHOR'S MEMORANDUM.

As biography of a determinate individual actor, written
from sources contemporary with the living character described,
must be allowed as the basis of the most valuable history, the
public has the right to know the strength of the claims of this
volume to fidelity to its subject. In the early years of my
manhood, which were the closing years of Mr. Yancey's life,
I saw him often, heard him speak, and had favorable oppor
tunities for observing both his public and private life. In a
period of five years occupied, in a desultory way, in the col
lection of data and the preparation of this narrative of his
life, I have been the grateful beneficiary of courtesies and
attentions from most of the eminent men of Alabama and
some noble ladies who knew him best and who survive him.
His personal and political foes and rivals have been as frank
and ready to place me in possession of facts and opinions
concerning him as his personal and political friends and
supporters. I was favored by the personal friendship, and
confidence, in this undertaking, of his brother, the late Hon.
B. C. Yancey, who was in constant correspondence with me
up to the time of his recent demise, exchanging visits, in
person, with me.
Completed truth must measure to the leader of the South
in the most interesting and decisive period of American his
tory, that austere justice yet unpronounced — yet a blank,
most confusing, in the on-rushing tide of American life.
Whether the admitted difficulties which now, since his time,
beset Republican simplicity and equities of government are of
normal growth, coming out from the original American idea,
or whether they are of the character of revolution, as he
taught, obstructive, even fatal, to the original American idea,
is the vital question which, with or without the story of his
life, must command of the Saxon lineage in America unabated
and unabating inquiry.

VI. AUTHORS MEMORANDUM.
Sincere as has been my endeavor to state the truth, as yet
so incomplete, relating to the political influence of the man
who, without the imprimatur of official station to recommend
him to public confldence, expressed the solemn conviction of
the people in his conduct, I venture to hope I have avoided
that exaggeration so destructive to such a narrative.
But the biographer of Yancey is met, at the outset, with
another and a peculiar difflculty. Would he safely accept the
exaltation of the orator's virtues, so enthusiastically proffered
by those who knew him best and sympathized with his politi
cal views and objects ? If nay, what must be done with the
criticisms of his foes, in which so little is found to disparage
the reports of his friends and followers ?
Sirmingham, 1892.

DATA USED.

Files of newspapers edited by W. L.Yancey; his private
papers and letters ;
Files of Mobile Eegister and Mobile Aduertiser for sixty
years ;
Official records of Alabama;
Official records of the United States, including all Depart
ments of the government from the earliest period, and of the
Confederate States ;
The Magazine of Atnerican History and a long catalogue
of Magazines and Reviews, with newspapers from all sections
of the United States.
Of early authorities in American history, I have read the
writings of Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, etc. ;
the speeches and papers of Calhoun, Clay, Webster and John
Quincy Adams; many biographies of American leaders and
orators in all periods ;
Of later historical works : Stephens, Pickett, Hodgson,
Benton, Perry, Cooke, Phelan, McCarthy, Fiske, Hannis Tay
lor, Jefferson Davis, Brewer, Garrett, etc. I am particularly
indebted to memoranda left by Hon. R. Barnwell Rhett, de
ceased, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Pro
visional Congress of the Confederate States.
The Reminiscences of W. R. Smith, Smith's Debates and
the private letters of that distinguished gentleman to me, and
the letters of Hon. H. W. Hilliard to me, have specially
assisted me.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.
The First Tkeeitories  1
Climate and productions, and a sufficient area, indicated two
nations; two rival political parties, respectively, colonized the
two natural divisions of area: the attempt was made to offset
natural causes by the application of modern Constitutional
principles; the thirteen free and independent States in social
compact; the new industrial factor, African labor, assisted the
experiment; William Lowndes Yancey lead in the federal re
organization movement, of 1861 ; the history of the movement
of 1861 to be traced through the territorial expansion of the
federation of States; this history begins when Mr. Jefferson
established the fundamental principle of federation of sover
eign States in the Ordinance of 1784; Mr. .Tefferson founds a
party; the purchase of Louisiana; the surrender of Texas; the
Missouri question; the relation of Mr. Clay to that question;
the principle that Congress may incorporate new political com- ,
munities ucder its Constitutional right to "admit new States" ;
Mr. Jefferson's opinions on African citizenship.
CHAPTER I.
A Young Oratok and Editor  27
1834-1838— The - Welch origin of the Tanceys of Virginia; the
Welch influence in American government; the character of the
Yancey family in America; Benjamin Cudworth Yancey in the
navy, at the bar, in politics; the tears of a State fall on his
early grave; the Bird family; Miss Anne Pamela Cunningham;
the birth and infancy of William Lowndes Yancey; the char
acter of his mother; his education; his early development and
high influence in his non-age; the^jmUifioatien-nicffieiBent in
South Carolina; Dr. Thomas Cooper and the South Carolina
"College; the Qrdiuance of_Su)lifipat.ion; Governor Hayne and
Fi-esiJent Jackson; the advice of Mr., Calhoun; the protest of
M,r.. Rhett; the test_oatIi; W. L. Yancey's opposition; the com
promise of the question; Yancey's protest; Calhoun's influence;
tlie marriage of Yanoey; his removal to Alabama; his diffi
culty with Dr. Earle,

TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix.
CHAPTER 2. Page
Active Forces and Decisive Events  76
1840— Yancey's private life in Dallas County; the social features
of Alabama immigration; Dixon H. Lewis and Henry Gold-
th waite debate; W. L. and B. C. Yancey establish the We-
tumpka Argus; W. L. Yancey's fortune sacrificed ; he goes to
the bar; the Harrisburg Convention; the slave and free States
at Harrisburg; the Campaign, of 1840; its decisive character;
Yancey's oratory; Fitzpatrick elected Governor; the extrava
gant course of the Alabama Legislature ; Governor Bagby and
the general ticket. CHAPTER 3.
Yancet a Legislator  98
^f"t^ 18^1 ,Tnlin C, Cnlhniin nit Mnntcnmrry; Yancey's remarka
ble success at the polls; his speeches in the Lower House of
the Legislature; his refusal to be re-elected; his election to the
State Senate; his course on bank reform; his argument for the
" white basis" ; his argument for woman's statutory estate; his
debate with Dougherty. CHAPTER 4.
Schools and Banks  Ill
1841-1845 — The State Banks involve the State educational fund;
the Wetumpka .4r"(/ws leads for Bank ref orm and free schools;
the Democratic party avoids the issue; Governor Fitzpatrick
and the result of his administration on the question of the
Banks; the Democratic State Convention of 1845; the candida
ture of Chancellor Martin; Martin elected Governor; his course
toward the Banks; the endorsement of his policy by the Legis
lature; Commissioner Lyon executes the Governor's plan; the
work of the Bank Commissioner redeems the honor of the State.
CHAPTER 5.
Two Elections to Congress  12S
1844^1847 — Congress repudiates the settlement with South Caro
lina; Mr. Adams' activity; Clay and Calhoun retire to their
farms; Clay a candidate; he visits Alabama; Yancey answers
the question "Who is James K. Polk?"; Dixon H. Lewis pro
moted; Yancey's memorable canvass for Congress; his great
triumph at the polls; his first speech in Congress; its effect; he
accepts the challenge of Clingman; the duel; the Course of
Preston King in Congress on the duel; the action of the Ala
bama Legislature on the duel; Yancey elected to Congress a
second time; he resigns; his ominous utterances; the Cottrel
Beman canvass; Yancey's conduct; he moves to Montgomery

TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER 6.

PAGE
. 157

Tub Abolitionists 
The discovery of a new muscular force, quasi-mechanical; the
plantation the forerunner of the factory system; African servi
tude and its normal relations to the age of mechanics and
political economy; various failures of Southern colonies fol
lowed by distinguished successes, and the causes; the political
results of Southern prosperity in the colonial times; the anti-
slavery movement and its philosophy; incidents of insurrec
tions, North and South; Slade and Adams; Rhett's view of a
remedy; Calhoun's view of the power of Congress over the
mails; the Twenty-first Rule. CHAPTER 7.
Yancey and Hilliard  185
A debate prolonged through twenty years, which makes of Mont
gomery, Alabama, the centre of Southern political thought;
the oratory of Yancey and of Hilliard.

Second Division.

CHAPTER 8.
The Alabama Platform  194
1848 — Yanoey begins his career; the Mount Meigs barbecue ; three
conventions in Alabama; the conflict of the King and Lewis
wings of the Democratic party ; Yancey writes a party Address;
the historic convention of February, 1848; the Alabama Plat
form written by Yancey; its unanimous adoption; its speedy
repudiation; Yancey before the people; his course at Baltimore.
CHAPTER 9.
The Campaign  222
1848 — Yancey speaks at Charleston; the character of his speech;
the people demand'to hear biro in Alabama; public resolutions
in regard to him; he denounces the Baltimore Convention; ex
citing scenes attend his public addresses; he publishes a pam
phlet; he refuses to return to his party, but awaits the return
of his party to him.

TABLE OF CONTENT'^i. xi.
CHAPTER 10. Page
Some Preparatory Steps  230
1849 — The meaning of the election speedily reveals itself; Mr.
Calhoun's Address; President Taylor arrogates to the Execu
tive the ancient privileges of the Congress; California, a mili
tary creation, demands admission; Yancey declines to stand for
Congress; the campaign of Hilliard and Pugh; revolutionary
proceedings in the federal House; the Alabama Legislature
and a Southern policy; Yancey is thus vindicated; Mr. Clay
the Vernier resort. CHAPTER 11.
The Last ' ' Compromise "  243
1850 — Mr. Clay and his part; Calhoun speaks and retires; Seward
speaks and formulates the doctrine of revolution; the Nashville
Convention; Sharkey, Campbell and Rhett; the Montgomery
meeting; Goldthwaite, Bagby, Mays, Watts, Yancey, Noble;
the two greatest slave counties endorse the "compromise;"
agitation in Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi; the Geor
gia Platform; Howell Cobb founds a party; Jefferson Davis in
Mississippi. CHAPTER 12.
Secession Defeated  254
1851 — The Abolitionists repudiate the "compromise;" Mr. Clay
and the Boston riot; agitation in Congress restored; Governor
Collier a candidate and his reply to Shields; South Carolina
and Mississippi fail to secede; Abercrombie a candidate; Yan
cey declines a nomination; debate between Yancey and Hilliard ;
Secessionists defeated in Alabama.
CHAPTER 13.
The Delusive Success  265
1852 — Yancey retires from political debate; he devotes himself _
to the law, science and literature; he counsels moderation; the
election of Pierce and King; the candidature of Troup and
Quitman; the phenomenal success of Uncle Tom's Cabin and
the political importance of the fiction.
CHAPTER 14.
The Neisraska-Kansas Bill  273
1854 — Senator Douglas, seeing the failure of the ' ' Compromise "
to restore the harmony of the sections, attempts«to build up a
party uniting the West and the South; the constituency of

XII. TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
Douglas; his arraignment of Chase and Sumner; the clergy
attack Douglas; the Abolitionists hang him in effigy; the vio
lence of the Abolition petitions; the Lopez expedition; John
A. Quitman and the federal court; Douglas condemned in the
free States and disappointed in the slave States; what the Ne
braska-Kansas act was ; why the South accepted it.
CHAPTER 15.
Civil War Begun  288
1855 — Kansas the seat of war; Emigrant Aid Societies and Border
Ruffians; riots in the free States; the American party organized
at Philadelphia; the Twelfth Section; a letter from Yancey;
Yancey speaks at Columbus, Georgia; the American council
repudiates the Twelfth Section; Fillmore and Donelson nomi
nated; the Alabama Americans repudiate the Philadelphia
platform. CHAPTER 16.
Forcing the Issue  316
1856 — Birth of the Republican party; the Convention at Mont
gomery, January 8; Yancey's speech before it; he is restored to
the leadership of his party; the Alabama Platform re-enacted ;
Buchanan and Douglas; the Cincinnati platform; Fremont and
the Republican platform; Yancey's canvass of Alabama; his
speeches at Talladega and Union Town.
CHAPTER 17.
The Broken Party  :  335
1857-1858 — The Dred Scott decree; the LeCorapton Constitution;
revolution triumphs in Kansas. CHAPTER 18.
The People Consider  347
1858-1850 — Yancey's activity; the Secessionists gain ground in
Alabama; General William Walker at Montgomery; Colonel
Seibles calls a Democratic meeting, at which Mr. Yancey ap
pears, uninvited; memorable example of invective; Yancey's
labor for the Mount Vernon Association; unveiling the statue
of Washington at Richmond; Yanoey and Everett speak; the
African slave trade revived; the Southern Commercial Conven
tion meets at Montgomery; the character of the meeting •
Yancey's contest with Pryor, Preston and Hillinrd; Yancey'^s'
letter to Orme; the Slaughter, or "scarlet," letter; tbe League
of United Southerners; the Lincoln-Douglas campaign; Yan
cey's letter to Meadows; John Brown's raid; Lincoln's speech

TABLE OF CONTENTS. xill.
Page
on the raid; Fitzpatrick, Yanoey and Winston before the Legis
lature. CHAPTER 19.
The Man and the Advocate  400
Yancey at home; his culture and amusements; his personal in
dustry; riding the circuit; law and politics; Yancey before the
jury; he never failed in oratory; the new firm of Chilton and
Yancey. CHAPTER 20.
The Southern Argument  407
I860 — The adjudicated rights of slavery; the status of bondage
gradually preparing the African for the status of contract;
eddence going to prove the relative prosperity of the sections;
the fiscal action of the federal government and its favoritism
tends to retard the progress of the African; education in the
sections. CHAPTER 21.
The Argument Continued  423
1860 — The promise of Tuomey's labors in the mineral region of
Alabama; the promised competition of free with slave labor;
the work of Milner; Yancey favors progress; ready cash await
ing investment; the price of slaves too high for the price of
cotton; Miss Amelia Murray in the South.
CHAPTER 22.
The Chableston Convention  ¦.  439
1860 — Yancey visits South Carolina to advise the people; the six
propositions of the Charleston Mercury; the early meeting at
Montgomery; the resolution of Sanford and the speech of
Yancey; the Alabama State Democratic Convention; the State
in the lead; the Alabama Platform, of 1848, reaffirmed; John
Forsyth; the resolutions of the Alabama Legislature support
the Democratic Convention; the first Secession Convention
provided for; Douglas preparing for the Charleston Conven
tion; proceedings of the Convention; a tiick; Yancey and Pugh
debate; Richard Taylor and Winston; delegations withdraw;
St. Andrew's Hall meeting; the Convention adjourns; the Dem
ocratic dissensions in Alabama; the Richmond meeting; the
Convention re-assembles at Baltimore; the Convention dis
solves; the two divisions nominate candidates; Yancey's speech
at Baltimore; Jefferson Davis and Stephen A. Douglas.

XIV. TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER 23.

The People Decide 
1860 — Preparing for war; Sumner and Chesnut; Yancey's ora
torical tour of the South and North; the unparalleled ovations
which attend him; the election of Lincoln not a result of the
dismembered Democracy.

Page . 487

Third Division.

CHAPTER 24.
Secession of Alabama  543
1861 — Yancey tried by events of his own creation; Yancey and
Morgan. CHAPTER 25.
Confederate Diplomacy  572
1861 — Yancey invited to offlce; B. C. Yancey and his counsel; a
Cabinet and the members thereof; the Confederate Constitu
tion; the Confederate foreign commission; Rhett's plan of
foreign negotiation; the Commissioners in Europe; the plea
for recognition; Yancey resigns; his letter to Sir Archibald
Alison; the Trent affair; England vacillates.
CHAPTER 26.
The Perplexed People.  628
1861-1862 — President Davis; McClellan; J. E. Johnston; the coun
cil at Fairfax; comparative energy in the government of two
Republics; Secretary Benjamin and a destructive administra
tion ; the personal relation of President Davis to great men ; a
plan of war denied;. the relative strength of the two belliger
ents; Miss Carroll furnishes a plan of war; Confederate suc
cesses ; Watts chosen Governor. CHAPTER 27.
Senator Yancey  g5Q
1862-1863 — Yancey at New Orleans; his depression of spirits-
letters to the President; tbe burden of mal-administration-
Caleb Huse's letter; Post's letter; Earl Russell's opinion- Yan
cey's activity in the Senate; John A. Campbell and his strange
career; three great armies removed from the field of conflict-
Yancey and Hill debate ; death of Yancey.

LIST OF PORTRAITS.

Leader of the South
LawyerPioneer Planter
Political Reformer
EducatorIndustrial Developer
Plantation Home
Party Leader
Diplomat

Frontispiece
Facing Page 33
Facing Page 81
Facing Page 129
Facing Page 401
Facing Page 433
Facing Page 513
Facing Page 545
Facing Page 641

Now, a living force that brings to itself all the resources of imagin
ation, all the inspirations of feeling, all that is influential in body, in
voice, in eye, in gesture, in posture, in the whole animated man, is in
strict analogy with the divine arrangement; and there is no miscon
struction more utterly untrue and fatal than this : that oratory is an
artificial thing which deals with baubles and trifles for the sake of
making bubbles of pleasure for transient effect on mercurial audiences.
— Henry Ward Beecher.

One comfort is, that Great Men, taken up in any way, are profit
able company. We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great
man, without gaining something by him. He is the living light foun
tain, which it is good and pleasant to be near. The light which
enlightens, which has enlightened the darkness of the world; and this
not as a kindled lamp only, but rather as a natural luminary by the gift
of Heaven; a flowing light fountain, as I say, of native original insight,
of manhood and heroic nobleness. * * On any terms whatever, you
will uot regret to wander in such neighborhood for awhile. — Carlyle.

INTRODUCTION.

The First Territories.

There was room in British America for two nations de
fined in their limits by the laws of climate and productions,
which have ever determined the institutions of progressive
peoples and endowed them with national characteristics. It
is memorable that in the two climatic divisions of British
America, respectively, two intensely rival political parties of
England planted each a prosperous colony. The men of the
older Cavalier colony soon cried out, " These Puritans are as
bad as Papists and there are too many of them in Virginia ; "
no pioneers of the wilderness ever accepted " the goods the
gods gave " with sterner content than the Puritan settlers of
New England and no more unrelaxing social polity was ever
established than the Puritanical regulations set up by them
over themselves. But, the surprise of the epoch came. The
modern law of community interest revealed itself. The colo
nies brought with them the same spirit of English liberty ;
they had a common grievance against the mother country; all
prospered in the new productive agent, African labor — some
by the rich commerce engaged in importing it, others by the
bountiful crops it produced. Concert of social action was the
logical succession of mutuality of benefits flowing from a
recognized source.
Thus instead of two nations the British American colonies
ultimately framed a written compact as between thirteen free
and independent States, in co-operation for specific objects.
The principle sought to be established was the perpetuity of a
fedei-al union and social progress ; and this principle was

2 JNTBOPUCTION.
"based upon and was intended to secure abstract right in the
individual and a democratic cast in the whole polity."*
It is just eulogium, therefore, of the beautiful and complex
American federal system, that it was, in its origin, a conven
ience to pre-existing, healthful and sovereign States. When
in the divine economy the wants of man flrst required a social
polity — a code to condemn theft, slander, usury, uncleanliness,
to ordain marriage and to recognize manhood as the source of
political life — " every man by his own camp, and every man
by his own standard throughout their hosts " — this flrst re
corded social polity appeared as a national organism founded
upon representative parts. Cqnfessing affinity with the mind
of nature to be the test of human endeavor, our federal system
is vindicated in the prototype of government fixed by nature.
The most intimate co-operation of atoms, productive of greatest
results, proves the indistructibility of atoms. Hence, it may
not be exaggeration to claim that the highest refinement of
social polity which the experience of intellect has evolved, our
federal system — maintaining the validity of its constituents
and deflniteness in their spheres — has its prototype in the
eternal methods of organized nature.
To William Lowndes Yancey, more than any other individ
ual, is due the responsibility of organizing Southern- political
opinion to undertake, in 1861, the erection of a reformed
federal compact. An earnest man, deep-believing, he lead
to action a whole people not less free from superstition than
the Jews who followed Bar Cochba to the fall of Bethar,
nor less controlled by reason than the Athenians who lost
Chseronea. The history of the wonderful extension of the empire of
the Union, correlated to the decadence of the original theory
of federal compact, demands, at the outset of this narrative, a
fair statement, however brief.
By treaty. Great Britain obtained from France the east bank
of the Mississippi. Between the French territory, Canada
and the Spanish territory, the Floridas, the Atlantic and the
Mississippi, lay the thirteen British American colonies who
declared themselves free and independent States. The royal
charter of Virginia fixed the boundaries of that colony, to the
*Lieber's ¦Civil Liberty and Self-government, p. 214.

THE FIB.'^r TERBITOBIE.^. :]
south one hundred miles from the mouth of the river James,
to the north one hundred miles from the starting point, and
west, between southern and northern limits, to the " South
Sea" — the extent of British territory. For more than an
hundred years, the colonies had made unsuccessful eft'orts to
form a confederacy, without any pre-conceived purpose of
Independence. The Continental Congress, in its origin, was a
mere conference to combine the colonies upon certain meas
ures of persuasion of the mother country. War broke out.
Virginia insisted upon a Declaration of Independence. The
Congress at length appointed two committees, one to prepare
a Declaration, and the other to prepare Articles of Confedera
tion and Perpetual Union of the States. The former docu
ment was debated several days and, shorn of much of its
original emphasis as presented by its author, was adopted, late
in the day of July 4, 1776. All delegates present signed it,
save Mr. Dickinson. The Articles of Confederation were
debated two years. Dr. Witherspoon said the Union should
be federal, each State preserving the weight of its own interest,
thus securing civic freedom and personal liberty at the fount
ain head. John Adams contended for an incorporating union,
where " a majority of the stock invested should control." Dr.
Franklin followed Mr. Adams' view, and George Mason con
curred with Dr. Witherspoon. While the debate progressed,
Virginia opened a land office. So anxious was that State to
foster her western interests, that her Legislature, in 1780,
instructed her delegates in the Congress to vote for a treaty
with Spain for the free navigation of the Mississippi to its
mouth and, the better to secure this treaty, to vote to surren
der South Carolina and Georgia to Great Britain as a condition
of immediate recognition of the independence of the United
States. Maryland, who owned no wild land, refused to accede
to the Confederation, unless States, who were claimants of
such property, should consent to convert it into common estate..
Virginia protested. New Jersey and Delaware demanded the
surrender by each State of its unoccupied lands, held beyond
reasonable and prescribed limits. Having taken this position
in Congress, Maryland reinforced it by an act of her General
Assembly, May 21, 1779, warning her deputies not to accede
to the Articles, unless these wild lands, claimed by the several

4 INTEODUCTION.
States, under more or less uncertain titles, but " wrested from
the common enemy by the blood and treasure of the thirteen
States, should be considered as a common property, subject to
be parcelled out by Congress into free, convenient, and inde
pendent governments in such manner and at such times as the
wisdom of that assembly shall hereafter direct."
The territorial acquisition and the territorial policy of
administration of the United States originated in this resolu
tion of instruction from Maryland. First, it involved the
formation of the Union itself, and thus elevated the question
of territorial acquisition to a position of supreme importance.
Next, it advanced the comprehensive proposition, that the
acquired territory should not remain the property of Congress,
longer than it could be organized into " free and independent "
States ; Congress controlling the process of State organization
only in the particulars of "manner" and "time." Regardless
of the dates of the acts of the dift'erent Legislatures, assenting
to the cession, the deeds themselves bear remarkable internal
evidence of a common purpose. New York executed the first
deed, bearing date March 1, 1781, relinquishing "to and for
the only use and benefit of such of the States as are or shall
become parties to the Articles of Confederation * * to be
granted, disposed of, and appropriated in such manner only as
tbe Congress of the L^nited, or Confederated States shall order
and direct." In this first deed it is plain that a common estate
had been created, the beneficiaries named and the trustee
appointed. March 1, 1784, the deed of Virginia was executed.
The document gave notice of certain exemptions from the
general terms of cession, such as bounties or reservations, but,
as to the remainder, it " shall be considered as a common fund
for the use and benefit of such of the United States as have
become, or shall become members of the Confederation or
Federal Alliance of said States, Virginia inclusive." The
other deeds bore date as follows: Massachusetts, April 19,
1785; Connecticut, September 14, 1786; South Carolina, Au
gust 9, 1787; North Carolina, February 25, 1790; Georo-ia,
April 25, 1802 — each and all, in essentially the same legal
phraseology, creating a trust fund, naming the beneficiaries
appointing the trustee, and declaring the purpose of authority
conferred .

THE FIB ST TEBIilTOlilK.^. 6
The act of cession of Virginia forbid domestic slavery in
the ceded land; the acts of North Carolina and Georgia pro
hibited the interference of Congress with domestic slavery in
the ceded land. But, these States joined the others in creating
that " common fund " whose just administration could not fail
to be inconsistent with exactions of individual donors. The
duty of Congress had been happily expressed by Maryland at
the outset, to parcel out the public land, as soon as possible,
into "free, convenient, and independent governments "— co
equal States, in their relations to a common federal system.
In quick succession Mr. Jeft'erson appeared in three decisive
acts of political leadership. First, as author of the Declara
tion of Independence, founded on the American idea of local
self government flrst set forth in the resolutions of Patrick
Henry, before the Virginia House of Burgesses, May, 1765;
next, as author of the Ordinance of 1784 ; and lastly, in order,
as founder of the States Rights party, in 1798. There was a
remarkable Americanism throughout all this history, with its
source in the last of the flve resolutions of Mr. Henry, " that
every attempt to vest such power (of rule) in any person or
persons whatsoever, other than the General Assembly aforesaid
(Virginia), has a manifest tendency to destroy British as well
as American freedom."
On the very day on which Virginia executed her deed
of cession, a committee, previously appointed by Congress,
reported a plan of government for the ceded lands. The com
mittee was composed of Jefferson, Chase, of Maryland, and
Howell, of Rhode Island. Limits were defined to the following
Territories to be governed by the rules prescribed : Sylvania,
Michagania, Cheronesus, Assenisipia, Metropotamia, Illinoia,
Saratoga, Washington, and Pelisipia. Each should have dele
gates on the floors of Congress, with the right to debate but
not to vote. Whenever any one should attain to twenty
thousand inhabitants, on petition. Congress should appoint
time and place to call a convention to frame a permanent
constitution for admission of the Territory as a State to the
Union "on an equal footing with said original States. *
That all the preceding articles shall be formed into a charter
of compact * and shall stand as fundamental conditions be
tween the thirteen original States and those newly described.

6 INTBOBUCTION.
unalterable, but by the consent of the United States in Con
gress assembled and the particular State within which such
alteration is proposed to be made." Thus distinctly was the
fundamental theory of State Rights promulgated as the basis
of the national organization in its proposed enlargement. The
propositions in this " charter of compact " between the original
and new States were flve in number, the substance of the flrst
four being, that the compact should be perpetual; that the
people of the new States in their persons and property should
be subject to the same constitutional authority of the Confed
eration " in which the original States shall be subject ; " that
the new States should pay their part of the federal revenues,
and that the new governments should be republican in form,
tolerating no hereditary titles. The " charter of compact " in
the flrst four propositions satisfied all the States in Congress.
There was a fifth and concluding proposition: "That after
the year 1800 of the Christian era, there shall be neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States,"
etc. There was no doubt of the hand of Mr. Jefferson in the
anti-slavery proposition. He had resigned his seat in Congress
immediately after the publication of the Declaration of Inde
pendence to enter the Legislature of Virginia to urge certain
reforms, among them the prohibition of African importation
into that State. He was a disciple of the most philosophic of
all modern writers on Republican theories, Montesquieu, who
had said : " Where excess of heat enervates the body and
renders men slothful and dispirited, that nothing but chastise
ment can oblige them to perform any laborious duty,", slavery
was not averse to natural reason, but "as all men are born
free and equal, slavery must be accounted unnatural, though
in some countries it be founded on natural reason." The
question of slavery in the Territories had this beginning. The
relation of the Ordinance to States inchoate, in all else save
the slavery restriction, was expository of the federal system.
The slavery restriction, more administrative than doctrinal,
was of flrst impression, so far as it involved Mr. Jefferson's
political faith, and was repudiated by him at its first applica
tion under the more perfect Union, as will presently appear.
Mr. Speight of North Carohna, objected to the anti-slavery

THE FIEST TEERITOEIES. 7
proposition, number five, and the Ordinance went into effect
without it, as " a temporary government of the Northwestern
Territory." There had been little or no effect from this enact
ment when, on .July 13, 1787, Congress, sitting at New York,
and the Consitutional Convention sitting at Philadalphia,
passed an ordinance, drawn by Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts,
to supersede the former. No votes were cast against Mr.
Dane's bill, and it became known as the Ordinance of 1787.
Mr. Jefferson was then absent as minister to France. The
Ordinance of 1787 revived the original theory of States Rights
in the exact phraseology of Mr. Jefferson's bill; it provided
additional securities for liberty of religion, for public education,
for protection of the rights and property of the Indians, and
for the equalization of the burdens of taxation. " It has ever
since constituted the model, in most respects, of all our terri
torial government." Mr. Madison, being a member of both the
Congress and the Constitutional Convention, passing to and
fro between the two, along with others who were members of
both, declared the Ordinance of 1787 to be without the "least
color" of Constitutional authority. The unanimity of the vote
for it is readily explained. The proposition five of Mr. Jef
ferson's bill had been rejected. It was universally known
that slavery had failed north of the Potomac, and that the
navigating States were all preparing to abolish it. There was
no reason to suppose the institution would meet a better
reception north of the Ohio, the only region touched by the
Ordinance, than it had received north of the Potomac. The
agricultural States were content.
The eighth law on the statute book of the First Congress,
of the Constitution, is the act re-afSrming the Ordinance of
1787. A few years later the settlers of the Indiana Territory^
then including Illinois, rejoicing in the fertihty of their lands,
sent a petition to Congress, endorsed by Governor William
Henry Harrison, praying the suspension of the anti-slavery
provision of the Ordinance, for ten years, that negro slaves
might be introduced to clear the forests, produce crops, and
promote, in their toil, the general prosperity of the settlements,
while the white males fought the Indians. John Randolph,
the most devoted of the disciples of Mr. Jefferson's States
Rights theory, from a special committee of the House, reported

8 INTRODUCTION.
its unanimous rejection of the petition. The report of Mr.
Randolph assured the petitioners of their error of judgment:
the convenience expected from introducing slaves would be
over weighed by the trouble of abandoning slavery. Yet, for
ten successive years, the same petition reappeared to meet the
same fate.
The American political theory had now reached the crucial
test of permanency — ability to maintain a political party to
defend it. Mr. Jeft'erson having become its exponent in the
origin of the movement for Independence, came forward to
found the party required to perpetuate it. The Alien and
Sedition laws of John Adams' administration presented the
opportunity. In order to establish a party to overthrow the
administration or consolidation party, Mr. Jefferson, in confer
ence with a few of his supporters, laid down certain funda
mental propositions. First among these was, that the Union
of States was made more perfect than the Confederation of
States, inasmuch as the Confederation was a league between
the governments of the several States, but the Union was a
compact entered into between the people of the several States
in their sovereign capacities. The Articles of Confederation
had been prepared by the general Congress and ratified by the
State Legislatures, but the Constitution had been prepared by
a special general convention and ratified by the people of the
several States in their separate conventions ; that the federal
government and the State government derived their power
from the same source, the people, and were co-equal in that
respect; that the federal government was not created by the
American people in the aggregate, but by the several States,
and in none of its departments did it represent the American
people in the aggregate, but in all of its departments repre
sented the several States of America in compact. Farther,.
that the government of the Constitution was a government in
lieu of a single legislative body or council, as by the Articles
of Confederation; that the government of the Constitution
consisted of three equal or co-ordinate departments, Legis-
altive. Executive, and Judicial ; that the co-ordinate theory
of the departments did not permit one to impair the influ
ence of the other in the operation of the government • that the

TFIE FIH.^T 'TERHITOEIES. ij
Constitutional adjustment of the parts of the government
must remain intact to preserve the essence of popular liberty.
The courts had sustained the Alien and Sedition laws, and
gentlemen of the first position were in prison as oft'enders.
x\'iv. Jefferson, in order to organize a Republican party, wrote
a series of expository resolutions of great length, and procured
them to be offered in the Legislature of Kentucky, defining
the reserved rights of the States, and the delegated authority
of the Federal government. He prevailed with Mr. Madison,
who had been a follower of Hamilton, to enter the Virginia
Legislature and to defend the new party there. It-was neces
sary to begin the expounding of the new party principles in
the State Legislatures, because of the great majority in Con
gress in favor of the administration. The Jefferson followers
in the lower House, at this crisis, were known as "the old
thirteen " for many years, denoting their numbers.
The Kentucky resolutions of 1798, and the Virginia resolu
tions of 179a, and Mr. Madison's report of 1800, were the basis
of the new party. The first named were the gist of all. The
Kentucky resolutions declared, that to submit to the usurpa
tions of the administration and Congress " would be t o sur
render the form of government which we have chosen, and live
under one which derives its powers from its own will and
not from authority." In such a crisis of public faith, the
resolutions proceeded to declare, that " each State should take
measures of its own for providing that neither these acts, nor
any others of the Federal government, not plainly and inten-
^onally authorized by the Constitution, shall be exercised
within their respective territories." The Kentucky resolutions,
in their proposed remedy of State interposition or nullification,
are discovered to be in full accord with that provision of the
Ordinance of 1784, which guaranteed to all the new States a
"Charter of Compact," "unalterable but by the joint consent
of the United States in Congress assembled," as one party
thereto, " and of the particular State " as the other party.
Growth in use is the law of sound principles in morals or
politics. Mr. Jeft'erson's party found ready for it the problem
of control of fresh territorial acquisitions. As the old Articles
of Confederation had not contemplated a common estate of the
United States, the new Constitution had made no provision for

10 INTRODUCTION.
conquests or acquisitions of territory or its government in any
specific way. But growth in empire became an inevitable
policy, even to the States Rights party. The various circum
stances which compelled the acquisition of Louisiana Territory
present themselves for necessary consideration.
Immediately after peace with the mother country. Congress
proceeded to negotiate treaties of commerce with western
European States. The navigating States of the Union were
naturally most earnest in demanding the early perfection of
the treaties. Spain hesitated because of certain secret articles,
which she had just discovered, in the treaty of recognition,
with the mother country, supposed to give Great Britain
advantages over her in the Floridas. She resolved to force the
new Republic from the stipulations with Great Britain on this
point. She therefore refused to enter into commercial rela
tions. Meantime she held closed against the trade of the
western settlements, the lower Mississippi river. Gardoqui,
the Spanish Minister, remained a year at the American Con
gress, awaiting its decision. John Jay, the American Minister
of Foreign Affairs, could not relieve the situation in face of
the treaty with Great Britain. Finally it became known that
Mr. Jay had yielded to the entreaties and menaces of the East
and taken sides against the West. In order to perfect the
treaty with Spain, in the interest of the Atlantic navigating
States, he advised that the navigation of the lower Mississippi
be left at the pleasure of Spain for the period of a quarter of
a century. The western settlements protested vehemently,
they would not submit. News of their protest, and the prq-
crastination of Mr. Jay, or rather of Congress, reached New
England. Town meetings expressed the public indignation in
that quarter. Resolutions were passed calling for a dissolution
of Congress, and the resumption by the States of their original
sovereignty. About this time a citizen of North Carolina, one
Amis, regardless of the delays of diplomacy, and thoughtful
of sectional rights in his own interest only, undertook to pass
a flat boat cargo of flour and hides down the Mississippi to
New Orleans. He was hailed by the Spanish garrison when
opposite Natchez, brought to shore, his boat and cargo confls-
cated and he sent afoot through the forests toward his home.
From settlement to settlement, and hut to hut, he spread the

THE F7J?.sr TEJUWrORIEs. H
news of the closure of the river. From the Tennessee to the
lakes the settlers were aroused. Volunteers offered to march
on New Orleans and take the city. Threats were freely made
of organizing a republic between the Alleghanies and the
Mississippi. Time passed on, the Constitution was adopted,
the government of the Union went into operation, and in
Washington's administration a treaty was established with
Spain, securing to the people of the United States the right
to navigate the Mississippi, with a stipulation that they
should have the right to deposit their goods on the Island of
Orleans, or elsewhere, awaiting facilities for shipment to sea
or up the river. Spain, meantime, transferred all the Louisiana
territory, including the Island of Orleans to Napoleon. By
edict of the Governor of the Island, Americans were refused
the commercial privileges stipulated for in the Spanish treaty.
The whole western settlements rose in indignation. Mr. Ross
introduced m the Senate, in February, 1803, resolutions author
izing the President to call out not exceeding fifty thousand
militia from the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee,
Kentucky and Ohio, and the Mississippi Territory, to protect
the rights of Americans on the western waters. Mr. Breck-
enridge moved to amend the resolution so as to require the
Governors of all the States to arm, equip and hold in readiness
eighty thousand militia for the same purpose. Mr. DeWitt
Clinton, opposing the resolution and amendment, said: "It
has struck me with not a little astonishment that on the agita
tion of every great political question, we should be menaced
with this great evil — the severance of the States. Last session
when a bill repealing a judiciary act was under consideration,
we were told that the Eastern States would withdraw them
selves from the Union should it obtain; and we are now
informed that if we do not accede to the proposition before us
the Western States will hoist the standard of revolt, and dis
member the Union."
The President, Mr. Jefferson, was greatly alarmed. Would
the First Consul of the- French carry his extraordinary good
sense into the perplexity of the American situation to its relief?
" The people are unapprised that Louisiana is a speck in our
horizon about to burst into a tornado," wrote the President to
Dr. Priestly. Louisiana must be obtained by the United States.

12 INTEODUCTION.
" Whether v/e remain in one Confederacy (continued the letter
to Priestly) or form into Atlantic and Mississippi Confeder
acies, I believe to be not very important to the happiness of
either party." The problem was to prevent England from
taking advantage of the discontent, of the western settlements
to propose their protection by holding open the mouth of the
Mississippi to their trade, while France should be dispossessed
of Louisiana by their help. Would Messrs. Ross, Morris and
their sympathizers, in premature zeal, open the way to Eng
land? Would the First Consul soon go to war with England,
and, needing money, sell Louisiana? When Mr. Livingston
approached M. Talleyrand, the French diplomatist denied that
France owned Louisiana. Livingston told him he had seen a
copy of the treaty with Spain. At that time England had a
fleet of twenty men-of-war in the Gulf waiting to flnd out
whether France or Spain owned the Territory to determine
her course.
The treaty of purchase was made, and Spain brought up
her right of redemption under her conditions of sale to
France. The President declined to observe the Spanish claim.
But the Federalists (nationalists) were bitterly opposed to the
purchase, and consented in the Senate to ratify and in the
House to appropriate the funds for the execution of the treaty
only for fear of English interference and western disloyalty.
Napoleon had already begun to fear he had made a bad bar
gain, and the President dreaded to hear news from France..
The President warned his supporters that " the less said about
any constitutional difficulty, the better." He intended to ask
Congress to seek to make valid the treaty by proposing an
amendment to the 'Constitution. He would not consent to
reduce the security of republican institutions by making the
Constitution blank paper. He would ask for every enlarge
ment of power from the source of pdwer, rather than assume
to make it boundless by construction. If there were any
bounds to the government, they could be no other than the
definitions of the powers given to it by the written compact
of the States.
The treaty of purchase contained a stipulation remarkable
for its variance with the anti-slavery provisions of the Ordi
nances of 1784 and 1787. It was the third clause and was the

THE FIEST TEEEI'TORIE.'i. 18
key to the act of Napoleon in parting with his land. The
war in which' he then engaged England would enable the
United States to take possession, but it was advisable to pro
vide for continued possession as against European sovereigns.
The third clause of the treaty, therefore, was suggested by
him for the express purpose of his own protection. It would
never cease to be of importance to France. It provided, that
"the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated
in the Union of the United States, and admitted, as soon as
possible according to the principles of the Federal Constitu
tion, to the enjoyments of all the rights, advantages and
immunities of citizens of the United States ; and, in the mean
time, they shall be protected in the free enjoyment of their
liberty, property, and the religion they profess." The ratified
treaty, under the provision of the Constitution relating to
treaties, became " the supreme law of the land." Slavery had
been established in the Louisiana territory by the special
licenses of the king of Spain. The Spanish law had not been
revoked by Napoleon in the short time of his possession.
Slaves, therefore, were "property" wherever the municipal
law of Spain, accepted by France, was stipulated to be pre
served in the treaty of acquisition by the United States. So
much for the guardianship of Napoleon's stipulation over the
liberty, religion and property of the people of the relinquished
territory in their territorial condition. The guardianship went
farther. It provided that they should be admitted as States
of the Union in full enjoyment of the equality secured by the
organic law to all the States.
We are now ready to consider the earliest of those start
ling paradoxes which mark the history of the relation of the
federal government to the Louisiana purchase. In 1804 and
1805, Congress forbid the importation of Africans, into Louisi
ana and Mississippi Territories, who had arrived since 1798 or
who might thereafter arrive. The act was a severe blow to
the commerce of New England in Africans and which was, as
had been believed, protected by that provision of the Consti
tution which inhibited the interference of Congress with the
trade in " any of the States now existing " " prior to the year
one thousand eight hundred and eight," to the fullest extent
possible up to the limit of time specified. No commerce

14 INTIIODUCTION.
was of so great promise as the trade in Africans with
the lower Mississippi valley, now to be dominated by the
American civilization. But Congress, pausing not to reflect
whether the destruction of inter-state commerce in slave
property, more than other property, fell within its delegated
authority, proceeded to cut off from New England its sole
bond of sympathy with the Gulf of Mexico trade. Africans,
under the law, could neither be landed through the mouth of
the Mississippi, or be landed at Norfolk to make their way by
the western waters to the plantations of the great valley, or
be landed at Charleston to be marched over the Indian traders'
trails to Alabama. Apparently, Congress had made sure of a
cluster of free States on the Gulf, the commercial rivals of the
States about Massachusetts bay.
The trans-Mississippi Territory west of the mouth of the
Missouri, was oi-ganized into two territorial governments —
Orleans, to the southward, and Louisiana to the northward.
Mr. Jefferson found much difflculty in flnding a Governor for
Orleans. The salary there was five thousand dollars, but for
Louisiana, with St. Louis as the capital, it was only two thou
sand. He urged Mr. Monroe, then in Europe, to make choice,
saying it was said to be healthful at New Orleans if one takes
up his abode there as late as November. In St. Louis the
society, both French and American, was excellent, and the
opportunity for investment very inviting. In a few years,
1810, the state of Louisiana applied for admission to the
Union. The feeling in New England became extremely bitter
agiiinst the enlargement of the Union on the Gulf of Mexico.
The great orator of Massachusetts, Josiah Quincy, speaking
against the bill to admit Louisiana, from his place in the
House, said:
Mr. Speaker: I address you, sir, with an anxiety and distress of
mind, with me, wholly unprecedented. The friends of this bill seem
to consider it as the exeicise of the common power; an ordinary affair-
a municipal regulation which they expect to see pass without other
questions than those concerning details. But, sir, the principle of this
bill materially affects the liberties and rights of the whole people of
the United States. To me it appears that it would justify a revolution
in this country; and that in no great length of time may produce it
* * I am compelled to declare that, if this bill pasaes, the bonds of
this Union are, virtually, di.'i.iolped; that the States tohich compose if are

The FIRST teRritoBiFs. 15
free from their moral obligation, and that as it ¦will be the right of all, so
¦will it be the duty of some to prepare definitely for a separation : amicably
if they can, violently if they mustf (Here Mr. Poindexter, delegate for
the Mississippi Territory, called the orator to order. On a vote of the
House he was declared not out of order and proceeded.) * * »
"Sir, the question (of admission) concerns the proposition of power
reserved by this Constitution to every State in the Union. * The
great objection is to the principle of the bill. If this principle be
admitted, the whole space of Louisiana, greater, it is said, than the
entire extent of the old United States, will be a mighty theater in which
this government assumes the right of exercising this unparalleled power.
Nor will it stop until the very name and nature of the old partners be
overwhelmed by the new comers into the Confederacy. Sir, the ques
tion goes to the very root of the power and influence of the present
members of this Union. * This Constitution never. was and never can
be strained to stretch over all the wilderness of the west without
essentially affecting both the rights and conveniences of its real propri
etors. It was never constructed to form a covering for the inhabitants
of the Missouri and Red River country. And whenever it is attempted
to be stretched over them it will rend asunder. I have done with this
part of my subject. It rests upon this fundamental principle, that the
proposition of political power subject only to the internal modifications
permitted by the Constitution is unalienable, essential, intangible right.
When it is touched, the fabric is annihilated; for on the preservation of
these propositions depends our rights and liberties."
Hardly had the armies of the war of 1812 disbanded when
Congress became the arena of fresh conflict between the
sections, intensified by the rapidity of material development
which blessed each in the return of peace. It became evident
that the security of the lower Mississippi valley, and the
peace of all the Southern Atlantic States required the United
States to come in possession of Florida. Mr. Monroe's admin
istration, through Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams,
perfected a treaty with Spain, based on the surrender of
Texas, originally a part of the Louisiana Territory, to be
annexed to Mexico, then the possession of Spain, for Flor-.
ida. The extravagance, on the part of the United States,
of exchanging Texas for Florida is explained in the following
extract from a private letter written by the President to
General Andrew Jackson, then pursuing the avocation of a
farmer at the "Hermitage," and bearing date May 22, 1820.
The President wrote :
"Having long known the repugnance with which the east
ern portion of our Union, or rather some of those who have

1 6 INTROD UCTION.
enjoyed its confldence (for I do not think the people them
selves have any interest or wish of that kind), have seen|its
aggrandizement to the west and south, I have been decidedly
of the opinion that we ought to be content with^Florida for
the present, and until public opinion in that quarter shall
be reconciled to any further changes. I mention these circum
stances to show you that our difiiculties are not with Spain
alone, but are like-wise internal, proceeding from various
causes, which certain men are prompt to seize and turn to
their own ambitious views." *
The humanitarian plea against Southern slavery did not
appear in the President's statement of the argument for the
sale of Texas. The sale was negotiated by Mr. Adams, Sec
retary of State, with the most corrupt and oppressive of
commercial nations, itself perpetuating slavery in its worst
form, for the sole purpose of preserving the territorial balance
of the sections, or rather for the purpose of reducing the Gulf
slave territory. Texas, having been owned for sixteen years
by the United States, was sold, along with the political rights
of the people then inhabiting the soil, regardless of the treaty
with Napoleon under which it was acquired, to come under
the laws and dominion of a decaying monarchy, the act stand
ing as a recognized feature of government policy of concession
to New England jealousy. While the treaty for the release
of Texas approached conclusion, on December 8, 1818, Mr.
Holmes, of Massachusetts, presented the memorial of the State
of Maine for admission to the Union, on equal footing with the
original States, together with a copy of the Constitution of the
State. At the same time Mr. Scott, delegate from Missouri,
presented a memorial from the people of that Territory, pray
ing authority to frame a State Constitution. Later in the
month, Mr. Talmadge, of New York, moved a resolution that
slavery be forever prohibited in all the Louisiana purchase.
The House passed the bill to admit Maine, and when it came
up in the Senate, Mr. Barbour of Virginia, moved to ame^d it
by attaching a proviso for the admission of Missouri. The
amendment was suggested in view of the recent agitation of
the Texas cession, and the general question of political balance
* Henton's Thirty Years, Vol. I, iiage IB, vouches for the exist-en^o r.f (-i,;„ , ..
among General Jackson's papers. ' ^ ' "'<= existence of this letter

THE FIRST TERRITORIES. 17
of the sections. Mr. Roberts, of Pennsylvania, moved to add
to the Missouri section, that introduction of more slaves into
the contemplated State should be " absolutely and irrevocably
prohibited." On January 18, Senator Thomas, of Illinois,
introduced a resolution to prohibit slavery in all the Louisiana
purchase west and north of the contemplated State of Mis
souri. Both houses discussed the various anti-slavery propo
sitions. In the midst of this debate, Mr. Storrs, of New York,
in the House, proposed the thirty-eighth parallel of north
latitude as the dividing line of slave from free territory; Mr.
Barbour, of Virginia, in the Senate, proposed the fortieth.
Mr. Taylor, of New York, next proposed to prohibit slavery
entirely in IMissouri. Finally, Congress adjourned without
action on the question of organizing the State of Missouri.
The Sixteenth Congress convened, and a bill to authorize
Missouri to frame a State Constitution, came up in the House.
The bill passed, amended to prohibit slavery. It was sent
to the Senate. There, on February 17, 1820, Mr. Thomas'
amendment, known as the first Missouri "compromise,"
passed, restricting' slavery north of 36° 30' north latitude,
but tolerating it in Missouri. Mr. Trimble, of Kentucky,
endeavored to alter the existing boundaries of Missouri, to
give the new State a part of the rich valley of the Des Moines,
but failed. The Senate vote on the Thomas line, 36° 30',
stood thirty-four yeas, ten nays, all of the latter from the
South, except the two Senators from Indiana. The House
refused the Senate or Thomas amendment, and a committee of
conference, after a bitter debate, was ordered. The society of
Washington shared the excitement of Congress. Nightly in
the parlors of William H. Crawford, the Georgian Secretary of
the Treasury, a memorable colloquial discussion took place.
There John Randolph, of Roanoke; Louis McLane, of Dela
ware ; John Holmes, of Massachusetts ; Nathaniel Macon, of
North Carolina, and William Lowndes, of South Carolina,
met. Crawford insisted the South should abandon the Union
or abolish slavery. Holmes deprecated any advice looking
toward a permanent discord in the Union ; excitement existed
at the North, but it would pass off ; the North would be true
to the Constitution. "The North abide by the Constitution,
Mr. Holmes? (cried Randolph). Ah, sir, your people want

18 INTRODUCTION.
that great empire beyond the Mississipi. It is a grand coun
try, sir, and they are this day legislating to settle it for
themselves. Your people are restless, ambitious and too
religious, Mr. Holmes. They are hiding behind their crusade
against slavery! I hate Clay. I have not spoken to the
fellow in six years, but I will speak to him to-morrow. I will
tell him he must go home to his people (Clay was Speaker of
the House), and I will go to mine, and we will tell them the
North and South cannot live together, and must part com
pany." And the Virginian, with his long riding whip in hand,
strode out into the darkness to meet Juba and his horses.
"Is Mr. Randolph in earnest?" demanded Holmes. "Terribly
in earnest," replied Crawford.
The bill passed the House — the Thomas amendment in
cluded — and the next day would go to the Senate. It was a
conference bill. Randolph, true to his word, approaching the
Speaker, privately told him he desired to move a reconsidera
tion of the vote. It was agreed that the motion to reconsider
should be made the following morning, and the House ad
journed. At an early hour the next morning, Randolph heard
at his apartments that it had been arranged to set up the
Senate clock, often out of order, and so to have that body in
session before the House met, ready to rush through the
conference bill before his motion to reconsider could be heard
and acted on. Ordering his horses, he rode to the Capitol,
found the vice-President, conducted him to a committee room,
locked the door and explained ; that good gentleman earnestly
declared the trick must fail. Hurrying to the House to find
the clerk reading the journal, he made his motion, seconded
by Mr. Archer, of Virginia. The clerk, Mr. Gilliard, hastened
from the House to the Senate, and from the Senate back
to the House more than once with the enrolled bill, as
debate proceeded.* "His bread (wrote Randolph) depended
on his heels. I pity him." Randolph's speech was one of his
greatest. " Every eye (he wrote to Dr. Brockenbrough) was
riveted upon me, save one, and that was affectedly and
seduously turned away. * * The Speaker left the chair,
paced the lobby, resumed, read MSS., newspapers, printed
documents lying on the table (/. e., he aft'ected to read)
* Garland's Eandolph.

TIIE FIR.ST TERRITORIES. 19
beckoned the attendants, took snuff, looked at his shoe buckles,
at his ruffles, towards the other side of the House  every
where but at me. * 'Fooled to the top of my bent,' I
checked in mid volley and said : ' Sir, the rules of this House
require, and properly require, every member when he speaks
to address himself respectfully to Mr. Speaker.' "* The motion
to reconsider was lost.
While the debates in Congress proceeded, the Legislatures
of New York, Ohio, Vermont, and other free States, passed
resolutions remonstrating with Senators and Representatives
against any act which would admit another slave State. Mr.
John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, in the House, delivered an
elaborate argument contending that, while the original States
made their own Constitutions, all new States were the creations
of the federal Constitution, to be interpreted by the Congress,
in the present instance. The North, regardless of party, and
the South were arrayed against each other. There were
plain evidences of the struggle for power, and plain premoni
tions of the side in the contest where power would ultimately
reside. Kentucky sent a memorial, drawn by Mr. Clay, pro
testing against the authority of Congress to assume revisory
powers over States inchoate, as to their domestic institutions
patterned after the original States.
The settlement of the Missouri question marked a radical
change in the political life of Mr. Clay. He was one of the
most ardent, as he was the most brilliant, of the young leaders
who, up to this time, adhered to the Jeffersonian doctrines.
Speaking in the House, on January 8, 1813, he said: "In
1801 he (Jefferson) snatched from the rude hand of usurpation
the violated Constitution of his country, and that is his crime.
He preserved that instrument in form, and substance, and
spirit, a precious inheritance, for generations to come, and for
this he never can be forgiven." Mr. Clay had opposed every
measure of the consolidation policy, and supported all meas
ures favorable to State Rights. He had been elevated to the
Speakership by a Republican House, in the administration
of a Republican President. He resisted the Thomas amend
ment with great ardor. On February 9, 1820, the House
being in Committee of the Whole, Mr. Baldwin in the chair,
* Sparks' Reminiscences; Randolph's Letters to Dr. Brockenbrough.

20 INTRODUCTION.
Mr. Speaker Clay addressed the committee near four hours
against the expediency and right of the proposed restrictions :
"I wish to know (he said) if certain doctrines of an alarming char
acter—which if persevered in, no man can tell where they will end —
with respect to a restriction on the admission into the Union of States,
west of the Mississippi, are to be sustained on this floor. X wish co
know what is the character of the conditions which Congress has a right
to annex to the admission of new States; whether iu fact in admitting a
new State, there is to be a partition of its sovereignty. I wish to know
the extent of the principles which gentlemen mean to defend in this
respect; and particularly the extent to which they mean to carry those
principles in relation to the country west of the Mississippi. On this
subject 1 contend there should be a serious pause. The question should
be maturely weighed before this new mode of acquiring power is
resorted to. * If, beyond the mountains, Congi-ess can exert the
power of imposing restrictions on new States, can they not also on this
side of them? If there they can impose hard conditions, conditions
that strike vitally at the independence and power of the States, can
they not also here! If the States of the West are to be subject to the
restrictions of Congress, while the Atlantic States are to be free from
them, proclaim the distinction at once; announce your privileges and
immunities; let us have a clear and distinct understanding of what we
are to expect."*
Mr. Clay's oratory availed nothing. After the act estab
lishing the geographical division of the Union, a second " com
promise" became necessary to admit the State under the
"great national policy " of corrupting the federal nature of the
Union. He was the author of the second'" compromise." His
conduct in the crisis marked the altered direction of his
political life. Free soil interests had gained the ascendant in
the flrst "compromise," which he strove valiantly to resist.
There was nothing left to slavery, save Arkansas and Flor
ida; a mighty empire of unsurveyed extent, and incalcu
lable capacity for development had been pledged to free
soil. A new policy of government became inevitable. A new
leader was needed for it. A more fascinating promise of fame
in political leadership past times had not held out than the
direction of the free soil policies of the United States. The
greatness of the nation presented itself to his vision ; his hio-h
ambition impelled him to seize his opportunity.
* For reports of this speech, and opinions of that paper approvinff it and cnn
demning the restriction on slavery as adverse to Jefferson's noliov ot emaTipiation"
see A-a«fona«inieHigre?icer, January and February, 1820 emanciation.

THE FIRST TERRITORIES. 21
At the next session, the Constitution of Missouri, author
ized by the "compromise" enacting the line 36° 30', came
up for acceptance by Congress. It was found to contain a
provision prohibiting free persons of color from settling in
the State. Members of the House opposed to slavery, and,
therefore, to the observance of the " compromise," objected to
the discriminating provision. True, it could not be condemned
as anti-Republicfin by the test of Republicanism found in the
origmal States. At that moment, Massachusetts maintained
on her statute book a law providing :
" That no person being an African or Negro (other than a subject
of the Emperor of Morocco or a citizen of some one of the United
States, to be evidenced by a certificate from the Secretary of State of
which he shall be a citizen,) shall tarry within this Commonwealth for
a longer time than two months, and, iu case that the said African or
Xegro (after notice) shall not depart, he shall be committed to the
house of correction, to be kept at hard labor until the next session of
the peace; and if , upon trial, it shall appear that the said person has
continued in the Commonwealth, he or she shall be whipped ten stripes
and ordered to depart out of the Commonwealth within ten days; and,
if he or she shall not so depart, the same process shall be had and
punishment shall be inflicted, and so toties qiioties."
Mr. Clay pleaded with the House long not to repudiate the
" compromise " of the year before, but in vain. Mr. Lowndes,
from the committee, reported a resolution to admit Missouri
*' on an equal footing with the original States in all respects
whatever." This resolution was rejected. Mr. Clay, who had
resigned the Speakership, in order that he might remain for
some weeks at home at the opening of the session, had now
taken his seat on the floor. Seeing the rejection of the State,
in great anxiety, he moved a committee of thirteen to consider
the situation. As chairman of the committee, he reported,
recommending the admission of Missouri "on an equal footing
with the original States." The report was rejected. Three
days later the vote was reconsidered, the report came up and
was the second time rejected ; and thus the " compromise "
36° 30' was repudiated.
Missouri had constituted herself a State by permission of
Congress. Could she ever be less than a State? If refused
admission to the Union, who would degrade her Governor, who
unseat her Judiciary, who disperse her Legislature? There
was grave suggestion of a trans- Mississippi Republic, in alii-

22 INTRODUCTION.
ance with Mexico or with Great Britain. February 22, 1821,
Mr. Clay moved a " grand committee " — a joint committee of
both Houses — the House of Representatives to choose twenty-
three members. The Senate concurred. February 26, Mr.
Clay reported from the "grand committee" a resolution to the
House. Randolph opposed it ; Macon, in the Senate, opposed
it. It passed the House, 86 to 82, and passed the Senate, 28
to 14. This was the second Missouri "compromise," passed a
year after the "36° 30' line" had become law. The resolution
required the Legislature of Missouri to pledge itself "by
solemn public act" not to enforce a provision of the State
Constitution forbidding free negroes to enter the State — that
legislators should repudiate their oaths.
Mr. Clay's apprehension that Congress might "partition
the sovereignty " of a State was realized. His own work had
established "a great national policy." Congress was how
endowed with power to construct political communities, for
incorporation in the Union, instead of authorizing " States "
which Congress had power to " admit." So Missouri entered.
Mr. Clay at once became the leader of a new party. The
party was composed, in all sections of the Union, of that large
and powerful class of population, men of substance as well as
enterprise, cautious men of trade, men by nature circumspect
rather than adventurous, men found in every generation since
William the Conqueror, who naturally espouse the side of the
king, who by instinct or environment are Tories. He lost no
time in organizing the party he was expected to lead. He
became a candidate for the Presidency, in 1824, the flrst
election after the last Missouri "compromise." In 1828 he
assisted the candidature of Mr. Adams, of whose cabinet he
was the head. In 1832, 1840 and 1844 he was a candidate for
the same high office. But Mr. Clay had merely despaired of
maintaining certain principles, to which he was devoted. He
was not a revolutionist. He became a loose constructionist of
the Constitution, where he had been a strict constructionist,
for the purpose of promoting the greatest good of the greatest
number, as the people seemed to have decreed. He more than
once laughed heartily over the popular delusion, in what was
generally called his last " compromise." No American with so
limited faith in the people was ever so great a popular leader.

THE FIRST TERRITORIES. 23
The course of the President, Mr. Monroe, and his cabinet,
was feeble, in the progress of the Missouri settlement. He
wrote a letter to Judge Roane, of Virginia, expressing grave
doubts of the propriety of his signing the bill enacting the
line 36° 30' ; he even drew the argument of a veto message on
the bill. P'inally he demanded the written counsel of Messrs.
Calhoun, Crawford and Wirt, the Southern members of his
cabinet, and approved it by their advice.*
Mr. Jefferson had long since discovered the irreconcilable
propositions of a federal compact, between the people of
sovereign States, and power vested in their federal govern
ment to determine the domestic institutions and the nature of
the local government of the States of the Union. Therefore
he repudiated the anti-slavery principle laid down in the
ordinance of 1784, drawn by himself, when the position of the
iree States in respect to Missouri was developed. He lost
none of his repugnance to slavery, but his appreciation of the
true Republican doctrine had been enlarged. He was in the
full vigor of his mental powers, when, during the debate over
the measure of slavery restriction, he wrote from Monticello
many letters denouncing it. To LaFayette, in France, he
wrote his fears in touching words. His letters on the subject
were numerous and anxious, covering the period of the debate,
addressed to prominent men of both sections and both parties.
To Senator William Pinkney, of Maryland, he wrote, the bill
to enact the line 36° 30' was "a mere party trick" of the
Hamilton men who, « defeated in their scheme of obtaining
power by rallying partisans to the principles of monarchism,
have changed their tack and thrown out another tub to the
whale." To John Adams, he wrote : " The banks, bankrupt
law, manufacturers, Spanish treaty, are nothing. These are
occurrences which like waves in a storm, will pass under the
ship. But the Missouri question is a breaker on which we
lose the Missouri country by revolt and, what more, God only
knows. From the battle of Bunker's Hill to the treaty of
Paris we have never had so ominous a question." To William
Short, he wrote : " The old schism of Federal and Republi
can threatened nothing, because it existed in every State
and united them together by fraternism of party. But the
* Congressional Globe App. Vol. 29, p. 1.39.

24 INTRODUCTION.
coincidence of a marked principle, moral and political, with a
geographical line, once conceived would never more, I fear, be
obliterated from the mmd : that it would be recurring on
every occasion and renewing irritations, until it would kindle
such mutual and mortal hatred as to render separation pref
erable to eternal discord." To John Holmes, he wrote : " I
regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless
sacriflce of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire
self-government and happiness to their country is to be
thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their
sons, and that my only consolation is to be, that I live not to
weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh the
blessings they will throw away against an abstract principle
(emancipation) more likely to be effected by union than scis
sion, they would pause before they woi^ld perpetrate this act
of suicide on themselves, and of treason against the hopes of
the world." Three years later he reviewed the attitude of
parties towards fundamental principles in a long letter to
LaFayette. " On the eclipse of federalism (he wrote) with us,
although not its extinction, its leaders got up the Missouri
question, under the false front of lessening the measure of
slavery, but with the real view of producing a geographical
division of parties which might insure them the next Presi
dent. * * The line of division now, is the preservation of
State rights as reserved in the Constitution, or by strained
constructions of that instrument, to merge all into a consoli
dated government."
It will appear that the National party, of Hamilton, passed
down the years to become the Federal party, of John Adams,
the Whig party, of Henry Clay, and the Republican party, of
William H. Seward, in orderly succession. It lead the way in
all its stages of existence and varying names to acts of con
solidation and to enforced emancipation of slaves. In its last
form, its leaders declared the Declaration of Independence and
not the Constitution to be the controlling law of the Union :
that the Declaration was the interpretation of the Constitu
tion, binding the consciences of all citizens : that States
could confer on their organism, or Union, no grant of power
inconsistent with the "illuminated initial letter of our his
tory "—the Declaration. The party cl aim, that the Declaration,

'THE FIRST TERRITORIES. 25
and not the Constitution, was the charter of compact be
tween the States, avoided the closing clause of the document,
which declared the States, in all respects, sovereign, having
" full power to levy war (each for itself) conclude peace (each
for itself) contract alliances, establish commerce," etc. The
party construed the Declaration to be superior to all national
acts in the dogma laid down in the opening clauses, that, " all
men are created equal." It becomes important to the fame of
Mr. Jeft'erson to preserve his own interpretation of this much
abused phraseology, so far as it relates to the African race.
That the words quoted were borrowed from Montesquieu,
where they were used only to emphasize the proposition, that
domestic slavery is contrary to " natural reason," is evident.
That I\Ir. Jefferson consistently, on all occasions, denied the
equality of the African race, is unequivocally shown in his
own words. Permitting him to hold to his view of the ine
quality of the Caucasian and African, there is no inconsistency
between the apothegm quoted from the opening clause of the
Declaration, as he wrote it, and the fundamental principles set
forth in his correspondence. When Congress deliberated on
the Articles of Confederation he urged that the importation
of Africans be at once discontinued, on the broad ground, that
at some future time their emancipation would become nec
essary as an economy, and when that time arrived their
deportation would be required for the reason, that the inferior
race and the superior coidd not live together in a free country.
South Carolina and Georgia, supported by the New England
States, in the Congress, objected ; the flrst, because of the
proflts of slave labor and the last, because of the proflts of
commerce in slaves. (Jefferson's Correspondence, Vol. I, Auto
biographical Section) So was his plan lost.
Under date, Monticello, August 30, 1803, President Jef
ferson wrote to Levi Lincoln, suggesting an amendment to the
federal Constitution conferring citizenship upon the people of
Louisiana Territory, and prospectively upon the people of the
Floridas with this " special exception," that the " white inhabi
tants shall be citizens." (Jeft'erson's Correspondence, Vol. IV,
pp. 1 and 2.)
No State was ever admitted to the Union under the act
enacting the line 36° 30,' with the consent of the party which-

26 INTRODUCTION.
compelled the measure. At a later time the Supreme Court
held the act and all others of the same class preceding it to
Tdc unconstitutional. Ir order to invalidate this decree, known
as the Dred Scott decision. Congress passed an act, approved
by President Lincoln, April, 1862, prohibiting slavery, except
for crime, in any of the common estate.*
The Southern States, in 1861, believing the federal theory
had been lost, and the government had degenerated to a gov
ernment of the numerical majority, resolved, under the appeals
of Mr. Yancey, as well as other leaders, to attempt to restore
the Constitutional system to its original beneficence in a
re-organized Union of homogeneous States. In those States, a
surviving devotion to the principles of the Constitution has
been the silent force calling forth talent, moral and physical
energies, whose action commands the confidence of millions of
citizens in the country at large, and calls forth the admiration
of enlightened people in all lands.
* Some opinions of Mr. Jefferson on the subject of emancipation are worthy
of revival. He wrote, in 1807, while President, that the acquisition of Louisiana
Territory would permit the diffusion of slaves and hasten thereby their emanci
pation. His plan of effecting emancipation, early matured, was deportation. He
would fix a date after which all born should be free. When these reached years of
self-support he would deport them by the authority of the Government, but not to
Africa. San Domingo then desired them. Thus those left in slavery, falling off in
course of nature, both the Institution of slavery and the presence of the uuas-
similating race would be disposed of. He considered deportation of the whole
race of all ages impracticable.

LIFE OF YANCEY.
CHAPTER I.
A Young Editor and Orator.
1814-1838.
Four brothers, Charles, William, Joel and Robert Yancey,
Welchmen, came with their families to Virginia, in 1642, with
Governor Sir William Berkeley. The Welch names of the
British American settlements hold places of honor in the
history of American free institutions far above the ratio of
Welch colonists. The Welch ancestor of Thomas Jefferson
sat in the flrst Legislative Assembly of the New World, con
vened in the chancel of the Church at Jamestown, July 30,
1619. The Welch ancestor of Chief Justice John Marshall
was the progenitor of a numerous family of ardent American
patriots. The Yanceys opened plantations in the James river region,
and prospered. Indentured servants were imported from Eu
rope, the African slave trade flourished, and in the Virginia
planter was laid the foundation of the American revolution.
Governor Berkeley's seat, " Green Spring," near Jamestown,
was the abode of limitless hospitality. " His plate, wines,
servants, carriages, seventy horses, and flfteen hundred apple
trees, besides peaches, pears, quinces, and mellicottons," were
sources of enjoyment to the planters for thirty-flve years.
"Charles, of Buckingham," was one of the Yanceys of note

28 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
in the early times. He owned a great landed estate, served
thirty years in public life, and at last suffered defeat by a
young man, in revenge of the denial to him of the hand of
his daughter. Lewis Davis Yancey, a son of one of the four
pioneers, toward the middle of the seventeenth century, set
tled upon a landed estate in Culpepper county, which his
descendants have since continuously held. Of those of the
patronymic who fought for Independence, was Captain Joel
Yancey, who fell at Cowpens. The sword and epaulettes he
wore on that fleld are now in the possession of one of his
descendants. In succeeding generations the name has main
tained high social position and political importance. Major
General Robert Emmet Rodes, son of Martha Yancey, of
Virginia, greatly distinguished himself in the military service
of the Confederate States. From Lewis Davis Yancey, of
Culpepper, was descended Major James Yancey, of the Vir
ginia Continental army. It is probable he was of General
Greene's Southern forces. Certain it is, that at the close of
the war, he settled in the western part of South Carolina,
Laurens District, it is believed, and entered upon the practice
ot the law. He married a lady of Charleston, of excellent
family. Miss Cudworth. To them was born a son, Benjamin
Cudworth, in 1783. Some authorities allege the birth of the
child took place while his parents were on a visit to Charles
ton, others while they visited Baltimore, and yet others while
they visited Boston.* The lad Benjamin was sent to the
academy of classics, in Laurens, taught by Dr. Pyles. His
bold spirit and handsome person excited the fondest expecta
tions of his parents and, at a proper age, he was placed as
midshipman on Captain Truxtun's flag ship. The threat of a
naval war with France promised early service. The duties of
the midshipman, then, were at the mast head. Volunteer
preceptors for bright and willing lads were found, however,
among the higher officers on board. The literary culture
received by Midshipman Yancey in the several years of his
service at sea is a subject of conjecture. In the shock of
two severe naval engagements it is known that he acquitted
* A desk containing a family record which had been prepared by W. L. Yancey
was taken from his residence at Montgomery by United States soldiers in 1865, anc'l
not returned. The genealogical description I have made here is tlie result of an
extensive correspondence with the Yancey family in several States. Their accounts
differ only in immaterial matters.

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 29
himself with honor. February 9, 1799, the American ship
Constellation, 38 guns. Captain Truxtun, encountered oft' the
Island of Nevis the French man-of-war L'Insurgente, 40 guns,
and after a battle the French surrendered. February 1, 1800,
the Constellation attacked the French man-of-war LaVen-
genance, 54 guns, off Gaudaloupe. The battle began at eight
in the evening and lasted until one the next morning. The
Frenchman escaped in a sinking condition with great loss of
life, while Truxtun was unable to pursue on account of the
loss of his main mast and the storm that prevailed. A mis
understanding arose between Captain Truxtun and the Sec
retary of the Navy and the name of that officer was dropped
summarily from the navy list. Midshipman Yancey resigned.
He entered a student in the law office of his father's friend,
Robert Goodloe Harper, who, having married Miss Carroll,
of CarroUton, had removed to Baltimore, from South Caro
lina, on account of her religion, of the Catholic faith. The
statute of South Carolina then required three years study,
one of which must be in the State, to qualify for admission to
the practice. Dividing his time of preparation between Mr.
Harper's offlce and the office of a leading advocate in the
western part of South Carolina, Mr. Saxon, Mr. Yancey
studied with diligence. John C. Calhoun, George Bowie and
Benjamin C. Yancey, young practitioners, occupied the same
little brick office at Abbeville, from which they were wont to
sally forth in the evening to join in the exercise of foot racing
among themselves. They divided among themselves the bulk
of the practice of a wide surrounding country. Calhoun and
Yancey entered the Legislature as members of the Union
party, meaning the party supporting the embargo of Mr.
Jeft'erson's administration, against which New England threat
ened to revolt. Lowndes, Calhoun, Cheves, Yancey and
Wilds composed the famous South Carolina "galaxy."
Yancey's standing at the bar was second to none. His
industry, courage and eloquence on the floor of the Legis
lature elicited from that body the extraordinary compliment,
for so young a man, of assigning him to the head of the
Judiciary Committee and in placing his name in close contest
for a Circuit Judgeship, a life position on good salary, sought
by the flrst advocates. Indeed, contemporaries, many years

30 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
later, were wont to declare that in knowledge of the law and
in eloquence, Yancey was superior to any of his rivals, but that
not unfrequently his influence as an advocate was marred by
a display of hasty temper. His manly bearing comported
with the strength of his intellect. His person was singularly
handsome— dark blue eyes, fair skin, brown hair, a medium
stature and graceful action, to which a countenance expressing
great animation added its attractiveness. Mr. Daniel E.
Huger, later a Judge and United States Senator, invited Mr.
Yancey to form a co-partnership in the law with him at
Charleston, where the fees of the profession were more
inviting than in the interior. The offer was accepted.
December 8, 1808, Benjamin Cudworth Yancey was married
to Miss Caroline, daughter of Colonel William Bird, of " The
Aviary," Warren county, Georgia. This estate received its
name from General McComb, commander of the United States
army, who, from his headquarters at Augusta, made frequent
visits there to enjoy the society of the accomplished daugh
ters, pretty birds of the forest, as he averred. Colonel Bird
was a native of the famous entailed estate, "Birdsborough,"
Pennsylvania, noted as a refuge of persecuted patriots in the
revolution. Three of his sisters married signers of the Dec
laration of Independence — James Wilson and George Ross, of
Pennsylvania, and George Read, of Delaware. Colonel Bird
emigrated flrst to Alexandria, Virginia, and there married a
noted belle of that aristocratic community, a daughter of
Colonel Dalton, who became the mistress of " The Aviary,"'
and the mother of all his children. He came to Georgia in
1796. A younger sister of Mrs, Yancey, Miss Louisa, married
Captain Robert Cunningham, of " Rosemont," Laurens District,
South Carolina, a gentleman of great wealth, liberality and
high culture, and an officer in the war of 1812. To Mrs. Cun
ningham is due the honor of having projected the Mount
Vernon Association to rescue the tomb and home of Washing
ton from the hands of speculators. At her suggestion her
mvalid but brilliant daughter. Miss Anne Pamela, wrote, for
the newspapers, a series of letters signed, " Southern Matron,"
urging upon the women of the United States the duty of
founding the Association. When, at length, the organization

A YOUNG EDITOR AND AUTHOR. 31
followed these appeals. Miss Anne Pamela Cunningham was
made the first Regent.
Mr. Yancey set out from Charleston for the Courts of the
interior in August, 1817, traveling in his own carriage, and
accompanied by his wife and two infant sons, WiUiam
Lowndes, aged three years, and Benjamin Cudworth, aged a
few months. They were detained in the Edisto river swamp,
several days, by high water. Mrs. Tancey and her children
were on the way to visit "Rosemont." Important causes
awaited him. He was leading counsel, of nine, retained by
J. D. Mitchusson, to defend him on trial for murder. He was
leading counsel for Duncan, plaintiff' in the suit against the
occupants of the Jews Land. The latter case he had recently
gained on argument before the Supreme Court, at Washington,
on the points there presented. " He prepared his cases with
great care, (writes Judge O'Neal, author of the Bench and
Bar, of South Carolina) he was anxious and even timid about
his preparation, but when in court he seemed as if he never
knew the word fear. * * Cases which were considered
almost desperate, were confided to his care, and he was often
successful where failure was anticipated."
The malaria of the Edisto prostrated Mr. Yancey. At the
residence of Colonel Breithaupt, eight miles from Edgefield, he
died, aged about thirty-four years. " The tears of a State fell
on his early grave," wrote Judge O'Neal. Mr. Huger, his
executor, brought suit against Duncan for Yancey's fee. The
case was tried before Judgq, Gaunt, who charged the jury, as
follows :
" The property in contest, equal in value to a royal grant,
had been claimed by several, among whom the present plaintift'
had never been named, as a claimant, until evidenced by those
actions. The name of Yancey as being counsel for him added
weight and importance to his claims. And well it might, for
who more distinguished than the deceased in the line of his
profession ? Who ever possessed a more lofty spirit or a more
towering mind ? Who was better qualified to stem the torrent
of prejudice that was likely to arise from the attempt to dis
possess so many settlers of what, by possession and lapse of
time, they consider their proper freehold? These were the
weighty considerations that lead to the selection of this

32 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
gentleman who, with great professional skill and learning,
united as much flrmness and integrity as ever was possessed
by mortal man."

William Lowndes, son of Benjamin Cudworth Yancey and
his wife, Caroline Bird, was born August 10, 1814, at "The
Aviary," the residence of his maternal grandfather, near Falls
of Ogeechee, Warren County, Georgia.
"I knew the mother of William L. Yancey well. She was
a woman of remarkable intellect and rare accomphshments ;
and, I believe it most flrmly, no great man ever came of an
ordinary woman." (Letter of Benjamin F. Perry to WiUiam
F. Samford.) Mrs. Yancey, with her infant sons, resumed her residence
under her father's roof after the death of her husband. In
a few years, when they had sufflciently grown, she removed
with them to the vicinity of Mount Zion Academy, Hancock
County, kept by Rev. Nathan S. S. Beman, a clergyman of the
Presbyterian faith, who had come from the interior of New
York, to place them at school. But the training of the lads
was not left wholly with the accomplished head of the acad
emy. In the zenith of his oratorical fame William Ij. Yancey
often spoke feelingly of the enduring influence of his mother's
care over his early education. She recited to him the tale of
his father's brilliant career, and sought to inspire him with
an ideal of greatness. Knitting in hand, she was wont to
summon him to appear before her to practice the art of
declamation, the most potent influence in those times to sway
the minds of men. She taught him composure, grace of
attitude and distinctness of utterance. The lad's favorite
" speech " was Stennett's stirring hymn :
" On Jordan's stormy banlvs I stand."
Prophetic words : " Stormy ! " "I stand ! "
Mrs. Yancey married Rev. Mr. Beman. He carried his wife
and children to Troy, New York, whither he went to assume
the pastorate of a Church. At the Academies of Troy, Ben
nington, Chlttenlngo and Lenox, William was prepared for
Williams College, Massachusetts, then presided over by Dr,

C^c/urif0! Y^'^

e r I 1 o

.4 YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 33
Griffin, a rhetorician of rare accompUshment. The youth ap
plied himself dOigently to his studies, assisted in the editorial
conduct of the Adelphi, the college literary journal, and
contributed carefully prepared papers, of a controversial
character, to it. The increase of his mother's family and the
limited resources possessed by his stepfather, induced him to
refuse longer to be a burden upon them. Not waiting to take
his diploma he hastened to the law office of Nathan Sayre, of
Sparta, Georgia, to prepare for the law. While on a visit to
"Rosemont," he met Mr. B. F. Perry, of Greenville, South
Carolina, a young lawyer of pleasing address and excellent
abUity. A mutual regard sprung up and Yancey soon ap
peared at Perry's office as a student of the law. Governor
Perry wrote many years later : " I loved WUliam L. Yancey
much. He was a very young man when I made his acquaint
ance (19 years old). I was charmed by his pleasing and
cordial manners, prepossessing appearance and intellectual
endowments. He read law tn my offlce one or two years, and
then gave evidence of that brilliant career in politics which he
afterwards ran. * * He wielded a flerce and terrible pen
against nullification and disunion. In a time of high political
excitement in South Carolina, he addressed large mass meet
ings with great success. I remember he made a speech at a
public dinner, in reply to Hon. Warren R. Davis, a member of
Congress, poet, wit and friend of his father. Mr. Davis was
completely surprised, and at the conclusion of the young
orator's speech, rose and complimented him highly to the
audience. Mr. Yancey was a man of talent and genius ; a
man of impulse and deep feeling. He spoke with extraordi
nary fluency and clearness of statement. His style of speak
ing was more conversational than might have been expected
from one of his impulsive nature. He wrote as forcibly as he
spoke, and with great rapidity. He was a very handsome
young man, always neat in his dress, and his habits were good
and regular. I never knew him to indulge in any kind of
dissipation. In company, he was the merriest of associates,
but when left to himself, he was meditative to sadness. * *
I will venture on a single anecdote, which will illustrate the
affectionate nature and generous heart of William L. Yancey.
He came from the North on < a visit to Judge Huger, at

34 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Charleston. An aged negress, who had been the property of
his father, caUed to see him. As she was making her depart
ure he slipped his purse into her hand. It contained all the
cash he possessed. The act Is an index to his whole character,
as I knew It."
In the dawn of the age of mechanics and political economy,
a written compact of Union had been made between " free and
independent States " of America, divided almost equally into
navigating States of the North and agricultural States of the
South. Unity of empire was not declared to be the primary
object of patriotic desire by the compact.*
No citizenship of the Union superior to State citizenship
was established.
The sections, feeUng the Impulse of the new age, began to
test the sufficiency of the compact. Until sectional supremacy
should ascend In the one to a height which required no argu
ment to vindicate it, or sectional vitality should descend so
low in the other as to be incapable of offence, the fast
maturing rivalry between them promised little of reconcili
ation. The modern ideal of liberty — a conventional guaranty
of free speech, a free press, and the reservation in the States,
or the people, of all power not speciflcally delegated — began,
early, to feel the Impigning presence of the ancient fact of
arbitrary power. Theories were on trial. Leaders came
forward from the North and the South to remind the country
that, in the time of Cato, Republican virtue had been made
secure by the current of fearless Inquiry into public affairs,
and in the bold devotion of the people to abstract principle :
but that, m the time of Tiberius, a splendid public extravagance
and the prodigality of government corrupted private morals,
surrendering to the petty wrangles of officers and their senti
mental measures, the liberty of the people. And there V^-s
also a powerful party which cried out, there was no danger.
The excitement over the acquisition of the Louisiana Ter
ritory had subsided. War raged In Europe. The king of
England forbid American merchantmen to carry French com
merce : Napoleon forbid them to carry English commerce.
* See the Preface to the Federalist, prepared by Hamilton. i

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 35
American merchantmen were Indiscriminately seized on the
high seas to be tied to British wharves to rot or to be towed
into French ports to be conflscated. Mr. Jefferson, the Presi
dent, issued his proclamation of embargo, closing every
American port to sea commerce. The policy inflicted great
inconvenience on New England. There was a universal pro
test there against it. Senator John Quincy Adams waited
on him privately, desiring an interview. The request was
strange, for the feeling between the men had not been cordial
in consequence of the conflict of their parties. Mr. Adams
assured the President that the restlessness of New England
under the commercial restraints of the Federal government
had assumed very grave importance. Certain citizens of high
influence were in negotiation with agents of the British
government. It was expected as. a result of this negotiation
that New England ships and goods would be free from inter
ruption from the British war vessels on the seas ; that, with
out a formal declaration of secession the New England States,
in reciprocity of favor with Great Britain, would suspend
their relations with the government of the United States.
The Senator assured the President that a repeal of the em
bargo was necessary to prevent a convention of New Eng
land States putting in force the agreement with the British
agents. The President replied, that if the question was
reduced to war with Great Britain, or the secession of several
important States, he preferred war and would at once urge
that the embargo, a peace measure, should be revoked. The
Legislature of Massachusetts heard of Mr. Adams' talk with
the President, and, in rebuke, chose his successor in the
Senate. Seeing this, Mr. Adams promptly resigned.
Debating the repeal of the federal law impeding com
merce, Mr. Josiah Quincy addressed the House. He had said
much for the cause of State Rights, he said more now. The
planters of the South could live for years without a market,
" but patriotism, to say the least, was a very inactive assistant "
to the men of New England who saw their proflts and their
capital vanishing under a policy of federal government.
"Touching the general nature of the instrument called (spoke
Mr. Quincy), the Constitution of the United States, there is
no obscurity ; it has no fabled descent, like the Palladium of

36 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
ancient Troy, from the heavens. Its origin is not confused by
the mists of time, or hidden by the darkness of past or unex
plored ages ; it is the fabric of our day. Some now living had
a share in its construction : all of us stood by and saw the
rising of the edifice. There can be no doubt about its nature.
It is a political compact. * * Are the three branches of this
government owners of the farm, called the United States ? I
desire to tha^k Heaven, they are not. I hold my life, liberty
and property, and the people of the State, from which I
have the honor to be a Representative, hold theirs by a better
tenure than any this national government can give ! Sir, I
know your virtue. And I thank the Great Giver of every good
gift that neither the gentleman from Tennessee, nor his com
rades, nor any, nor aU the members of this House, nor of the
other branch of the Legislature, nor the good gentleman who
lives in the palace yonder, nor all combined, can touch these,
my essential rights, and those of my friends and constituents,
except in a limited and prescribed way. No, sir. We hold
these by the laws, customs and principles of the Common
wealth of Massachusetts. Behind her ample shield we flnd
refuge and feel safety. I beg, gentlemen, not to act upon the
principle, that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is their
farm. * * Mr. Speaker, what is this liberty of which so
much is said ? Is it to walk about this earth, to breathe this
air, and to partake of the common blessings of God's provi
dence? The beasts of the fleld and the birds of the air unite
with us in such privileges as these. But man boasts a purer
and more ethereal temperature. * * That which we call
liberty is that principle on which the essential security of our
liberty depends. It results from the limitation of our politi
cal system prescribed by the Constitution."
Mr. Madison succeeded Mr. Jefferson in the Presidency,
receiving the electoral votes of all the States, except four in
New England, and Delaware. On the demand of New Eng
land, Congress repealed the embargo act, but substituted the
non-intercourse act, forbidding trade with England and
France. The President was opposed to war, and Randolph
was the leader of the peace poUcy. The expiration of Mr.
Madison's term approached, and the New England States
demanded the candidature of DeWitt Clinton, to oppose him

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 37
for re-election, on a war platform. All the New England
maritime States, with New York, New Jersey and Delaware,
voted for Clinton. War, therefore, was mdicated as a com
mercial policy. The war of 1812 opened. New England
became discontented with its progress. The government
ordered out the mUitia of those States, not by a caU on the
Governors but by a general draft. The government proposed
to invade Canada, and the draft was a measure of preparation
for that event. New England did not admit the right of the
government to make conscripts of citizens of States. An
issue with the government was made on this point. In truth,
New England did not desire an army of invasion to disturb her
active trade with Canada. Therefore, by invitation of Mas
sachusetts, all the New England States met, December 14,
1814, at Hartford, Connecticut, in secret session, to take steps
to withdraw from their federal relations, as six years before
they were about to do on account of the embargo. In three
weeks the victory of New Orleans and the treaty of peace
which had, indeed, preceded the battle, occurred, and the
measures of the Hartford convention were abandoned, and the
revolutionary scheme there prepared was forgotten.
As these pages discuss political character, subjects of
public conscience and tests of loyalty in States and popula
tions, here and there, it is notable that the attitude of New
England toward the Union at this period stood In marked
contrast with the slave States. The South Carolina " trium
virate," Lowndes, Cheves and Calhoun lead the war party for
" saUors rights and free trade," with Henry Clay in support.
Harrison, Jackson, Scott, Hampton, Richard M. Johnson, were
commanders in the army flghting for " sailors rights and free
trade," representing all parts of the South. In 1816, the flrst
Congress after peace, considered the policy of retaining the
war tariff' for the protection of manufacturers of the North.
Calhoun supported the measure on the general principle, that
" the liberty and union of this country are inseparable." The
next year, flnding sectional amity had not been restored,
Calhoun declared from his place in the House, " we are under
the imperious necessity to counteract every tendency to dis
union ;" and, inspired with that high motive, originated a
system of internal improvements by the federal government

38 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
to be supported by the bonus of the bank of the United
States, and the government dividends from that institution.
He would confess, he said, that the Constitution was founded
on positive principles and not on precedents, but " by giving a
reasonable construction to the money power it exempts from
the necessity of giving a forced and strained construction to
the other enumerated powers." Enthused with his scheme, he
laid out a grand system which would connect the lakes with
the harbor of New York, by a government canal, and the
Ohio with the Chesapeake. He would connect the Mississippi
with every Atlantic port and improve the navigation of that
stream from its mouth to its head waters. If Congress had
the right to purchase the stream, it was clearly within the
purview of that right to improve it for public use. Hardly a
Southern leader, save John Randolph, of Roanoke, who saw
the enduring wisdom of the impassioned utterances of Josiah
Quincy, of Massachusetts, which the latter now prepared to
abandon. The fateful lull of party vigilance spread itself over the
land. In 1816 Mr. Monroe was elected President, receiving
the electoral vote of every State, save Massachusetts, even yet
suspicious and wary, Connecticut and, the least of all, Dela
ware. In 1820 Mr. Monroe was re-elected, receiving the
electoral vote of every State. This was the beginning of
" the era of good feeling," and party lethargy, from which
sprang woes unnumbered. John Quincy Adams and Benja
min W. Crowninshield, representing Massachusetts, John C.
Calhoun, William H. Crawford and William Wirt, representing
the South, flUed up the ablest Cabinet, perhaps, that President
ever convened, since Washington's. In this memorable period
of eight years, sectional discord was fomented at every point
of sectional contact. There were four great acts of gov
ernment — (1) the surrender of Texas, a part of the Louisiana
purchase, to reconcUe the North to the acquisition of Florida :
(2)* the enactment of the line 36° 30' as a geographical limita
tion to Southern institutions in the enjoyment of the common
domain, by which they were excluded, arbitrarily, from nine-
tenths and, conditionally, from all : (3) the enlargement of the
deflnition of piracy to allow it to be applied to the only
commerce which was speciflcally protected, and for twenty

A YOUNG .EDITOR AND ORATOR. 39
years, by the letter of the Constitution, and upon which the
institutions of the South were authoritatively founded, the
^African slave trade: (4) the regulation of commerce by a
revenue law unequal in its burdens. The " era of good feel
ing" proved to be the season in which the sections manoeu
vred for position on the fleld of future conflict.
The political career of William Lowndes Yancey opened
with the collision of the newly discovered wage or factory
system resident in the Northern States, with the unmatured
and phenomenally fruitful system of African servitude in the
Southern States. The last was a recognized subject of com
pact in the conventional origin of the nation ; the flrst as
a social factor was then unknown. The masses were content
and prosperous everywhere. The non-slaveholding farmers of
the South Uved on the hiUs, where pure water and wholesome
air contributed to their enjoyment. In the fertile swamps, the
sturdy black man " looked the sun in the eye " with impunity.
It was even then alleged that slavery shut out white labor.
It is only necessary here to speak of the survival of a very
happy and powerful society ever advancing in material and
moral force. No civilized society was so exempt from pau
perism as the South, no population presented so small a
proportion, in comparison with its aggregate numbers, of
insane or indi^4duals born to infirmities, idiocy, physical
deformity or loss of one or more of the flve senses. No test
of manliood in its more exalted moral duties was more
promptly or intelligently met than by the people of the South
slaveholders and non-slaveholders. At the initial of the con
flict of the sections there was a source of intensity from
which it was fed not quite recognized, in the fullness of its
influence, by either rival. I refer to the eff'ect of the insti
tution's of the sections upon the individual citizen in his
appreciation of liberty. Every citizen of the South who was
theoretically a free man was actually free, to an unparalleled
degree. Save in the examples of those relatively few persons
who received wages or salaries in cities, the occupied classes
were not, by bell-clapper, rung in or rung out of work. Each
individual placed upon his time and his toil his own estimate
of value, as was no where else done in a society equally

40 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
enlightened and progressive. Under no circumstances would
a Southern born white flU a menial position. The familiar
anecdote, whether apocryphal or not, which represents the
orphaned and penniless lad, Andrew Jackson, of South Caro
lina, submitting to Incarceration rather than obey an order to
polish a British officer's boots is a correct interpretation of
Southern spirit. General Waddy Thompson, of South Caro
lina, once Minister to Mexico, relates his sense of degradation
seeing the coachman of President Santa Anna, an American,
but dwells with delight upon the subsequent discovery that
the man was not from the Southern States. Governor Perry>
of South Carolina, writing. In the slave era, from Philadelphia,
casually remarked, that In selecting a carriage at the public
stand to drive over the city, he chose one with a negro driver,
because of his reluctance to accept menial service from a
white man. Senator A. G. Brown, of Mississippi, declared
from his place, tuat in thirty years of intimate association
with the people he had never known an example in his State
where a white man or a white woman, native of the South,
would fill a menial position. This spirit of Uberty was not
associated with a sense of degradation of labor. The non-
slaveholdlng farmer tilled his own crops and his wife and
daughters performed the domestic labor of his home. As
African slavery became older, class distinction among whites
more and more disappeared. In the latter decades of slavery
there were few leaders of the South who had not risen from
the non-slaveholding class. Clay and Jackson were instances.
Calhoun supported a widowed mother by his labor at the
plow ; his coUeague in the Senate, Stephen D. Miller, sold the
few slaves he inherited to obtain an education in college:
Samuel Wilds, too proud to borrow a wagon and too poor to
hire one, carried on his shoulder the plank to build his law
offlce, from a saw miU a mile distant, and was, as the neigh
borhood tradition survived, fourteen years old before he owned
a pair of shoes; McDuffle and Thornwell, non-slaveholders
from the hill farms, were educated through a full coUeglate
course by the liberaUty of wealthy planters. Both married
Into the highest circles of social life. African labor removed
the necessity from capital of employing white labor, Etnd white

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 41
labor found in the production of cotton, from flelds owned by
the producers, an independent, easy and safe maintenance.
The President of tbe University of Alabama, In the last
decade of slavery, Basil Manly, annotated the relative wealth
of the graduates there under him for ten years. Of those
who took the flrst distinction, three were educated gratuit
ously, four were in a state of wealth below mediocrity, and
three were In a state of wealth called average. Of those who
took the second distinction, four were gratuitously educated,
and only one ranked above the class of comfortably well to do
in fortune. Indeed, so general was the appearance of indi
viduals in places of trust and honor, risen from the non-
slaveholding class, in every slave State, the adage prevailed,
only poor boys make great men.
As personal liberty and social equality became more secure
in the whites, as the general influence of African servitude
expanded in the South so, on the other hand, as the influence
of the factory system widened at the North, opening to
recurring thousands new places for wages, the line was drawn,
ceaselessly, deeper between social divisions of the same ruling
race, the lucky and- the unlucky. The plantation system, a
perfect conservatism, levelled classes. The factory system,,
ever dra-wing flshermen from their "property in the waves,"
gave them none ; drawing from the farms sons and daughters,
made of them spinners, carters, agents, domestic servants,
even artisans and inventors, yet all dependents on the self
ishness of capital concentrated, ever concentrating, and more
flckle. Educated wage workers inquired into the equities
of social organism. They discovered the legalized force of
capital at the North and discovered the mechanical status of
labor at the South, here not only disfranchised, but repre
sented in the law-making power, State and federal. The
battle of labor enfranchised at the North, and capital in labor
at the South was inevitable, in the nature of things. To strike
down slavery at the South, would be the flrst blow of Ameri
can labor to elevate itself to the rank of a co-equal with
capital. Three leadeis appeared in the arena of sectional conflict —
Clay, John Quincy Adams and Calhoun. There were two
methods of advancing the cause of centralization lead.

42 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
respectively, by the flrst two. Calhoun spoke against the com
bination, for State Rights. Clay appeared flrst of disturbers
in the fleld with his American System. To relieve it of
Southern opposition, he proposed the purchase of slaves on
government account, and deportation of the black population
to Liberia. He did not seem to appreciate the resulting task
of bringing peace and harmony into the investment and
operation of the capital, derived from the sale of slaves, under
a paternal form of government. Could the Congress of a vast
empire be depended on to settle successive claims of capital,
to measure out equitable protection and encouragement to
enfranchised labor in numerous States, and various climates ?
Mr. Adams appeared next in order, with a scheme to establish
paternal government by the abolition of slavery through
federal legislation, leaving the blacks as political support to
that form of government. Calhoun interposed the Constitu
tional position of slavery, and the fundamental theory of
State Rights to resist both schemes.
Very great men were these three leaders. Mr. Clay raised
the issue, and, in that sense, carries the imprimatur of a
greater historical importance. Rising from deepest obscurity,
in a slave community, without education in books or other
mental enlargement, not involved in a struggle for subsistence,
chiefly on the Western frontier, he came through other grades
of the public service into the Senate whUe barely of the legal
age. Seizing the new social force, the factory . system, and
misconceiving its evolutionary relations to African servitude,
he bore it upon the splendor . of his genius as a speciality
of statecraft. Under various delusions he compelled it to
challenge the source of its life, the plantation economy.
From his youth up, no man in America had been so
carefully trained in poUtics as Mr. Adams. He inherited the
high ambition and lively Imagination of one of the most
remarkable of American women, his mother. From his his
toric father had descended to him an acute understanding, a
bold spirit and addiction to petty foibles. Pure in private
life, he was audacious and revengeful in public Ufe. He was
erudite and cunning. Upon the threshold of manhood he
was Secretary to Legation at London, and studied there : he
became Minister at St. Petersburg and Paris, and continued to

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 43
study. He had been Senator, Cabinet offlcer and President.
No American had been educated with so great care in the
associations of aristocracy as he. His father's private counsel
to his son, his father's public utterances of more than half a cent
ury, indoctrinated him in the grandest schemes of an all-pow
erful central government, and turned him against the people.
As the father demanded that free speech and freedom of the
press should stand in law as felonies, the son grasped the Con
stitutional privileges of free speech and a free press to assail
the Constitutional rights of his adversaries. Smarting under
the refusal of the people to continue him for two terms in the
Presidency, a refusal never before met by any aspirant, save
in the example of his father, Mr. Adams, with well matured
purpose, took for life an office lower in rank than any he had
ever held, and from his seat in the federal House of Repre
sentatives, with unrelaxing energy, put In motion the most
awe-inspiring events of modern times.
Calhoun, a graduate of Yale, a devotee to the science of
liberty, the most progressive farmer, the most beloved neigh
bor, coming into the Senate from long experience in other
exalted stations of public service, began at once to speak for
State Rights, as the best and only obstruction to the approaches
of revolution. The reasoning in him that less sagacious
leaders denounced as revolutionary, and less profound minds
derided as metaphysical, was, indeed, from that purer vision
obtained by him of government, founded on nature : govern
ment wherein the harmonious action of constituent forces,
each recognized and none extinguishable, produces the com
pletest unity.
There were other great actors, but these three were the
leaders in that time, when the age of Washington seemed to
have turned backward toward the age of the king. General
Jackson came upon the scene at a time when his peculiar
talent in the Presidency gave an enduring cast to events made
ready in the rough for him. Hayne and Webster debated
propositions prepared for them.
There lived in South Carolina, at the beginning of the
conflict between the factory system and State Rights, a man
who entered most vigorously into the battle against Mr.
Clay's American Sjstem. This was the Englishman, Dr.

44 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Thomas Cooper, President of the South Carolina College, of
whom Jefferson wrote to Cabell : " He is acknowledged by
every enlightened man who knows him, to be the greatest
man in America, in the powers of his mind, and in acquired
information, and that without a single exception." It was
Dr. Cooper who was indicted under the famous Sedition law,
convicted of writing critically of President John Adams, and
sentenced to pay a fine of $400, and be kept in prison six
months. President Adams wrote of him : " A learned, inge
nious, scientific and talented mad cap is Dr. Cooper." Dr..
Cooper had taught the new science of political economy to
the sons of planters for nearly ten years, when the people
became alarmed at the "bill of abominations." Nobody in
all the Colleges of the Union, save he and SlUlman, of Yale,
taught geology, or could teach It; and Cooper's lectures on
political economy became all the more weighty because of the
notoriety of his scientific attainments, which he brought to
bear upon the Mosaic record, in what was then esteemed an
irreligious, or skeptical criticism. Graduates of the South
Carolina College were expected to enter politics for at least
several years after taking their diplomas, and thus, when
very young, many of them sat in the Legislature. By the
year 1826 an Intense antagonism to the tariff' had developed
in that State; and In other States, where graduates under
Cooper had settled, the same hostility to the measure was set
in motion by them.
¥vova. the earliest period of the Union under the Consti
tution the people were attached to the policy of raising federal
revenue by duties levied on imp'orts. The journals of the
convention of 1787, however. Indicate the Indisposition of that
body to confer on Congress the right to protect manufacturers
by such duties. Mr. Jeft'erson has left on record his view,.
that protection to manufactures. Incidental to necessary fed
eral taxation, may be sound policy. The right of the govern
ment to impose burdens on the capital and industry of one
class of people, or one portion of the Union, not to raise
revenue, but to promote the capital and industry of another
class or of another section, was brought forward, first by the
discussion of the tarlft' of 1816. South Carolina, whose
history on the question Is now under review, consented to the^

A YOUNG EDITOE AND OEATOE. 45
tariff' of 1816 without endorsing the principle of tariff pro
tection. The United States owed then a war debt, over /
one hundred millions of dollars, requiring revenue to dis
charge. The embargo and the war in Europe, prolonged over
seven years, had diverted a large amount of capital from!
commerce to cotton and wool manufactures in the United I
States. The two problems were, to pay the debt and to avoid/
the sacrifice of meritorious home enterprise by too precipitatej
legislation on the tariff. The average rate of duties under thei
act were about 30 per cent, ad valorem. The Southern States,
with practical unanimity, followed the lead of South Carolina
in accepting the measure. In Congress all the Southern States
voted for it. The South made no efl'ort at any time to disturb
this tariff. It was soon understood in its burdensome effect
upon her industry, yet it was accepted as a final adjustment.
But scarcely had the bill been signed when the manufacturers
at the North began to agitate for revision and increase of rates
of duty. Public sentiment there, however, was much divided.
Mr. Webster represented the commercial interests of Massa
chusetts, and bitterly opposed raising the tariff. In South
Carolina the opposition to a protective tariff' began to take form
in 1818. In 1820 a revised tariff', protective In Intent, was
passed. Late in 1824 another tariff act, distinctively protec
tive, was passed. Mr. Webster now came over to the tariff'
or centralization party. Hayne, in the Senate, and McJ3uffle,
in the House, delivered memorable speeches against this act.-
The act of 1824 thoroughly aroused South Carolina. Public
meetings were held in all the districts (counties) of any con
siderable population. Dr. Cooper went out to address some
of the meetings. It was at one of the anti-tariff discussions at
Columbia, in 1826, that he originated the aphorism : " It is time!
for the South to calculate the value of the Union." No one/
could be found to favor the measure. William Campbell
Preston, a young Whig of rare oratorical powers, took the
stump against it. Colcock, President of the bank of the
State, violently opposed it. \
The first session of the Twentieth Congress opened, Decem
ber, 1827, ripe for angry debate on the tariff' bill then before
it. A convention of manufacturers at Harrisburg, Pennsyl-
Tania, and other bodies and ndivlduals sent memorials to

^

46 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Congress to pass the biU- The bankers, merchants, and
planters of South Carolina continued to meet to discuss the
question. The lower House raised a committee to send for
persons and papers and prepare a report. The report was
considered from February to April, 1828, and the "bill of
abominations " then passed the House by twenty -one majority.
It became law by the approval of President John Quincy
Adams. The South Carolina delegation in the House met to
consider the propriety of their withdrawal from their seats
and the relegation of the question to their constituents. They
decided to send out a joint address of warning to the people.
A young member of the Legislature, Robert Barnwell Rhett,
Issued a circular letter to his constituents, of Colleton,
advising that a call be made on the Governor to summon a
sovereign convention to withdraw the State from the Union.
The Colleton meeting called on Governor Taylor to convene
a convention, but he omitted to act. Thus arose the two
questions, whether. In avarice and political Intrigue, a majority
of Congress should be permitted to regulate the industry of
the people; and, whether the State possessed reseri^ed.nowers
against the_encroaclnnejit~xiL.iiiicoiisiitutionai. autnOTitv" in
COT^ressT^ Hayne pointed out that of the $47,000,000 ex
ports, upon which the whole foreign trade was based, the
three Southern staples, cotton, rice and tobacco, contributed
more than two-thirds. McDuffle urged the government to take
forty out of every one hundred bales of cotton to donate to the
manufacturers, a government bounty collected here and paid
there, as a compromise, leaving sixty bales to the ordinary
course of unimpeded commerce. An unexampled public edu
cation in politics proceeded in South Carolina. Private funds
were freely contributed to publish arguments and pamphlets
on the system of taxation. The best orators spoke to monthly
meetings of the people at every court house in the State.*
Under this condition of general excitement, parties were
organized for the Presidential campaign of 1828. Mr. Adams
was announced by the manufacturers, for re-election, through
• In a letter to Mr. Madison, February 17, 1826, describing the origin of his
individual debts and their oppressions, Mr. Jefferson described the effect of the
"levies for support of manufacturers, etc., with the calamitous fluctuations of
value in our paper medium," on agriculture in Virginia. Lands had diminished
" from fifty to one hundred dollars the acre (and |such sales were many then) to ten
or twenty dollars." '

A YOUNG EDI'TOB AND OEATOE. 47
the Congressional caucus, with Richard Rush for vice-Presl-
dent. The question to be determined was so thoroughly
understood that the opposition held no caucus. By sponta
neous consent, expressed through public meetings and the
press. General Andrew Jackson, and Calhoun, the acknowl
edged leaders of Southern opinion, were named for President
and Vice-President. The victory of the tariff for revenue only
party was complete. The New England States, New Jersey,
Delaware and Maryland, cast their electoral votes for Adams
and Rush. Jackson and Calhoun carried the others, except
that the seven electoral votes of Georgia were given for
William Smith, of South Carolina, for vice-President.
Earnestly as the people of South CaroUna felt on the
measure of protective tariff, they were aware that the co]-\
lection of the surplus revenue through it, and the direct I
benefits the manufacturers would derive from it, comprised/
only a part of Mr. Clay's scheme of financial and Industrial reg-/ ¦
ulation by government. He proposed a bill to distribute the
surplus revenue among the States. The distrjbujtlon of the\^
surplus, by a political party, would have the natural' effect of)
increasing the devotion of the party to the American System/
calling for the strict enforcement of its provisions, and for
the ceaseless enlargement of its schedule. The distribution
feature of the general scheme promised a limitless source of
political corruption. The only way to cut off the distribution
was to abandon the protective feature of the revenue laws.
The " bill of abominations " must be repealed. To effect the
repeal Mr. Calhoun seat himself devotedly to work. Person
ally, he had great rlsk^to runTxJ^ur years before, he received
more votes for vice- President, iniNFewEngland, than John
Quincy Adams received for President. H&s^a^^, undoubtedly,
the moat popular statesinajL—Ul the Union .^"""iis.Jipok no
account^ bis political prospects. ' ~
le Legislature of South Carolina assembled in Novem
ber, 1828, and the first two weeks of the session were devoted
to tariff' discussion. A special committee was then appointed,
composed of the ablest men of a very able Legislature, to
report on the general subject. By request of one of the
committeemen, W. C. Preston, Mr. Calhoun drew the report.
It was a protest against the "bill of abominations," an

48 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
argumfint-agaiastrthe principle o f protection, jixLd_an--iB.v-it ation
to the people of all tlie~Sfates!to i^co-operate in such measures
as may^ be necessary" for arresting the evil." The document
was sent out as " ThLSouth -CaroUna -E^ge^tiotL"
The Exposition, speaking specially to the staple or slave
States, said :
" We may be assured that the large amount paid into the Treasury
under the duties on imports is really derived from the labor of some
portion of the citizens of the United States. The government has no
mines, t-ome one must bear the burden of its support. This unequal
lot is ours. -¥Fe>^are_the serfs of the system ^.iurt_of_whose„laboj; is-
raised, not only the money paid into the Treasury, but the,fands out of
"which aje di-awn"the rich^-eward of the manufacturer and his associates
in interest. * * The last remains of oiir great and once flourishing
agriculture must be annihilated in the conflict. In the flrst instance,
shall be thrown-0-ii-thfi_llome. marke.t, which— caBnot,_caasiime a

fourtfM5T our products, and instead of supplying the -world, as we
-wouJifwitFa.free trade, we would be oompelTecPKiabandon th^^ulti-
vation of Uiree-Jourths^of what we now raise, and receive for the
rgsidue wbatever,tlj^,ia&nufaoturers7,wlio would then have~tlieiFpolicy
cpnsummated, might choose to give. * * If, insteaSTof raw cotton,
we should" sItTp'To" the manufacturing States, cotton yarn and cotton
goods, the thoughtful must see that it would inevitably bring about a
state of things which could not long continue. _ Those who now make
war on oui^gainsr-woTiid i±ien-Bw,ka_wa.r«QJi,iiji£jai!,ftr. * * We are
thus cflmEglled to produce (raw material) on the penalty of losing our
hold on the general Hrtcrl£gtr"'We- cannot 'wit'hstandTlie"double action.
Oi£XHi!}..roH§,t follow. In fact, our only permanent and Safe remedy is,
not from the rise in the price of what we sell, in which we can receive
little aid from the._ goYernmeiit, .but a reduction in what we buy, which
is prevented -by. the intei^ference of the go-vernment. * The evil is
in the exports (we make) and the most simple and- efficient -system to
secure the home market would in fact be to prohibit exports. As the
Constitution only prohibits duties on exports, and as duties are not
Xirohibition, we may yet witness this addition to the American System.
'Hie- same constriiction of the instruiaen.t_whichjustifles the System
itself w()uld,equally,jjjstify this last means of perfectir^t."'
The President elect was duly inaugurated and with his
accession to office came the "spoUs system," an arbitrary
course of administration and Intrigue, whose center was at the
Executive Mansion. The vice-President was informed, before
taking office under General Jackson, by many gentlemen, of a
systematic labor going on to compel a rupture between the
two highest officers of the government. In the spring of 1830,

A YOUNG EDITOE AND OEATOE. 49
the rupture came, by means of a correspondence opened by
the President with the vice-President. Mrs. Calhoun had not
returned the visit of Mrs. Eaton, wife of the Secretary of
War, whose admission to Washington society had not been
allowed, even on an understood exaction of the President.
This cause of resentment was, more or less, concealed. The
vice-President resigned and the Cabinet dissolved.
The election of the South Carolina Legislature, of 1830,
turned upon the doctrine of State interposition. It was, by
this time, apparent that General Jackson would not be able to
arrest the protective policy, and at the same time execute a
policy, born with his Administration, the use of the federal
patronage to support the Administration. The Legislature
discussed the tariff. Agitation was rife, and the summoning
of a convention was urged by many. McDuffie said, when
the Roman people sought bread at the public granary, " the ^
multiplying -villainies of human nature " went on increasing
until the empire was sold at public auction. "Do we not
perceive at this very moment (he cried) the extraordinary and
melancholy spectacle of less than one hundred thousand capi
talists, by means of this unhallowed combination, exercising
an absolute and despotic control over the opinions of eight
mllUons of free citizens, and over the fortunes and destinies of ^
ten millions ? " James Hamilton, a gentleman of culture and
excellent ability, was chosen Governor, taken from the ranks
of the extreme State Rights men. At his request Mr. Calhoun
wrote a letter of great length, from the quiet of his farm.
Fort Hill. As an analysis of the federal Constitution tnis
letter will survive, to the admiration of all students of the
science of government, so long as the language In which it ,
appears is known. Speaking of the subtle distinction J)etween
the act of a sovereign "State in withholding its assent to the
usurpationjtf its agent, the federal goyernrnentTand "EEeacFof
secession pf_the State,„from the federal government, the letter
4eslargdj_itJ!irst, they (the^.,acla)„jar.& wholly dissimilar in
nature. S)nfi ,has .reference to the parties (to the compact)
themselves ; the other to their agent. .Secession is a with-
drawal from the Union, a separation from partners, as far 'a,s
depends on the member vyithdrawlng., a dissolution of the
partnership. It^^esuppbses an association ; a union of several

50

THE LIFE OF YANCEY.

States or _ individuals for the same object. Nullification, on the
contrary, presupposes the relation of_ principal and agent ^ the
o'ne''grantlng a power^to be executed, the otb^r. appointed by
tEe~grantor,,,with -authority:, to ..ej^ciite^t^ power. NulUfica-

tiqnisslmply a_declaratlon made by the principal, in due
form, that the act. j)f.._an_ agent transcending "^Ej^^^^auEHonty Is";
nulTa^d vojd." Referring, to the rights of the .federal- courts
to decide a question In controversy between the. States and
— Congress, or the Executive, the_letter said :
"The construction which would confer on the&ujlE£nifi_CQurt the
power in question, rests on the ground that the Constitution kas con
ferred on that tribunal the high and important right of deMd^ng^n thg,
constitutionalityof laws. That the Court possesses this i^wer, I do
not deny. iBut I dQ_denv, urterlY. that it is conferred by the Consti-
tution, either in the provisions above cited, or any other. It is a power
derived from the necessity of the cas4^._aDd--so_faaiJiQin_being_£ossessed
by tlle'Sirpreme uoun|^exciuiIvelYrMi-PecjaIlai-lY. ut-ooJijjjily .tif,1(inj<s-k»'
every corrt. of the .country, high .or=.lQW^,JiiKiL or criminal, .J).ut to all
foreign courts before wjiich a case ma^^Jjc brought involving -the
construction of_^ law which n]jjXj3onfliot_wittt_ the jprovisjo^^, of the
cImstlTCitionr" The reason is plain. Wh.,en_Jdig(g,jjg„tBta.se,ts.of rules
prescribed^ ju^jefgrenoe. to. the same-.subject,_Qngj_.s.et_b2_fi_hxgher, the
other by a lower .authority, ihe judicial- tribunal ,Qall.e!i-iji to decide, the,
case TniisLL-iiTiavnidihly HptprTning, ahpiild the two conflict, wlijclji is the,
law: .and that necesaifcjL-CO-niRelsJJliJiO determine ^hat the rule prescribed
by the inferior authority if, in its opinion, incouhistent wjjtli the higher,
is voi<| — be the conflict bet-woen~ni¥Constitution and the statute, or
between a charter ah3 tTie by-laws'T5f"a''oor^n'ationt",oi.'Jetween any
]jigher..£a:Jjatoiia;jaaiJiprit2jwlia^ The -pjmciple i"vnIgEd-a.mi.,tJi 6
source of .au±hoxil^V--areJ)]i£..^a^.gjn__jII_cas£§. Being derived from
iiec^^^ty, it is confined withia its limits and cannoin?assIlan--i-BS&--
beyond- the narro-w confines of tlTe^caSeJaefore .the court. The court
raust .decide between tbe parties ainenable to its process — excluding
thei-oby political questions — which of theT^trrElie^t of Congress or
the Constituti9n,.f,eally is-tl*e^law. ''And yet, from thisresuTtant, united
power, derived from necessity, and held in common with every court
in the world, which, by possibility, may take cognizance of a case in
volving our Constitution and laws, it is attempted to confer on our
Supreme Court power which would make a thorough and radical change
in our system, and which, moreover, was positively refused by the
Convention." Never had a poUtical question been so ably discussed
before the people, as the question of nullification in South
Carolina. Never before in the history of parties in the United

.1 YOUNG EDITOE AND OEATOE. 51
States had a party been so thoroughly organized, as the
NulUflers. On the first Monday in every month — sales
day — they met at the court house, in every district below the
mountains. Every NulUfier wore the blue cockade ; wore it to
the meeting where Calhoun, Preston, McDuffle, MiUer, Rhett,
Warren R. Davis, Colcock, Hayne, Hamilton, Cooper, ex
pounded profoundest theories of government ; wore it to
church, and to dinner. Agitation was the highest and noblest
duty of the district club, and of every member. Agitation
separated sons from fathers, brother from brother, parted
friends, but went on. Every militia election turned on nulli
fication, and every decree of a court of justice, high or low,
was jealously watched to determine the politics of the pre
siding judge. Hardly a meeting met or dissolved without a
hostile collision of partisans. Rich and poor were NulUfier s ;
and rich and poor were Union men. In the low country,
where CavaUer and Huguenot descendants lived in wealth, the
NuUlfiers controlled ; in the up country, where the Scotch-
Irish descendants inhabited, with comparatively few slaves,
the Union sentiment was strong.
No sooner did Governor Hamilton learn that the NulUfiers
¦had carried the election, in the fall of 1832, than he summoned
the new Legislature, in extra session, to recommend the calling
of a sovereign convention. The convention was called and
met, shortly before the Legislature assembled in regular
session in November. Mr. CalhouQ prepared Its " Address to
the People of the United States." " " The government Is
neither the Union nor its representative, excepts as-an-agent-to
execute its powers (said the documehy[____Thg.,g^jfj^,,tbp,u)
selves, in thei,r_COi;ifftd.e'""-''^^ r,h.,-rr,ni-^-n^ ynpT^cnnf fhq QntVir,..HTr
of the Un^on. * * Correctly understood, it is not th^ Sfatft^
that interposes to arrest -jaiL-Jin-ConstitutiOBal act, but the
government, that passed it, which resists the,^BihQiitj,.2Lib,6.,
Union."^,^ Almost every prominent man in the State sat in the
convention. The Governor presided. The three Judges of the
Court of Appeals, William Harper, NulUfier, and David John
son and John Belton O'Neal, Union men, were delegates.
Judge Huger, of the Circuit Court, resigned his life offlce to^
become a delegate ; Judge Richardson, of the same branch of
the judiciary, was a delegate, but did not resign. Robert Y.

52 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Hayne, lately a Senator, S. D. Miller, Senator, George McDuffle,
Representative, Colcock, President of the Bank of South
CaroUna, Ex-Governor Mlddleton, Rhett, Perry, and many
others, then famous or destined soon to reach distinction,
were delegates in attendance. Monday at noon was the time
at which the convention was called to meet. Excitement was
so Intense at the hotels that at a caucus of the Union men,
held Sunday evening, it was proposed, and sepiously discussed,
that being in a hopeless minority, they should not take their
seats. " If we take our seats," said the gallant Huger, whose
valor had been, ere now, well proven, " if we take our seats,
we shall hear things that will call for blood. If they talk, as I
suppose they will, blood must be shed. It cannot be avoided."
Perry, one of the youngest delegates, opposed the precaution
advised. Governor Hamilton, upon taking the chair, delivered
an elaborate but temporate address. The convention, though
firm, was duly Impressed with the solemnity of the occasion.
The NuUlfiers bore themselves with utmost respect towards
the cause they had come to defend and towards their now
impotent adversaries. A committee of twenty-one was
appointed to take under consideration the grievance of the
State and to report. This was the work of the first day. No
oath was required of the delegates. There seems to have been
no session Tuesday, but Wednesday the committee reported
an Ordinance of Nullification. The Ordinance assumed
that the act of Nullification would be peaceable, but it pro
vided that if the interposition of the'DrcITna'ncnXi 'arrest the
oppressive and unconstitutional" act "TTf— ©cm^es-s*~should be
met by an attempt, oii the part 'Ofthe^-fed-eral govermiienj:;, to
cqerce the State into obedience, the State shcuMjJii_that event,
resume her sovereignty entire^ and withdraw from the Union.
Judge Harper had Ttra7wnitr~ln^S§" adopted'-wtffioli'nrebate.
Huger, Richardson, Manning, and other leading Union men
refused to sign it. TurnbuU wrote the Address to the People
of South Carolina ; Hayne wrote the Exposition on the Tariff.
Each document was of a very high order of ability and left
an enduring Influence on the public mind.
It was now made known that General Jackson, in the
contest of 1832, had defeated Mr. Clay, and was re-elected
President by a larger majority than that gained over Mr.

A YOUNG EDITOE AND OEATOR. 53
Adams. Thus, in so far as the people had spoken, the
principle of consolidation, represented by Clay and Adams,
from different standpoints, was defeated ignominiously. But,
the people of the United States were not yet ready to brave
the most resolute of Presidents. General Jackson was highly
incensed at South Carolina. Hayne resigned from the Senate
to allow Calhoun to take the place. Calhoun retained his seat
in the Senate Avhile the convention atCoRimbla acted. He
was far from idle. Indeed his presenc/ in his seat was
important to sustain his theory, that South CaroUna h^d not
seceded, but had " intenDOsed " her constitutional right to
cEeck an unconstituti'onai act oi ber apent. Tbere haci been.
"for many^^1'§f^^^^raieM.^tH;p~j&et;^een_G^
and Calhoun. Jackson had drank to his own toast : " John
C. Calhoun f/an honest man is the noblest work of God."
But this was of_lJafi4ja&t.
The President of the United States received, promptly,
from the Governor of South Carolina a copy of the Ordinance
of Nullification, and as promptly met It by a proclamation,
and a special message to Congress. These federal documents
are justly entitled to take rank as great determining influ
ences in the rivalry of sectional civilizations within the
Union. They promoted. Inestimably, the dogma of Mr. Clay
and the radicalism of Mr. John Quincy Adams. Their influ
ence was, indeed, abnormal. No President had ever held
so enormous a personal following to his support as Jack
son. Coming into offlce at a time when new parties were
being formed on new issues, he, as has just been said. Intro
duced suddenly a vicious practice, hitherto unknown in the
government, a systematized distribution of the honors and
emoluments of office as a reward to his personal adherents.
On the turn of a great principle, he had defeated Adams
before the people, in 1828 ; on the same issue, better defined, he
had beaten Clay, even more signally, in 1832, but neither
Adams nor Clay had so given emphasis to the essential
doctrine of centralization as this President through whom the
public devotion to State Rights had been pledged in two
general elections. In the spoils system of a Democratic
administration were planted the ineradicable passions of
revolution. The famous proclamation argued, with great

54 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
reiteration, that State_soyerelgnt^jwas__subordinate to National
sovereignty. The substance of the President's argumSimvasr'
tTMrunder no circiimsfances could a State be allqwed to inter
pose-to check the as^rted.auSioJity ot-thefederaLgjajjeMJa^t;
" The' terms'" used" (said the President) in the construction of^^
the Constitutioir~show'Tr''K'Te™'"government, in whicU the
peopirorSlj5]c''Si^^^^^ •" Yet in
truth, the people " of aU the States coUectfvelpniave never
been represented in any one of the three branches of the
government. Presidents have been Inducted into office against
whos'e~election a majority of the qualified electors have ap
peared at the polls and cast their votes ; and by reason of the
fact, that the people collectively, do not determine Presiden
tial elections, but the people of the separate States. The
popular House of Congress is not chosen by the people col
lectively, and therefore does not represent a collective, national
constituency. The proclamation proceeded: " Jt, is a. govern
ment in which all the people are represented, which operates
directly upon the people ^indiy^3uaTlv7'~~TEirwasnFheargu-
ment of Webster in his reply to Hayne, and being now ap
propriated by the leader of the party opposed, as had been
believed, to the party of Webster, he brought immense force to
its support. There .was., nev.ezt.b_desSj_no_ground for assuming
that the citizens of_a_Statej_ obeying Its laws, could commit
treason against another State or several States conjointly.
Virginia and New York in their acts of ratiflcation._Jia.d ex
pressly reserved the right of resuming their complete sover-
Sgaty:^-.Massachusetts declared she was entering a " compact."
Rhode Island declared, when _a_ocpH?nglo the l^^i^iXTtdS^^jj^
powers of government may be resumed by the people when
soever necessary TcT their happiness." South T^arolimThad
attached to her ordinance of ratification of the Constitution, an
express^j^^ovfeion, fthat^ federal taxation sliould be "Timi ted Jo
" public exigencies." Robert Y. Hayne, who had now come
into the offlce of Governor of South Carolina, was directed by
the Legislature in session, cotemporaneously with the conven
tion, to reply to the President's proclamation. The Governor's
response was " elegant in its composition, elaborate and con
clusive in its argument, exposing the sophistries of the Presi
dent, just and clear in its constitutional exposition and rousing

A YOUNG EDITOR AND OEATOE.

55

by its proud tone of defiance, its devoted patriotism and
spirited rebuke, all the highest feelings of the cotmtry."
Exeter Hall sent cheering words, and money to set up a pub
lishing establishment for incendiary documents, to the newly
organized New England Anti-Slavery Society, but the slave
States did not respond to the messages^ from SouthjCarollna ;
although Virginia reiterated, by^foiinaf act of her Legislature
the resolutioDs'^r'IVSy. .. TFeTFr^SHenTcorres ponded directly
with the Union men of South CaroUna, pledging them protec
tion and the use of money and the arms in the federal arsenal
at Augusta. He ordered the sloop of war, Natchez, to Charles
ton harbor, he armed Fort Sullivan, turned the guns of Castle
Pinckney on Charleston and sent General Scott to command
the federal military preparations in the State. Governor
Hayne called for more volunteers and sent for more arms.
Following the proclamation of the President came the
Force hill in the Senate, the work of Mr. Webster, purporting
to providk for the collection of federal revenue in South
Carolina seawiorts. Mr. Wllkins, from Pennsylvania, who re
ported the blli^o the Senate, explaining it, said : « Here nulli-
flcation is dechiimed, on one hand, unless we abolish our
revenue system. ^We consenting to do this they remain quiet.
But if we go a hair^ breadth toward enforcing that system
they present secessioiW The whole State of South Carolina is
in arms at this moment and its citizens are ready to be em
battled the moment anyVattempt is made to enforce the
revenue laws. The city onCharleston wears the appearance
of a miUtary depot." Mr. Jo\i Tyler, Senator from Virginia,
opposed the Mil. Tt gave th^ President, linfillPiiit'^'"""'"'^^^^^-^^,''-
tlioritv txTclose whatii.p"^-tfii,ibe pl^a'-'fiV' "^"^ ^tl "»en new ports
wherq he -Pleaasd;,, This w^,fi pne (jf |:|^^||y^fr.fg|(jaSi^^^
T^Y t,]^p. .cQlmii.eg,, ^SJ^S^^^^^^^^^^Wj^Jn^- T.he king had
ftiTiw««iS''T^*custom Touse frOTn'''Boston to Salem and the
people" rose- to resent thB—wrong. "Tf the majority shall^

pass this biU they-ffiuBfrdo it on their own responsibllltv :
he would have no part in it." South Carolina might be wrong,
buTshe was""brave and true^and '£ErP"res.ldent.coura~not go
there 'fey'his coiTsentjto " hang her Governor, her Legislators,
y^al Tnrip-Pa anH r.P.rlTi7^ hf.j to the condltiou of a conquered
nrovince to claim that, in this, he had preserved the Union."

56 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The determining influence exercised by Mr. Calhoun upon
the coilrse of his State and the permanent position which his
fame holds in the history of the country, cannot f aU to preserve
the interest of students of the nulUflcatkm movement in the
particulars of his conduct. In a season of the great wrath of so
resolute a man as General Jackson, invested with summary
power, or assuming it, and the subordination of Congress to
the Executive. Mr. Calhoun discussed the Force bill two days,
February 15th and 16th, 1831^ in long speeches. He said that
as the federal govern ment /had no rights in South CaroUna
out to the extent "tiiaTltliad no right to _enter. If all the
States considered the question as carefully as South CaroUna
had done, all would stand by her side and the situation would
be very dift'erent. South Carolina had not been precipitate.
She had studied the question and studied the remedy of the
evil at her door, for twelve years. At the close of that time
she found the custom house, a mere place for paying taxes,
removed from the haunts of commerce to Castle Pinckney,
where the cannon of the government protected the usurped
taxing power.
"Has Congress the ripht to pass this bill?" he asked. " What are
its provisions? It juts at the-dlaBflSaLo£»tJaifi. P.f.&s.ide.nt tbe army and
navy and the entire militia of the country: it enables him at his
pleasure to subject every man in the United States noT exg,mj,it.lxonn
the militia, iinder martial law : to call him from his occupation to the
field and under the penalty of fine and imprisonment to imbrue his
hand in his brother's blood. * * This has been said by tbe Senator
from Tennehsee (Mr. Grundy) to be a measure of peace. Yes, such
peace as the wolf gives to the lamb — the kite to the dove ! Such peace
as Russia gives to Poland, or death to its victim! A peace, Uy extin
guishing .the political exi^.tence o£.tljfi-.Stat6y~b#-.awing Ji.gr..aiito-*lie
abandonment of the exercise. of evei-.Y. pogfir which constitntf;-'' b^ji-a.
so Y.6reign community. It is to South Caroling a Question "^' Hplf-pf-'"'"''-
p vation: and Ipr'oCTaim it, that s'tiouij this bill pass and-anattem-ptAe
made* to e'nforceit, it^vill be resisted at every hazard — even thafc-of
death It'SSlT.' '"Ceat h is not tbefflea^sE'calamity : there are others^ sti^
more tegmrprT77Ji^7ree'^^^jlnj|j^g^^ be JiI^SItlLe
^ss of liberty and honor. There are thousands of her brave sons who,
if need be, are prejared cheerfully to lay /flown their lives in jJiBfence of
the State and thegreaTpripnill''" "f (iOTislit"tii?"''^ libert^y for which she
is contending. Gad,_forbid that this shi^ijld h(>p,^>TnB necessary. * *
Disguise it as you may, the controversy is _gae_between power and

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 57
liberty: and I tell gentlemen who are opposed to me, that as strong as
may be the love of power on tlieir side, the Jove, of Jlhexl v -on .ours is
stronger. * There are often close analogies between events appar
ently very remote. In the great, contest between Greece and Persia,
between European and Asiatic polity and civilization the very question
between the federal and consolidated form of governmt'ut was involved.
The Asiatic governments from the remotest time, with some exceptions
on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, have been based on the
principle of consolidation, -which considers the whole community as
but a unit, and cons-olidates its powers on a central point. The re
verse principle has prevailed in Europe— Greece, iu all her States, was
based on a fedeial system. All were united in one common but loose
bond, and the governments of the several States partook, for the most
part, of a complex organization, which distributed political power
among dift'erent members of the community. The same piinciples pre
vailed in ancient Italy; and if we turn to the Teutonic race, our great
ancestors — the race which occupies the flrst place in power, civiliza
tion and science, and which possesses the largest and fairest part of
Europe — we shall find their governments were based on federal organi
zation." While the convention deliberated, at Columbia, such was
the condition of aft'airs and the attitude of the leader of the
constitutional argument. Mr. Letcher, a member of the lower
House of Congress, from Kentucky, in a private way, sug
gested to Mr. Clay a compromise, of some kind, to adjust the
trouble with South CaroUna. Mr. Clay, not at first receiv
ing the thought graciously, afterwards mentioned it to Mr.
Webster. Webstac-repulsed it indignantly. " The time has
come to. test the strength of the yovftrnment." he said. Web
ster was omitted t'rjjdi all further consultations on the subject.
Clay and Calhojim were not on speaking terms, but Letcher
brought abop*^ formal interview between them in the former's
apartmen^i^ Clay, rising, bowing stiffly, and inviting his
famtm^^isitor to be seated. Thence Letcher went to see the
P^^ent, who was iQmi^jQJi&-^L,^i&J^S£SSJS^UA. vrith JSL^h^
ster and an apparentlycredlble report was, that he had
comforted the friends of his proclamation with a pledge to
have Calhoun arrested as soon as Congress adjourned, the
short session then nearly exhausted, to be put on trial for
high treason, for which offense, in his case, the President was
said to consider the halter light enough punishment. Mr.
Calhoun seldom allowed the greatest demand on his time to
intrude upon his hour of going to bed, which was 10 o'clock.

.58 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Senator Josiah Stoddard .lohnston, of Louisiana, a Whig,
having heard of the President's avowed intent, called to see
Calhoun, who was in bed, towards midnight and was admitted
to his bed chamber to communicate the rumor. Mr. Clay
brought in his compromise bill. A committee was appointed
to report on it, consisting of Messrs. Clay, Calhoun, Clayton,
Dallas, Grundy and Rives, all from the slave States, except
Dallas, from Pennsylvania. The bill passed, with certain
amendments. It provided that the tariff, upon which a great
amount of capital had been invested in manufactures, should
stand as it was, subject to a gradual reduction, for ten years,
at the expiration of which period the protective feature, or the
American System itself, would be abandoned. Webster voted
against the bill, in the interest of the manufacturers : Benton
voted against it to sustain the President's position, as he inva
riably did, when opportunity offered.
While events were being so turned at Washington the
NuUlfiers at home were far from any hasty action. They met
at Charleston to request the Governor to extend the period for
the enforcement of the Ordinance of Nullification. Meantime
a ship arrived in the harbor laden with State arms and
munitions of war. Governor Hayne was aroused at dead of
night by excited friends, who assured him the Union men,
or Proclamation men, as they were then called, were organizing
to seize it, and he was urged to call out the miUtary companies
to protect the public property. The Governor, with admirable
-coolness, said he would not call out a political party to make
war against a- poUtical party ; if blood was to be shed, the
Union men should fire the first shot ; and, thereupon, resumed
his rest. An episode, not a little amusing, marked the
progress of the movement when at its height. Governor
Hamilton, in the last hours of his Administration, sent a
schooner to Cuba to return laden with dutiable sugar, which
he intended to bring into the port of Charleston, refuse to pay
the tariff' charges, and thus present an issue to the govern
ment. When the schooner arrived with her return cargo the
oustom house was already at Castle Pinckney, and under the
guns of that fortress the South Carolina sugar was stored.
The NulUfiers brought the case before the United States Dis
trict Court, at Charleston, and sent for Mr. McDuffie to argue

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 59
it. They mustered in great procession to receive him on the
outskirts of the city, and escorted him, with banners and
music, through the streets. A crowded house assembled to
hear McDuffie for tne State and James L. Pettlgru for the
United States. Meantime, some Union men had gone over to
the fortress and given bond for the duties on the cargo in
duress. McDuffie delivered an argument extremely satis
factory to his client. Pettigru rose, and with much affec
tation of solemnity, remarked to the court that however ready
he might be to combat the able argument of the orator on
a proper occasion, he would not consume the time of his
honor with an irrelevant discussion. Mr. McDuffie had only
to pay the amount nominated on the bond for duties, filed with
the clerk, and the custom house had no farther claim upon
the sugar.*
Mr. Calhoun retained his seat until the adjournment of
the session of Congress, March 4, when General Jackson
was inaugurated for his second term. The South Carolina
sovereign convention stood adjourned until March 11. Mc
Duffle, Rhett and many others were opposed to acceding to
Mr. Clay's compromise, unable to join tn the hope that the
manufacturers and Abolitionists would permit a policy of free
trade with Europe and the Constitutional rights of capitalized
labor in the slave States, to abide in peace. They were well
persuaded that there should be a treaty, if possible, for a
dissolution of the Union ; and that, in any event. South
Carolina should not recede from the vantage ground, she had
already attained to, on the basis of a mere statute of Congress
subject to the variableness of public sentiment in the free
States. • Mr. Calhoun, however, hastened to Columbia. He
arrived, much fatigued by a rough and hastened journey, the
last night's travel having been in an open country wagon,
engaged on the way to overcome the unexpected delay of the
mail coach in which he had taken passage. He accepted the
invitation of the convention to a seat on the floor. The extra
ordinary animation of his large and luminous eyes attracted
universal attention as the convention proceeded. The com
missioner from Virginia, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, appeared

?Eeminiscences of a Charlestonian, published in Charleston News and Courier,
1888.

60 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
with the friendly interposition of his State, asking that the
compromise be accepted. The President of the body. General
Hamilton, delivered an admirable address advising the accept
ance of the compromise. Senator Miller spoke, assenting to
that view, but bestowing upon General Jackson much bitter
invective. Mr. Rhett said he could attach no importance to
the compromise. 1^6 would vote to repeal the Ordinance
because Virginia ad-vised it. He said :
"There is a question pending between the N"orth and the South,
resulting from the difference in the political, mental and social organism
of the two sections, which no party measure can settle — which cannot
be settled save by treaty or by revolution. The convention should
understand, that when the present dispute, which disturbs the Union
and divides it into hostile sections, is pacified, the quarrel will be found
to have been only changed to slavery. Slavery, with all its semi-
religions and fanatical associations, will take the place of the question
jveliave compromised."
So fellthe A.inericaji--System-^?efer-€--the-dQd;jl.n,e of liberty
based, on fi.ccertTa.lizatiffll£f po),itii.c'i1 p"W^l ; andso trlumpJifid
the State (rf__SouiiijOar$^iaa, jmn_gli^^^ jtseU_Jhe_Jiatrgd
and^jealousy of the jupgor.^iX-.QLxaatoIi^iai^ in every
quarter. Monopoly, cut off in one direction, shifted to another.
The war against the labor of the South came, with accelerated
speed, to overcome "that policy which should hold an equal
and Impartial hand in government, neither seeking or granting
exclusive favors or preferences, consulting the natural course
of things, dift'using by gentle means the streams of commerce,
but forcing nothing."— (Washington's P'arewell.) The cease
less and ever augmenting peril to slavery in revolution, re
duced the enterprise of the people of the South to the one
industry, of opening fresh flelds to employ slaves. The first
canal opened to commerce in the United States was the
Wateree Canal in South Carolina, the South CaroUna raUroad
was the first of equal length built In the' Union, and upon it
was operated the first of American made locomotive engine,
the flrst steam ship that crossed the Atlantic was built on the
order of Savannah capitalists and received its outgoing cargo
in cotton from the wharves of Savannah. But the peril of
slavery, in which species of property the great bulk of Invest-
mentJay, acted to chill the enterprise of the South in the risks
of commerce and to stimulate the North to renewed eff'orts to

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 61
occupy the entire commercial fleld. What secret inspiration
the abolition agitation may have found in this fact, it is useless
here to inquire. The people of the South were equal to great
enterprises. Wherever they were permitted under their fed
eral relations to appear on terms of equality with the North,
in the learned professions, in the pulpit, in the Senate, on the
arena of combat by land or by sea, they lost nothing in com
parison. The institution of African servitude was seen in its
ennobling effects wherever the society which supported it came
to the trial of strength with other conditions of civilization.
Monopoly in cotton production was forced upon the slave
States by the menacing revolution aimed at slavery. The
free States, disappointed, by the action of South Carolina and
the consequent failure of the American System, in securing a
monopoly of manufactures for the supply of the commerce of
the slave States, turned their attention with characteristic
energy to another fleld of monopoly. Congress forbid the
importation of Africans, with the full approbation of the
South, and Congress in the Missouri " compromise," in land
laws and naturalization laws, opened the mighty empire of the
West to JEuropean colonization. Speculation in Western lands
at once became a leading enterprise of the people of the North.
New towns sprang up, new markets foi; new England goods
opened, new borrowers of New England cash presented them
selves, and fresh recruits to the New England Anti-Slavery
Society flowed in from the cities and the farms of Germany.
Monopoly of cotton production here and monopoly of land
colonization there, clashed with fervor on the floors of Con
gress. In the strife was the opportunity of the Constitution.
But the opportunity pointed out by Governor Hayne, to amend
the Constitution to quiet the already assured collision of the
sections, was not heeded. Each section began the work of
self-preservation after its own methods. Sectional reconcil
iation on Constitutional grounds was the doctrine of State
rights, and the doctrine did not harmonize with the land
speculations of the West more than with the lost American
System. The village of Greenville sat at the foot of the^Blue
Ridge chain. A perfect climate and an enchanting landscape

62 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
attracted thither, in the summer months, some of the rich
planters with tliejr wives and daughters from the low country.
In the distant perspective were the valleys of the Saluda, the
Tyger, the Catawba, where the Scotch-Irish farmers lived, the
McLemores, the McCoys, Roebacks, the father and mother of
Andrew Jackson, Calhouns, Caldwells, and, intermingled with
them, settlers of another blood, the Earles, Perrys, Hamptons,
Butlers, Cunninghams. The village was the capital of the
region where the social elements of the low country and the
up country strangely Intermingled — where the conflicting
elements of property in slaves, dominating the former section,
and small white proprietary farms, dominating the latter,
were almost of equal strength. The district (county; of
Greenville had sent four delegates to the nulUflcatlon conven
tion, all stout Union men, lead by the venerable and accom
plished ex-Governor Middleton, whose chief support was the
young lawyer, B. F. Perry. At the village was published the
only newspaper organ, in all the up-country, of the Union
men — I'he Jilountaineer.
When W. L. Yancey entered the law offlce of Perry he
rose at once upon the very crest of the great controversy the
convention had sent forth to the people. There was no escape
for him from the course he pursued. The lawyer and the
political leader were identical in the land. The unsettled
phase of nullification which the adjourned and dissolved con
vention had relegated to the polls was, a " test oath." In
order to understand the political issue in South Carolina, in
the general elections of 1834, at which we have arrived, it will
be necessary to recur to one of the most exciting episodes of
the work of the convention. That body prescribed a new
oath of offlce, intended to enjoin allegiance to the State and
obedience, only, to the Union. In order to have the benefit
of the new oath, in support of the new position of the State,
the admirably organized militia was disbanded by an Ordinance
vacating the commissions of all its offlcers. Elections for new
offlcers were then ordered. A large proportion of the original
militia was composed of Union men, and, at the elections
ordered by the convention, most of the old Union offlcers were
re-elected. They refused the test oath and appUed to the courts
for the writ mandamus to compel the Adjutant-General to

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 6S
deliver their commissions. The case was carried immmediately
to the Court of Appeals. The Union judges, Johnson and
O'Neal, held the test oath to be unconstitutional. Harper, Nul
Ufier, dissenting. The NuUlfiers met In Charleston to denounce
the Court. Preston, WUson, Colcock, Hamilton and others
addressed it. Meetings for the same purpose were held in
various districts. The Governor was petitioned to convene
the Legislature to impeach the Union judges. Nor did the
press, on the nullification side, omit to attack the Union
judges with great vehemence. A Columbia paper, published
there whUe the court sat hearing appeal causes, from all parts
of the State, addressed them : " When you walk the streets
do you meet any expressions of kindness in the countenances
of those you meet ? They turn from you : you do not look at
them. They look upon you as violators of the sacred trust
reposed In you. They regard you as the tools of a foreign
tyrant : as participators in a conspiracy against their liberties :
as instruments of General Jackson : as stirrers up of sedition.
They cannot see your Robes of Justice for the butcher knives
and tomahawks your hands contain. Pray hasten away and
give relief to the country. For what is there here to give you
pleasure ? There is not a man but that dreads and abhors
you, save those, the desperate and profligate crew, your ac
complices." The L'nion men had already formed Washington Societies.
To offset the effects of the NulUfiers' meetings and their
practical disband ment of the militia, for the purpose of reor
ganization in their own interest, the Washington Societies
organized on a military footing. Judge Huger, whose father
had been a General in the revolutionary war, under Greene,
was commander-in-chief: Robert Cunningham, whose father
had been a royalist in that war, commanded the division in
which was situated Greenville. Yancey was Captain of a
troop of Greenville mounted men under his uncle, Cunning
ham. To evade the eff'ect of the decision of the court, the
Legislature prepared an amendment to the Constitution in the^
form of an oath of office which required all officers of the State
"to be faithful and true allegience bear to the State of South
Carolina. * * To preserve, protect and defend the Consti
tution of this State and of the United States."

64 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The flrst speech of Yancey's in the campaign, of which
there remains any report, was an oration delivered at Lodi,
Abbeville District, on the occasion of the celebration there of
the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The
address was an argument^ suggested by the circumstances.
The orator said the NulUfiers continually brought up one
question : "Will you not fight for the land of your birth ? "
To this he would make answer: "Where liberty is, there is my
country." If South Carolina became the advocate of anarchy
he, for one, would not follow her lead. Looking around him,
he saw men bent with age and marked with scars. Almost
every one of this class was for the Union, and when he traced
their history he found they were old soldiers of the war for
liberty. Sires who had not hesitated or counted the costs in
'76, graves of those who slept on King's Mountain and Cow-
pens, appealed to the generation now upon the scene of action
to resist the machinations of the majority to undermine
all government. A great feast was spread under the trees
and at the conclusion toasts were called. When the name of
the orator of the day was reached he rose and begged to read
a sentiment which had just been handed to him by a lady. In
lieu of anything less expressive which he might say for him
self. The toast read was : " A Happy and Prosperous Exist
ence to Our Federal Union : Union ladles wish and pray for
its success ; Union gentlemen should protect it and bring
confusion to the counsels of its enemies." ["Music and
cheers."] On October 14, 1834, Mr. Alfred Huger, then a Unionist,
being on a visit to Greenville, was oft'ered the compliment of a
public dinner In a grove near the Baptist Church. General
Waddy Thompson, NulUfier, not understanding the character
of the meeting, took the stand and began to speak. He was
interrupted, but refused to desist. A vote was taken and
eight hundred of the nine hundred present declared General
Thompson should not speak. The community was greatly
stirred up. Yancey, who was Secretary, wrote a letter for the
Mountaineer describing the scene and defending his original
report thereof, which had been attacked in the newspapers by
General Thompson, the foUowing being the concluding sen
tence : " I say here openly and fully, that it did not depend

A YOUNG EDITOR AND AUTHOR. 65
upon Mr. Thompson's will or whim whether he remained
a speaker on that st-and. The voice of 800 indignant men
roared and did morally compel him to retire. They would not
hear him, and unless prudence, that ' better part of valor,' had
actuated him, and he had retired, I, upon my own respon
sibility aver, that he would have been put down, physically."
But, two -vveeks before this meeting, a meeting of the
Unionists had taken place in the Court House at Greenville.
It was called " to take into consideration the measures to be
pursued by them in regard to the Test Oath." Yancey was
appointed Secretary. A committee of seven presented a
lengthy pre-arranged report ; Mr. Perry offered a resolution
that, the name of the party be the " LTnion and Liberty Party,"
and upon this deUvered a strong speech. The meeting was
about to adjourn when the Secretary took the stand and began
a speech. Few present had ever heard him. He had become
twenty years old the month before. His height wks medium,
five feet ten inches, his figure shght. The clean shaven face,
fair skin, dark blue eyes, light brown hair, self-poise and clear
voice reminded those who had known his father of the strong
resemblance of the son to him. The speech continued for an
hour, without any notes to assist the orator, and in rapid,
unchecked utterance. From the first melodious tones every
eye was turned to him, and not a man left the house while the
delivery proceeded. Probably there had been no counterpart
to the scene since Alexander Hamilton, when two years
younger than this orator, had -visited a like surprise upon a
public meeting of revolutionary patriots.
" Let us premise (said Mr. Yancey) that, in form, this oath
Is unobjectionable. It may, nevertheless, be applied to a
hundred different purposes. To some of these, the Union men
may object, with conscientious scruples. To others, we would
cheerfuUy assent. In form of words, this oath is not materi
aUy different from the oath required in Georgia or any other
State. It is the subject matter to which this oath binds us
that we object. In this respect it is essentially different from
that of Georgia or any other State. For there, thank God, the
citizens ' are bound to no treasonable or anti-republican doc
trines. There, freedom of conscience and of opinion is yet to
be found. It is in this Ught, then, that we view it, and we

66 'ITIE LIFE OF YANCEY.
have great and insurmountable objections to having the doc
trines of these NulUfiers crammed do-wn our throats, whether
/we will or not. * * The sum and substance of this oath is,
that aUeglance is due by the citizen to the State and obedienc(e
only, an inferior duty, mind, is due to the United States."
"^ The argument pointed out the practical disqualification of
all Unionists to hold office in South Carolina by an oath
which the Legislature construed in the manner described.
The election transpired, the vote of the State standing
22,742 for the amendment, or for the State Rights party, to
18,243 against the amendment, or for the Union and Liberty
party — a gain of 1000 for the latter and a loss of 1000 to the
former since the election of the convention two years before.
Immediately after the election, the proprietor of the Moun
taineer, Mr. O. H. Wells, published a card in which he an
nounced : "Next week Mr. -WilUam L. Yancey will become
editor of this paper. I am satisfied that a large majority of
its subscribers will be gratified that a gentleman of Mr.
Yancey's acknowledged ability, flrmness, talents and attach
ment to our glorious Union is to occupy that relation toward
them." Five broad columns, twenty inches long to each of its
four pages, describes the mechanical make-up of the leading
newspaper of the up-country, with this youthful creator of
public opinion at its head. The advertisements occupied a
small part of its space, and these were in great proportion
official notices of civil offlcers. There were advertised, too,
" run away " slaves and lands of those who explained they
would move "west," meaning the Gulf States. Subscribers
were received for a year at $3 — flf ty cents extra if payment
be delayed six months. The typography was perfect and the
literature of enduring interest. No cuts appeared, save the
universal flgure at the head of notices of run away slaves — a
negro fleeing, with a bundle of clothes on the end of a stick
thrown across his shoulder.
While politics were so found In South Carolina, Virginia,
as has been said, by resolutions of her Legislature, reiterated
the resolutions of 1799, a large State Rights vote appeared tn
Georgia, and, in Alabama, Dixon H. Lewis lead a wing of the
Democracy opposed to the Union policy advocated by William
"sR. King. A Union victory in Louisiana was celebrated by a

.1 YOUNG EDITOE AND AUTIIOE. 67
great public dinner on Sunday, and the Albany (N. Y.) Journal
in the name of the Whigs of the free States, protested against
a Southern desecration of the Sabbath.
Governor Hayne's message to the Legislature at its opening
session recaUed the past agitation, rejoicing at its termination,
reminded the body that the decision of the Court of Appeals,
while pronouncing against the oath in the MUitary bill, had
expressly declared an amendment to the State Constitution,
incorporating the oath, would not be in conflict with the federal
Constitution ; and recommended " a convention of the States
to reform the federal Constitution, to take fresh securities for
liberty." The editor of the Mountcdneer gave four columns of
criticism to the message. NuUiflcation as a remedy, he said,
was a confessed failure since Governor Hayne demanded a
new Constitution for the United States to accomplish what he
and Mr. Calhoun had insisted NuUiflcation was all sufflcient to
do. In the same issue appeared, in mockery, a •' Solemn
Proclamation of the Duke of Pendleton, Ruler in and over the
said' State of South Carolina ; Greeting," In which he — Mr.
Calhoun — announced his selection of " George McDuffle, my
Governor in and over said State," to succeed his former
appointment, Robert Y. Hayne, whose term was about to
expire. A bill to define treason, introduced in the Legislature,
provided in efi'ect, that any convention or conference of citizens
to " instigate " the establishment or protection of any form of
government in South Carolina, save that allowed by the Leg
islature, would be crime. The editor of the Moimtaineer
attacked the biU with an elaborate article exposing its re
striction upon the right of free speech as, for example, when
the Union men should desire to assemble to support the
United States.
Many memorials came to the Legislature from the Union
ists against the formal adoption of the amendment. These
were referred to the committee on Federal Relations. The
committee made a report which was called a compromise.
The committee declared the new oath '' implies no compulsory
conformity of opinion, but provides alone for fidelity of con
duct on the part of an officer of the State while he continues
In offlce." The editor of the Mmmtainevr discussed the "com
promise " at great length, " We received a report (he said)

68 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
from Columbia that an honorable compromise had been
entered into. Never were we more rejoiced. But the very
letter of the alleged compromise has reached us to fill us with
unfeigned mortification. * * We stand alone in our opinion
on this subject. We have received letters from leaders of our
party concerning the action of the Union party in the Legisla
ture. It is with mingled emotions of deference and regret
that we find ourself arrayed against those with whom we
have long acted. Their talents command our admiration,
their virtues our esteem. * * Having said this, we take
leave of the subject, and will in the future look upon the past
as a tale that is told." Mr. McDuffie delivered an inaugural
address upon assuming the gubernatorial office, declaring he
took the new oath well knowing it required his first allegiance
to South Carolina.
The Mountaineer replied caustically to the comments of the
Charleston^'JI/ercwry on the prosperous condition of the State,
following the triumph over General Jackson and the American
System. The great planters of the low-country might be
prosperous. It admitted, but to the north of a line drawn
through Edgefield and Camden the spirit of discontent was
hurrying thousands, with their tens of thousands of property,
to the Gulf States.
The political opinions of Mr. Yancey in his non-age, if
opinions he could be said to have matured, are only material
to a consideration of his later^career, in as far as they are
observed to indicate the character of his mind. " Where
liberty is there is my country," was the exclamation of his
most noteworthy speech of the campaign of 1834. An inborn
love of the heroic lead him to espouse the cause of General
Jackson. In all this early activity, as orator and editor, he
was frank, capable, ardent and brave, greatly attaching to
him the first men of the land. In May, 1835, perfect peace
having been restored to the State, he resigned the post of
editor of the Green-ville Mountaineer. Taking leave of the
patrons of the paper, he wrote in its columns, immediately
under the[pictorial_representation of the unfurled American
flag: " When each man, who thought with him, (the editor) be
gan to consider what he could do to preserve unclipt and

.4 YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 69
untainted the liberties of himself as well as of his fellow-citi
zens — when each man began to feel that the storm originated
by towering ambition and sustained by an undying, ungenerous
revenge, was about to burst in all its fury upon those who
dared to oppose it — when each began, too, to nerve himself
for the contest almost hopeless, but still with the grim deter
mination to abide the issue, be it for weal or woe — this
present editor of the Mountaineer was induced, contrary to
the dictates of private interests, to engage in his arduous and
almost thankless undertaking.
" The storm, fearful as it was, has blown over, and the "^
vessel of State, although yielding to the force of occasional
' puffs ' and 'cats'-paws,' has nobly borne up against the wind,
and now, thanks to an overruling Providence, and to the flrm
ness and gallantry of a little band of Unionists who remained
true to her in that hour of peril, she is sailing fairly, yet with
becoming caution before the breeze. All signs, however, of
the late tempest have not passed. Now and then the deep
grumblings of distant thunder break upon the ear. The
lulling wind becomes fitful and the sea is ruffled and rolls
in heavy ground swells. These, however, are only the signs
of the spent tempest — are only the sullen symptoms of a now
powerless but malignant force.
" During the hour of danger and proscription he remained
at his post, unflinchingly. In these more prosperous times,
when peace and quietude are again visiting scenes, to which
they have been long strangers, he may be permitted to retire
into those walks of peaceful and quiet life, far more congenial
to his feelings, and from which an imperious sense of duty
alone caused him to diverge. Other and pressing duties of a
private nature — duties due alike to kind friends as well as to
himself — call upon him to resign the editorship of the Green-
-ville Mountaineer into the hands from which he received it.
In none, he is confident, could it be more safely reposed.
" To those who have sympathetically cheered and aided
him in his duties — to those readers who have given to him
their candid and generous attention — he now bids adibu !
"To such as style themselves his enemies (and circum
stances have rendered them necessary appendages to an
honest character in this State) he wishes some more profitable

70 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
employment, some more enviable feelings and that consolation
which is to be reaped from such a circumstance. To such
also, he bids adieu ! But he still hopes that there are some
who were enemies of the editor he shall cordially meet with, in
private life, as friends of the man."
The egoism and lofty sense of duty : the pertinacity and
defiance of adversity which this newspaper article discloses as
marking the Intellectual character of Yancey, upon the verge
of his manhood, remained with him. His present voluntary
retirement from public Ufe was an indication, no less certain
than remarkable, of his distaste for it ; and thus early did the
peculiar force of his later public services take root in repug
nance to an official career.
Three days after arriving at his majority, August 13th,
1835, Mr. Yancey was married to Miss Sarah Caroline, fifth
daughter of George Washington Earle, Esq., a wealthy planter
of Greenville district. This gentleman seems to have de
scended from George Washington Earle and his wife Elizabeth
Robinson, the former from the vicinity of Alexandria, Virginia,
and the latter from E'redericksburg, the same State. The
Earles were a proud and handsome race, exercising decided
influence in the upper part of South CaroUna. Immediately
after his marriage Mr. Yancey settled with his wife upon a
farm. Inherited by her, where they owned about thirty-five
slaves. Of all pursuits of life, agriculture was his choice and
upon this he entered with ardor.
A view, however restricted, of the course of politics in the
United States, in the several years of Mr. Yancey's retirement
from an active part therein, will be useful to a correct under
standing of his conduct in the great events of the future.
Of the three political leaders of the times. Clay, Calhoun
and Adams, Adams came into the peace, established by the
"compromise," far in advance of the others. Whatever Clay had
lost, in the surrender of the American System, Adams gained
in the opportunity thus offered to denounce the surrender to
the manufacturers. Whatever Calhoun had gained in the
tacit recognition of the Constitutional rights of slavery, Adams
was ready to appropriate as the basis of his argument to the
wage workers of the manufactories against the alleged rivalry
of slaves with them in the benefits of the government.

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 71
On the evening of January 6th, 1832, nearly a year before
the nuUification convention met at Columbia, twelve men
emerged from the heart of Boston to walk into the darkness
of the suburbs together. Entering, together, a little dingy
negro school house, in secrecy and in confessed perU from the
mob, they organized the most autocratic voluntary association
of men known to history — The New England Anti-Slavery
Society. Willlam Lloyd Garrison drew up the constitution,
but so revolutionary were its provisions that, for the time
being, two of the twelve present refused to sign it. When it
was suggested that an expense be Incurred, it was found that
not one of the persons present was worth $100. Several were
preachers of the gospel. While the men walked together
toward the lights of the city. Garrison harrangued them elo
quently : " We have met (he said) under cover of darkness,
in an ignoble way. We will be mocked, insulted and perhaps
our Uves may be put in jeopardy. But FanueU Hall will yet
resound with our doctrine, and we shall shake the nations with
its proclamation." A month before this eventful meeting Mr.
Adams had taken his seat in the lower House of Congress, as
has been explained on a preceding page. He began at once a
systematic attack upon slavery. The New England Anti-
Slavery Society became his mouth piece. Auxiliary Societies
were founded with great rapidity. The Misses Grimke, two
maiden sisters, of Charleston, South Carolina, emancipated
their slaves and, hastening to Boston, became the first female
public lecturers known in America, in the cause of emancipa
tion. Encouraged by Mr. Adams, a ceaseless fiow of petitions
were presented through him to Congress to aboUsh slavery.
By this adroit de-vice the Society, In every part of the country,
received free advertising through the public printers and a
free circulation of their enterprise through the malls under
official frank. In less than three years from the meeting at
the negro school house on the outskirts of Boston, the Society
had opened a printing establishment at New York and the
mails were going out into the South laden with inflammatory
matter to be delivered to agents of the Society masquerading
in that section at numerous places as school teachers, teachers
of music, peddlers of seeds, orchard trees, laborers, etc. Wen
dell PhUlips, the rich young orator, had joined the workers

72 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Theodore Parker, the wonderfully gifted pulpit exhorter, was
attracting enormous Sunday audiences to hear slavery de
nounced and the Constitution derided as " a league with hell
and a covenant with the devil." The agents, under the urgency
of the Society, .were exerting their best endeavors to incite
Insurrections simultaneously in all the region from the Missis
sippi to the Potomac. Long petitions to abolish slavery, long
speeches In abuse of the South, continued to be published by
the government and scattered by the mails as a part of the
proceedings of the national Legislature.
Never has an American community been so united as were
the people of South Carolina under the lead of Mr. Calhoun,
after the year 1834, until his death, sixteen years later. There
was. Indeed, small room for factions or factionists In that State
under its peculiar organism. The people elected members to
the lower House of Congress, elected mllltla officers and
elected members of the Legislature. The Legislature chose
the Presidential electors, elected the Governor of the State, and
all the constabulary, including Sheriffs and Clerks of all courts,
elected the judiciary for life, from the highest Judge to the
Justice of the Peace, and the Tax Assessors and Collectors. The
lower House of the Legislature was composed of 124 members,
apportioned half to taxation and half to population, so that
it happened a member from the rich low-country represented
only a few dozen planters and a member from the populous up-
country represented thousands of small farmers. The Senate
was composed of one member from each district, except
Charleston, which bad two Senators. The center of public
thought was Mr. Calhoun. The Abolitionists continued to
employ Webster and Clay, under various pretexts, to promote
their ends. Calhoun proved a full match to both and the pride
of the State rejoiced in him. The universality of his accept
ance with his people is in nothing better proven than in the
alacrity of pubhc men, of the first standing, to advance him,
as the following incidents attest : In 1832, Hayne resigned his
seat in the Senate, where his prospects were most flattering, to
allow Calhoun, who had resigned the vice-Presidency, to suc
ceed to it. WUliain C. Preston, who proved to be one of the
most brilUant of American orators, early espoused the NuUi
flcation cause and was promoted to the Senate from the ranks.

A YOUNG EDITOR AND ORATOR. 73
of the people. He remained in sympathy with Mr. Calhoun
throughout the stormy time of the Van Buren Administration,
which was supposed to reflect the views of Jackson in retire
ment. When, however, the Presidential election of 1840
approached, Preston returned to his hereditary Whig poUtics.
Calhoun compelled him to resign.* When Calhoun's term as
Secretary of State, under Tyler, expired, in 1845, Daniel E.
Huger, in the midst of a term in the Senate, resigned that
Calhoun might be elected to take the seat. The retiring Sen
ators were in each example an honor to the American Congress.
I give one other example of the facility with which the
people of the slave States forgot the animosities of party
rivalry in the presence of great problems of statesmanship.
In six months after General Jackson retired from the Presi
dency, Governor Hayne, now President of the Louisville,
Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company, repaired to
Nashville to secure the consent of Tennessee to Its charter.
General Jackson heard of the visit and sent his Secretary, Mr.
Donelson, to wait upon Hayne and request him to visit the
" Hermitage " before he took his departure from the State.
The invitation was accepted, and the author of the procla
mation against nullification and the author of the reply spent
the day in social amenities. When the parting hour arrived,
no word had been spoken even in distant allusion to the recent
conflict of the President and the Governor. The latter, in the
act of proffering his hand in farewell, said : " General, it Is
more than probable we shall never meet again ; the past circum
stances that shook our friendship are by me forgotten." With
difficulty Jackson rose from his seat, grasped the hand of his
guest warmly, exclaiming : " I say in sincerity and pleasure.
Governor Hayne, that in the great record of your country,
which belongs to history, your name will stand conspicuous
among her sons as a jurist, un orator, a counsellor, a sagacious
and honest statesman. We stand now together as of old."
Mr. Yancey removed his famUy and his slaves to Alabama
the year after his marriage, spent the winters there in the
oversight of his cotton plantation, and returned with his
family to spend the summers near Greenville, for the sake of

* I have this expUnation from an intimate, personal friend of Senator Preston's-
who heard him in couversation make it.

74 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
liealth. It would be unnecessary to relate here, with particu
larity, a deplorable accident which befell him, save that, in the
heat of political conflict in after years, bitter speech was
made and much error was written of it. Early in September,
1838, he rode to the muster of a militia company, twelve miles
from Greenville, where, after the military exercises, it was
expected a debate would be held between General Waddy
Thompson and Judge Joseph N. Whitner, candidates for the
lower House of Congress. After the debate ended gentlemen,
in coteries, standing on the ground, discussed the prospects of
the candidates. Yancey's remark so displeased a youth of
seventeen, a nephew of General Thompson, and a cousin of
Mrs. Yancey, Ellas Earle, that he replied in a rude speech,
for which offence Yancey boxed his face. EUas returned
the single blow with one or more strokes of his riding
whip. Bystanders at once stopped the difficulty. EUas
became pacifled and Yancey then spoke to him kindly,
advising him to tell his uncle what had been said, adding : " I
•did not Intend to flght you, EUas, but only to chastise your
impudence; I would rather give you 'Salvador' (a favorite
saddle horse) than to have a personal difficulty with you."
Dr. Robinson M. Earle, father of Elias, and uncle of Mrs.
Yancey, several days after the occurrence, and after he had
assured Yancey that if his son had " acted with spirit " in the
affair he was content, attacked Yancey on the porch of a store
at Greenville with a section of the handle of a grain cradle as
a weapon. Yancey, at the outset, began to retreat, step by
step, still facing his antagonist and warning him repeatedly,
as if reluctant to defend himself by the use of the weapon he
carried. His hat had been knocked oft', his shirt bosom torn
open and he had been forced to the extreme edge of the porch,
some two or three feet above the ground. He then flred and
mortally wounded his antagonist in the left side. Dr. Earle
was six feet high, weighed two hundred pounds, and declared
on the spot, "had Yancey not flred I would have easily
whipped him." The case was put on trial at the term of the
Circuit Court at GreenvUle. The jury brought in a verdict
of manslaughter. During the seventeen consecutive hours
in which the trial progressed the prisoner retained perfect
repose, "neither elated when the evidence was in his favor

A YOUNG EDITOE AND OEATOE. 75
nor cast down when it appeared to go against him." The
universal testimony was, that Yancey had never before been
in any personal difflculty in Greenville; that he was uni
formly polite and quiet ; that he had a very high sense of
personal honor ; that he had not provoked the trouble with
Dr. Earle; that the knife and bludgeon that Earle carried,
^hen the attack was made, were in the hands of the deceased
threateningly presented when the shot was fired from Yancey's
pistol. October 26, following, the prisoner was brought before the
court, Josiah J. Evans presiding, for sentence. The Judge said
the crowded state of the house Indicated an unusual interest
in the duty before him and he would depart from his ordinary
rule of brevity in such cases to explain his mind. The pris
oner's deportment, he said, " since the affray on the muster
ground up to the moment of the difflculty with Dr. Earle, was
such as was to be expected from one in his station of life.
No one could believe that he had gone to that piazza with any
iiostUe feeling towards Dr. Earle, or that he had carried there
the pistol that was in his bosom for the purpose of shooting
the unfortunate deceased. The court could impute to him no
moral guilt. What happened there seemed to be entirely
accidental, and to be attributed to the angry and excited
•deportment of Dr. Earle."
The Judge explained, farther, that Mr. Yancey seemed to
have worn his pistol in Greenville because of habit, acquired
in carrying it while passing through the Indian country of the
West. " In consideration of this practice the Court had made
Tip its judgment." The sentence was $1,500 fine and twelve
months imprisonment in jail.
Governor Patrick Noble remitted two-thirds of the fine and
released the prisoner. Mr. Yancey then returned with his
family to Alabama.*
* My authority in the facts is the Greenville Mountaineer ol November 9, 1838,
^ving a full report of the trial and the sentence of the Court.

CHAPTER 2.

Active Forces and Decisive Events.
1840.

Mr. Yancey came to Alabama to make agriculture the fixed
avocation of his life. His estate in slaves was as great as
planters, just arrived at manhood, usually possessed. One
hundred bales of cotton was the anticipated yield from his
capital and cotton was worth fifteen cents the pound. He
was a good judge of Uve stock and entertained plans of wider
direction than the production of cotton, only, in the use of his
resources. " Twelve years of my life spent among New Eng
land farms were not thrown away," he said to a friend ; " come
and see what a Yankee I am around my cattle sheds." Hazlitt
speaks of the military turn as essential to the orator — a dis
position to overcome difficulties and an aptitude for details.
It is sufficient to say of Mr. Yancey as an agriculturist, that he
rose early, was singularly methodical in his management and
was scrupulous in meeting his debts.
Mr. and Mrs. Yancey arrived In Dallas county in the winter
of 1836-37 with their slaves. William E. Bird, his mother's
brother, was the county judge, and Jesse Beene, a lawyer and
member of the Legislature, who had married his mother's
sister, resided on his estate, " Oakland," on the Alabama river,
near Cahawba, the county seat. The time was unpropitious
for the purchase of land. Prices were extravagant and pru
dent men saw the wave of prosperity, known as " fiush times,"

ACTIVE FOECES AND DECISIVE EVENTS. 77
had attained its possible height and soon must break. Mr.
Yancey, accordingly, rented a plantation near " Oakland," and
took up his abode upon It with his family, accompanied by
Miss Earle, his wife's sister, who had come as her associate in
a fresh country.
Cahawba, on the west bank of the Alabama, the abandoned
capital of the State, was a village of a single hotel of long
front and two stories, where planters and their families found
shelter whUe awaiting an hour, a day or two days, a combined
freight and passenger steamer to proceed on their journey.
The remaining improvements were a court house, with lawyers'
offices under the same roof, three bar rooms and a postofflce
cut off from one end of a small store where weekly mails were
received. Every passing steamer, however, brought letters in
the pockets of passengers, and the offlcers left the latest news
papers. Cahawba, nevertheless, was rich in a certain com
merce, and important as a place where many wealthy and
refined ladies and gentlemen met. Dallas was the most pop
ulous of those twelve great wooded- prairie counties, stretching
in unbroken line from the Chattahoochee to beyond the Tom
Bigbee. The commerce of Alabama at this time was carried
only by plantation wagons and boats, save that in the valley
of the Tennessee one of the earliest of the railroads of Amer
ica had been built, around the Mussel Shoals forty miles long,
the cars drawn by mules. Hundreds of wagon loads of cotton
bales, each drawn by six great mules, over roads cut through
the towering cane, walling the impenetrable sides, came to Ca
hawba from twenty, thirty miles in the fall and winter harvest
time. Tens of thousands of dollars in plantation and family
supplies were loaded at the bluff, on the return trips of the
wagons, but little for the general trade. The humble village
bespoke environments unfavorajjle to the growth of towns.
There was no trafflc on its streets. The many teamsters
brought no cash in their pockets. The valuable products of
the plantations shipped thence, however equitably divided
with producers, were held subject to another rule of division
than the modern wage system. The cotton bales were con
signed to factors at Mobile or New Orleans ; the proceeds of
sales did not return as cash. At Selma, a small village, ten
mUes above on the river, was the Real Estate and Banking

78 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Company, which Issued its own currency in exchange for
planters' promissory notes. The planters, ha-ving shipped all
the cotton of the year, went with their wives and daughters to
Mobile or New Orleans to invest the proceeds in the factors'
hands. As the planter was only a planter, the factor was a
factor by right. Both classes were on the most amicable
terms with each other. The broker was not a factor, and he
would buy only from a factor. Factors and brokers were, for
the most part. Northern men. So it came about, that the
planter paid the factor two and one-half per cent commissions
for selling to the broker, while the broker received from the
distant manufacturer a fixed commission for his trouble. Both
commissions, of factor and broker, came from the gross sales,
besides numerous other charges, among them a sum amount
ing to half miUion a year called " lighterage," delivery of the
cotton to vessels in the lower bay which could not cross the
bar of the harbor. The planter, arrived in the city, made out
a memorandum of his estimated year's wants to be placed in
the factor's hands for purchase, and gave himself to the
pleasures of society. The factor was assumed to possess
certain personal prerequisites in perfecting trades which the
planter was far from envying. Attached to the bills of pur
chase of iron, jeans, hats, sugar, etc., was the factor's second
commission of two and one-half per cent to reward his tact.
If the planter overdrew his crop, the factor stood ready to
honor a draft at a third commission of two and one-half per
cent for " acceptance," interest added. A protested draft of
this character was unknown. To the extent of the surplus in
the factor's hands, or the credit with the factor, the planter
bought more land and sent for more slaves in the markets of
Richmond and Washington city. To the extent of his surplus
capital, the factor bought lands and slaves and employed over
seers to manage his plantations, thus recommending himself
to the society of planters as he could In no other way recom
mend himself. Nothing was so dear to this people as the
Constitution and their social customs.
A rare and noble society was planted in the Canebrake
region, tributary to Cahawba, in the early time. In low capa
cious houses, built of squared cedar logs, the walls papered,
the floors carpeted, the wide hearth of native gray lime stone.

ACTIVE FORCES AND DECISIVE EVENTS. 79
amplest flower beds on every side, lived graduates of Yale, of
the University of Virginia, of the South Carolina college, and
their wives and daughters " polished as the pillars of the
temple." In all America, in town or country, no people sat
down daily to more bounteous dinners, served by better serv
ants, on richer mahogany ; no people wore more fashionable
clothes, rode better groomed horses of purer blood, wrote a
purer vernacular, or spoke it in gentler tones. Nor were they
a people without positive amusements, social surprises and
excitements. As with the slave-holding Athenians, they read
not many books. Oratory and conversation supplied the
wholesome friction of minds. Attendance upon political
debates, where no orator dared to deceive ; where the best
orators alone were tolerated; attendance upon the semi-annual
sessions of courts of law and equity, the audience sitting for
hours to hear advocates unfold evidence, and counsellors elab
orate the principles of organized justice, were educational
pleasures not inferior to the teachings from the porches of
Athens. • At Cahawba a government land sale was in progress
on election day. Dixon H. Lewis was the candidate for Con
gress of the Democrats, and John Murphy of the Whigs. The
government was selling the lands of the ejected red men.
Indian removal was Jackson's policy, and all of Jackson's
policies had both partisan friends and partisan foes. Excite
ment ran high. When Lewis opened the debate it was
believed the votes were going against him. He spoke with
vehemence. It was an August day, and the speaker's weight
was not less than four hundred pounds ; two countrymen
advanced, and taking position on either side, fanned him with
their broad brim hats. A young lawyer, lately elected to the
Legislature, and not long out from Boston, Henry Goldthwaite,
replied. Ezekiel Pickens and Dr Hogan joined in the dis
cussion. Lewis returned to the stand, and now discussed a
bill in Congress to repeal an act making it imperative in State
courts to send to the Federal Supreme Court cases involving
the constitutionality of federal legislation, taking the Southern
or State Rights view. Goldthwaite rejoined with much earn
estness, and, in the midst of his argument. Colonel Goldsby
arose to propose that the speaker be called down. New
England politics not being needed in Alabama. Deer, foxes

80 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
and wild cats were chased by parties of hunters, who kept
hounds of Irish and English blood. In the contiguous coun
ties of DaUas, Greene, Lowndes and JVIontgomery, race courses
were maintained, and from the plantations of the Goldsbys,
Hunters and Spragues, the Witherses and Tayloes, descendants
of Diomede and Glencoe, of Margrave and Chateau Margaux
came for pubUc trials ere setting out for entrance at MobUe,
New Orleans and Charleston, where they were sure to win
laurels. Nobody was in a hurry. In all the land food, rai
ment and cover overhead were secure to every loul alive. The
repose of society arose from its security, and not from leth
argy. But of all social pleasures, that of exchange of visits,
irregular, and unannounced in advance, between families, to
continue for a day or a week, spent with music, riding and
dancing, was most important. Never was there a higher
school for personal conscience and truthfulness than in this
universal habit of the people. A more arid abode for selflsh-
ness or " ism " could not be found. A common standard of
good breeding could alone qualify the individual, man or
woman, to make a friend's house his or her home for a time
limited only by the individual's capacity to entertain and be
entertained. There were other incentives, also, to the peculiar
individuality of the people. Each home was complete within
itself. A co-partnership in cotton planting was exceedingly
rare, each planter operating on his own account a business de
pendent on his own energy and tact, and skies overhead. Of
all people of enterprise and wealth, these were the most
sincere, the most faithful to their business obligations, and
least tempted to be untrue. They had nothing for barter
among themselves. A wagon load of cotton bales, bound for
a distant market, was the only contribution to the market,
except two loads or more. He who sold beef or butter sprung
a suspicion of economy incompatible with that hospitality
which would not count the cost, and thus impeached commu
nity rights. So it came about that politics became a subject of
personal belief. There was neither barter nor trade involved in
political opinion. To belittle a gentleman's politics was a direct
impeachment of his intellect, or an aspersion cast upon his
honor. So came about the resort to the duello, with its known
technicalities, its deliberate averments, protestations and delays

jJao :.i- 1, .Dar'i

Erse fa v-ff/ i/if JSarta : i

ty

OF JjIIiOPOLJS.ALABA M-.

ACTIVE FORCES AND DECISIVE EVENTS. 81
interposing between the offence charged and the satisfac
tion to wounded honor demanded. Senator Willlam R. King,
a planter of Dallas, distinguished for the dignity and kindliness
of his manners, being insulted by a citizen on the streets of
Cahawba, drew the sword from his cane, presented it to the
breast of the offender, and, in contempt, returned the weapon
to its sheath. He refused a call to the field of honor on the
plea of the challenger's personal unworthiness. The second
who bore the challenge, as the code required, revived the call
in his own name, but the vicarious antagonist, thinking better,
declared there was nothing to battle for against so chivalrous
a gentleman. In the community of great plantations ultimately reposed
the determining infiuence of Alabama poUtics. A very high
moral 'as well as sentimental tone prevailed. There was no
heart for revolution. National institutions have never been
estabUshed in finer social sentiments than prevailed In this
community. "Flush times " enveloped the Southwest. No State was
so rapidly populated by a wealthy immigration as Alabama.
The roads leading out from Georgia were fiUed by white top
wagons, followed by marching scores of black men, women
and chUdren. At the head of the procession rode Virginian
or Carolinian, leading his inheritance of two centuries to fresh
fields of the most important of modern industries. The State
became quickly a land of homes. In the prairie belt lands, in
the cane and forest, commanded thirty-five dollars the acre,
to which must be added flfteen dollars the acre cost in labor
of clearing the undergrowth. In the other of the two sections,
most sought by slave master immigrants, the Valley of the
Tennessee, the Indians had long kept the undergrowth down
by spring burning. There it was supposed cotton flourished
best, and lands in the wood commanded one hundred dollars
an acre at public sales at HuntsvUle. Exposing a beautiful
landscape, a generous soil, from which countless springs of
pure water gushed, the wild deer's hoof dyed with the juice
of the wUd strawberry growing on every knoll, this valley was
the most attractive situation of the whole Southwest.
But in 1887, soon after the arrival of Kt. and Mrs. Yancey
in Alabama, the Bank of the United States faded, prostrating

82 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
industry everywhere. He added to the duties of conducting
his plantation the editorial charge of two weekly newspapers,
the Cahawba Democrat and the Southern Democrat, both pub
Ushed at Cahawba. Benjamin Cudworth Yancey was now
Register in Chancery for a division of rich counties, with his
offlce at Cahawba. In the spring of 1839 the brothers bought
the Wetumpka Commercial Advertiser and the Argus and
consolidated them. The junior of the firm took control. We
tumpka was a promising town of three thousand inhabitants,
sitting on either side of the Coosa, at the head of navigation
from MobUe. Already the chosen site of the penitentiary, the
town had strong claims to the choice of the Legislature and
the people, as the Capital of the State.
The weekly newspaper half century ago In the Southwest
partook of the character of the present magazine. Its literature
reflected the earnestness and culture of its patrons. The cir
culation of the Argus soon extended, under its new manage
ment, to the interior of the States of Georgia and Mississippi
along the line of stage travel from Savannah to Jackson, and It
was among the leading papers of Its class In the plantation
region of Alabama. The subscription price was $4 per annum
in advance, or $5 if payment should be delayed ninety days-
Charles Yancey, a writer of much merit, a Whig, a Virginian
and doubtless a blood relative of the proprietors of the Argiis,.
put up a rival paper, the Times, in West Wetumpka. An
agreement was made between the publishers that both papers-
should print at one charge to advertisers all business notices
offered to either. But Whigs and Democrats revolted. Indi
viduals of neither party would tolerate the appearance, in an
opposing journal, of their business patronage. Thereupon the
Argus, of East Wetumpka, purchased the Times, of West
Wetumpka. E. White and William Hager, citizens of Wetumpka, adver
tised in the Argus to the printers of the United States their
invention of " a machine for casting type," the first known,
which they alleged would be sure to drive out " the English
unhealthy plan, by hand, on account of its superiority."
A declaration of principles accompanied the announcement,
that the Argus had purchased a new press and outfit. "It
is a lamentable reflection (wrote the editor) that political

ACTIVE FORCES AND DECISIVE EVENTS. 83
controversies of the present day are conducted with Intemper
ance unsuited to conflicts of reason. * * Our columns shall
be devoted to carrying the fundamental principles of Public
Education into every cottage of the State."
W. L. Yancey, in order to avoid the expense of regular
summer -visits to GreenvUle, S. C, with his family, seeking to
escape the malaria of fresh cleared forests about Cahawba,
bought a tract of land, perhaps one hundred acres, at Harrow-
gate Spring, near Wetumpka, in Coosa county. While resid
ing there in the summer of 1 839 an accident occurred which
proved the turning point in his career. Until now the life of
an agriculturist and political leader, very consistent with each
other in Alabama, when the individual, as in Mr. Yancey's
case, had small ambition to hold offlce, opened before him.
He studied the science of government as a philosopher. The
Coosa couni y farm was to be his retreat, where green meadows
and fine live stock were to be sources of profit, as well as a
perennial delight. While in his summer home, for the first
season, he was summoned to repair with all haste to his cotton
plantation in Dallas county. A general poisoning of his slaves
had been perpetrated. A vulgar feud, unknown to him,
existed between his overseer and the overseer of a neighbor.
Poison was deposited in a hillside spring from which Yan
cey's overseer habitually drank on his way from the fields.
By chance the intended victim went, on the fatal day, another
way, and, by chance, the slaves, passing by, paused to slake
their thirst, unsuspicious of the deadly draught. Instantly
all were prostrated in agony. The most skUled physicians
were called. The master remained at the bed sides of the
affUcted. A large proportion of the number died ; the re
mainder were disabled for labor for many months. The conva
lescents were sent to the Harrowgate Spring farm to be nursed.
The crops of the year were necessarUy abandoned ; there was
no wage labor avaUable. All was lost ; in the year following
the great trouble at Greenville the master's fortune was swept
away. His family and invalid slaves were to be supported
entirely on his labor. He lost not a moment of time. In
February, 1840, he removed his family to Wetumpka and as
sumed personal control of the Argus, pushing the business in
every direction. He took down his law books, unopened for

84 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
six years, and few students studied so diligently as he. As fast
as his stricken slaves recovered their accustomed strength he
found good masters for them, either selling or hiring them out.
In the columns of the Argus he off'ered a thoroughbred mare
and colt, with certified pedigree, an extra fine harness horse,
and some parlor furniture for sale. Five thousand dollars
was due to him on account of the Cahawba Democrat circula
tion and the Argus bushiess. This he took steps to collect.
His friends urged him to take the benefit of the lately enacted
bankrupt law. He refused. Judge Crawford conferred on
him the office of Commissioner In Bankruptcy, which he ac
cepted, proceeded with his law studies and the winding up of
his agricultural affairs, paying his debts, dollar for doUar.
Such was the outlook with Mr. Yancey when the public
voice called him into the memorable national campaign of
1840. Party organization began at an unusually early date.
It was in November, 1839, that the Abolitionists met at War
saw, New York, to lay down their ultimatum to the Northern
Whigs. They demanded from the Whigs an avowed oppo
nent of slavery, a man openly in favor of emancipation, as
a candidate for the Presidency. As a pledge of their sincer
ity of demand they went through the formality of nomina
ting, themselves, for the office, one James G. Birney, a native
of Kentucky and once a lawyer residing at Huntsville,
Alabama, notorious In his advocacy of Mr. Clay's scheme
of African deportation, and his escape from Southern mobs.
Mr. Adams' genius for arriving at political results revealed
itself In the tactics of his party. The Northern Whigs
responded with alacrity, betraying their anxiety over the
threats of the Abolitionists. Thus time and place were
fixed for the Whig National Convention in apprehension
of the new political factor. In December, 1839, the conven
tion met, and met as far to the West as was deemed expe
dient, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and amidst extraordinary
excitement in all parts of the Union. The Umit of time, ten
years, aUowed by Mr. Clay's "compromise" of 1833, for the
extinction of his American System and the restoration of a
tariff for revenue only, had been almost reached. The State
of Pennsylvania had been "the strongest of the Democratic
pillars." Its ocean commerce had been reflected in its local

ACTIVE FORCES AND DECISIVE EVENTS. 85
poUtics and, therefore, it had been opposed to Mr. Clay and his
American System. In 1839 the Governor, Ritner, was a pro
nounced Abolitionist, however, " a disgrace to the people," as
Mr. James Buchanan, the leading Democrat, openly declared
Two causes operated to bring the Whig National Convention
to meet at the capital of Pennsylvania, and both came of
Northern influence. It was desired to bring to Ritner all the
moral support against Buchanan which the selection of the
place could be expected to oft'er, and it was desired to assist, to
the same extent, the rising mining and manufacturing indus
tries, of which Pittsburg was the commercial emporium, to
enable them to contest with the commercial Interests of Phil
adelphia for the political control of the State. Mr. Clay had
journeyed slowly toward Canada, making speeches in Penn
sylvania. He greatly desired the nomination for President.
He -wished to lead in a campaign before the people to restore
his American System ; he wanted a national bank and nat
ional revenues to pay off all State debts — a paternal gov
ernment. Reverdy Johnson demanded a nomination by a
majority of delegates present. Clay, Harrison and Scott were
the candidates. Clay, already known to control a plurality of
the individual delegates, was expected to be able to gain a large
majority so soon as Scott could be dropped after the flrst few
ballots. After much discussion it was decided that a com
mittee of three from each State should, by a majority vote of
the committee, recommend the nominee. The vote In this
committee stood, Harrison 148 electoral votes. Clay 90, Scott
16. The vote, as between Harrison and Clay, was entirely
sectional. Harrison's votes were from the free States and
none from the slave States. Clay received no votes from the
free States, except Rhode Island. New Jersey and Connec
ticut voted for Scott. The free States, on the issue of slavery,
thus nominated the candidate. Mr. Adams triumphed over
Mr. Clay.* The New York Emancipator, the paper of Gerrit
Smith, reviewing the result, said : " Well, the agony is over
and Henry Clay is laid upon the shelf ; and no man with
ordinary intelligence can doubt or deny that it is the anti-
slavery feeling of the North which has done It, In connec
tion with his own ostentatious and infamous pro-slavery
•Account of Baltimore Post.

86 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
demonstatlons In Congress. Praise be to God for an anti-
slavery victory ! A man of high talents, of great distinction,
of boundless personal popularity, has been openly rejected for
the Presidency of this great Republic on account of his devo
tion to slavery ! Set up a monument of progress there ! Let
the glad winds tell the tale. Let foreign nations read it. Let
McConnell hear it. Let the slaves know that a slave-holder is
incapacitated for President of the United States. The reign
of slavery is hastening to a close ! The rejection of Henry
Clay, taken in connection with the circumstances, is one of
the heaviest blows the monster slavery has ever received in
this country." The Boston Liberator, edited by the founder
of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, William Lloyd
Garrison, hearing the news, declared : " In the Harrisburg
convention all the slave States went for Clay. Had it not
been for Abolitionism, Henry Clay would undoubtedly be the
Whig candidate for the Presidency."
The Southern Whigs were extremely disappointed at the
defeat of Mr. Clay. They were far from sympathy with the
revolutionary signs, of whose presence the Northern Whigs
boasted. They heartily believed Mr. Clay's promotion to the
Presidency would result in the increased safety of the Union,
without disturbing the rights of the South. ITnder a feeling
of chagrin, as well as apprehension of the eff'ect of his defeat
in the South, they brought forward a State Rights advocate
of the most advanced views — he, who in the Senate, had
denounced the Force BUI and the President's Proclamation —
Mr. John Tyler, of Virginia, a slave master, for vice-President.
A young orator from Alabama, Mr. Henry W. Hilliard, placed
Mr. Tyler in nomination. The Whig ticket thus stood, Harri
son and Tyler. The campaign immediately opened, the most
bitter In American politics, in which the argument of the
sections was most fairly stated and in whose ultimate issue
there was destined to be no substantial reform achieved in
future years.
May 5, 1840, the National Democratic Convention met at
Baltimore. Long before that day Gen. Jackson had authorized
statements to be made in his name, in newspapers at Wash
ington and at Richmond, qualifying, even contradicting, the
centralization declarations "of his famous Proclamation against

ACTIVE FORCES AND DECISIVE EVENTS. 87
South Carolina. In the farewell address, he said: "There
have always been those among us who wished to enlarge the
powers of the general government. * * Experience would
indicate there is a tendency on the part of the government to
overstep the bounds marked out for it by the Constitution.
From the extent of the territory, its dift'erent interests, dif
ferent pursuits and different habits of the people. It is too
obvious for argument, that a single consolidated government
would be wholly inadequate to watch over and protect its
interests." LTpon the general principle announced by the
famous President, of four years before, the convention adopted
a platform and nominated Mr. Van Buren to succeed himself.
It failed to nominate a vice-Presidential candidate, but by
resolution invited the States to agree, informally, upon one.
Its resolutions denounced the Abolitionists as endangering
" the stability and permanence of the Union."
The Harrison men were known by their own nomenclature,
chosen by themselves, as "log-cabin-hard-cider,-coon-skln-
men," — a high demagogueism. The Democrats were styled,
by their enemies, " loco-focos," in derision of their alleged
explosive temper.
There was no room for doubt in the attitude of parties
towards slavery. Neither the deportation scheme of Mr. Clay
or the emancipation project of Mr. Adams could be executed,
save in the decadence of the federal, or State Rights, theory of
the government and the corresponding growth of the theory
of nationalism. The more practical mind of Mr. Adams per
ceived that Mr. Clay's plan was visionary. Mr. Clay sought
to obtain the assent of slave masters and slave States to a
plan of final settlement of the slavery question and the race
problem by the deportation of the negroes and, in this settle
ment, to establish conditions of unity of the empire. Mr.
Adams pursued a far more vigorous way. He invited more
petitions to Congress for t'ne immediate abolition of slavery,
more numerously signed, in language more insulting to the
Southern members, from which incentive fresh and angry
debate would fiow to be laid by the morning newspapers as
public news at the breakfast plates of the merchants of the
Eastern cities who spurned with contumely the Liberator and
the Vindicator. Thus Mr. Adams sought to accomplish the

88 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
unity of the empire. Slavery, with a time to live and a time
to perish, as the history of the institution had been in aU ages,
asked for nothing, save the fulfillment of the terms of the
Constitution, In the pledges of which it had been incorporated
into the federal system. But the public mind in the slave
States was an immovable obstruction to the theory of central
ization, towards which the public mind in the free States
moved rapidly. In the natural order of things, the several
slave States, by means of the Investment of the profit of
agriculture in various Industries where free labor was cheaper
than slave, would, in all probability, have, one by one, aban
doned slavery as a worn out economy. The Constitution left
that right open to them, but the policies of the parties, lead by
Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams, virtually forbid its exercise.
To force the South to battle for slavery was the issue pre
sented by the North in its nomination of General WiUiam
Henry Harrison, in 1840. The restoration of the American
System and the revival of the bank of the United States were
correlated propositions contended for. In all the States, in
every county and every town of all the States, the campaign
proceeded with the aid of the best orators and the best writers
in lines of extreme vigor and unbridled virulence. Personal
abuse was an inevitable ingredient of the highest argument,
everywhere. Southern Whigs were taunted with the revolu
tionary character of their Northern allies, whUe Northern
Democrats were paralyzed with the proof that their allies in
the South were firm defenders of slavery and State rights.
It was the first joined confiict of the forces of centraUzation
with the forces of federalism, the former resident in the free
States and the latter in the slave States. The Southern Whigs
resolved to be blind and the Northern Whigs rejoiced In their
blindness. So. soon as the nomination of Van Buren was proclaimed.
Senators King and Clay, of Alabama, and Representatives
Dixon H. Lewis, Reuben Chapraan and David Hubbard pre
pared at Washington an " Address to the People of Alabama.'^
Among other impassioned utterances, the address announced :
" The Democratic State Convention of Ohio, and most of
the Democratic Legislatures of the free States, have openly
denounced Abolitionism. We challenge our opponents to show

ACTIVE FORCES AND DECISIVE E]'EyTS. S9>
when a Whig convention, a Whig Legislature, or any other
Whig association, in a non slaveholding State, has uttered one
sentiment of disapprobation of the Abolitionists and their
incendiary schemes. * * In short, we believe the election
of General Harrison would be the triumph of Northern fed
eralism (meaning nationalism) bankism and abolitionism ; that
it would bring into power a party whose ascendency would be
fatal to the rights and institutions of the South ; that it would
be followed by a strong federal (national) government, a high
protective tariff', a mammoth federal (national) bank, and by
aU the concomitants of federal (national) usurpation which
must be subversive of the rights of the States and the liber
ties of the people." The language of the address v^as not
comparatively extravagant ; its line of attack was the ordinary
line followed by all Democratic orators and newspapers. The
entire membership ot Southern Democrats in Congress took
up the work of enlightening their constituents, in a single
address. " Is there an honest man in the South (they asked)
who wUl not resist an unconstitutional proscription of the
Abolitionists, backed by the Whigs, who declare that to be
a slaveholder is to be disqualified for the Presidency ? Is there
one among us who, by bowing his neck and giving his support
to the Harrisburg nomination, will degrade his State, degrade
the statesmen whom he delights to honor, degrade himself and
make the Southern States and Southern statesmen not the
equals the Constitution makes them, but the provinces, infe
riors and vassals of the Northern States and Northern men?
Who is there among us, that with the hope of receiving minor
offices at the hands of Abolition Presidents, wUl meanly
sacrifice the dignity and honor, as well as the rights, and
interests and safety of his State and its people '? "
The Republican -Democrats and the Federal- Whigs, as-
parties were known by their platforms, promptly organized,
in Alabama, for the canvass. A Democratic State Conven
tion was caUed, and the Whigs followed quickly with a.
similar call. The Democratic convention assembled at Tus-
kaloosa, the capital, and it was given out that no name
should be offered for elector except a man, personally above
reproach, pledged to canvass his allotted territory in person.
The electoral ticket for Van Buren, with W. R. King for

-90 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
vice-President, was made up with the following names : B.
M. Lowe, of Madison, and John P. Frazier, of Jackson, for
the State at large; for the Districts, Benjamin Reynolds, of
FrankUn, Benj. Fitzpatrick, of Autauga, Mathew F. Rainey,
of Greene, John Murphy, of Clarke, and W. B. Hallett, of
Mobile. The Whigs followed with their best men, and they
were a full match in ability and experience on the stump to
the Democrats : For the State at large, A. F. Hopkins, of
Madison, and Nlch Da-vis, of Limestone ; for the Districts,
Thomas Williams, Jr., of Tuskaloosa, Henry W. Hilliard, of
Montgomery, H. I. Thornton, of Greene, and John Gayle, of
Mobile. Among the incidents marking the progress of the
campaign was a Democratic out door meeting, called at Mobile,
to rejoice over some election news from New York, and pre
sided over by Mr. W. B. Hallett, which was dispersed by the
police under orders of a Whig Mayor, and the chairman put
under arrest. Dixon H. Lewis, pursuing his customary habit
of franking documents from Washington, alike to Whigs and
Democrats, found many of the documents he had sent to
Whigs of his District, returned, unopened, upon which he was
required to pay return postage. A personal misunderstanding
arose in joint debate between Mr. Fitzpatrick, of the Demo
cratic ticket, and Mr. Hilliard, of the Whig ticket, which
required the Intervention of friends' to quiet without a
"meeting." In the Senate, Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, so offended
Mr. King, of Alabama, by a slur upon the Democrats, that
Mr. King promptly sent a challenge to Mr. Clay to the fleld of
honor. The day following, Mr. Clay apologized in open
Senate. Mr. Yancey reached the age of twenty-six when the cam
paign of 1 840 was at its height. He was the senior editor of
the Wetumpka Arg-us, published weekly, on Wednesday, and
of a campaign paper, the Southern Crisis, published weekly,
from the same office, on Friday. It is not known that he had
¦delivered a speech in public since he spoke at Greenville,
South Carolina, six years before.
At the age of twenty-six years Demosthenes, Cicero, Pat
rick Henry, and John Randolph, first attained to fame. " I
heard Mr. Yancey first in 1840 (wrote Chief Justice Stone, of
Aiiabama, fifty years later), I thought then, and I yet think he

ACTIVE FORCES AND DECISIVE EVENTS. 91
was the greatest orator I ever heard." To the people whom
Yancey addressed, in the campaign of 1840, the equities of
government and the sacredness of the public faith were the
tests of patriotism. The resolving and combining processes
of the public mind might go on in the homes of the people,
but the debate on the stump was the soul of the party. In
Alabama there was no lack of leisure to attend debates. Time
so given was not reluctantly snatched from the rushing tide
of commerce. The tasks of the happy blacks in the fields
were uninterrupted when the master and his white overseer
Avent to hear the speeches. The unlocked barns were of the
harmonies of the estate. July 24, there was a barbecue and
joint discussion at Jackson's Grove, Coosa county ; the day
following there was a barbecue and joint discussion at Scog-
gins, Autauga county. Yancey spoke at both places. A few
days later the Democratic State Rights Club, of Wetumpka
and the Tippecanoe Club, of the same place, appointed orators
to debate at Nixburg, Coosa county. Yancey and Harris
represented the former, but the latter imported its speakers
from Montgomery. Yancey wrote many of the resolutions
passed by the meetings, he addressed. The Democrats of
Wetumpka sent a delegation to the "Montgomery County
Dinner." Among the volunteer toasts was one off'ered by Dr.
J. H. Taylor : " W. L. and B. C. Yancey ; The talented Demo
cratic sons of a talented Democratic sire — truly a noble pair-
of brothers." A barbecue was next announced at Drake's
Cross-roads, Autauga county, where Yancey and HilUard
would debate. From far and near the people sent fat mutton,
beef, pork, poultry, to the barbecue pits. They came on horse
back and in carriages, with their wives and daughters, even a
day's journey. The postprandial ceremonies dissipated the
asperities of the oratory ; there was a string band to respond
to the toasts; there were songs, foot races, leaping and
horse races. There were no stenographers, and seldom were
sketches of the debates printed, but there was a wide oral
pubUcation of the points made, and of the orators who best
acquitted themselves. As the people turned their faces home
ward, they talked politics, and to those living on the high
way, who had been absent, they reviewed the events and
sentiments of the day. " We are for temperance, moderation.

92 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
and the Constitution, and not for a log-cabin, a coon-skin,.
and a gourd," said the Van Buren men. To this, the Harrison
men replied that, the White House had been supplied with
gold spoons, at the public cost, by the President the Democrats
proposed to re-elect.
The Whigs had held a protracted meeting at Macon,
Georgia. Accounts of the great concourse and reports of
their proceedings, "together with the stories of the strange
banners they bore and their cry of change, change, change!
which had been heard, in connection with these unaccountable
insignia, had awakened amidst the hard-handed, bread-making
Van Buren men, a sense of the danger threatening the insti
tutions, under which the people of this happy land have
flourished for more than half a century." It was, therefore,
determined to hold a Van Buren barbecue of a week's duration
at Indian Springs, to which " the whole people of all Georgia "
should be invited. It was announced from Milledge ville, the
capital, as early as July 4, that the Indian Springs barbecue
nad been determined on, and that it would be opened Monday,
September 2. For several days in advance of the time
named the village was full of visitors. Every house over
flowed. By Saturday long wagon trains, loaded with commis
sary supplies and tents, began to arrive from distant counties.
Yancey, S. W. Harris, and Stelner, invited orators from Ala
bama, appeared. Cuthbert, Lumpkin, Seaborn Jones, Mark
A. Cooper, Walter T. Colquitt, Lamar, Campbell, O'Kelf and
scores of others of great local fame, from Georgia, were on
hand. By Wednesday the multitude had grown so great the
eye could not measure its expanse. The hills were covered
with tents, the roads crowded with horses and vehicles, the
vaUeys resounded with music and eloquence. " All were flUed
with one feeling, victory was on every tongue." Tellers were
posted to count the people, but at the number of six thousand
they ceased their task In despair, for not half had been
enumerated. Ten thousand pounds of meats were served at
every meal. Major Darden was chief Marshal, and, under his
direction, with every flve hundred ladies at one set of dinner
tables a few Revolutionary soldiers were intermingled. There
was oratory night and day. " Messrs. Stelner and Harris, of
Alabama, held forth and fairly lit up the flame of intellectual

AC'TIX^E FOECES AND DECISIVE EVENTS. ()H
development which formed the business and pleasure of the
meeting. In the evening, Mr. Yancey, of the same State,
delivered a very able and eloquent address to a vast concourse
of hearers. Two of these gentlemen, Messrs. Harris and
Yancey, are native Georgians. They were thrice welcome.
Georgia has reason to be proud of such sons. They are yet
very young, but show to best advantage the talents and spirit
of the South."*
The Alabama Legislature Assembled November 2, while
the great national contest was yet undecided. It was to
ward midnight of the 17th that the four-horse stage coach
bearing the mail from the North rolled up to the tavern.
The news was soon dispersed through the town : " Harri
son Is elected ! " There was no more rest for the night.
Glasses clicked around Whig sideboards ; bunting was made
ready to be run up from Whig house tops at the earUest ray
of dawn. A cannon was planted on the Warrior, near the
capltol, and at break of day it belched forth honor to the
W^hig -victory. Grum and silent, the Democrats resumed their
seats in the Legislature. In the Senate, Mr. Phillips, Whig, of
Dallas, moved that the Whig members of the General Assemblj-
be aUowed to illuminate the capltol that night at their own
expense. The resolution was read from the Secretary's desk.
Mr. Hall, from Autauga and Coosa, asked to be Informed
what event it was proposed to honor by a private illumina
tion of the Capitol. A Democrat said he knew of no occasion,
of recent occurrence, calling for an illumination of the capltol
and the resolution had named none. Mr. King said it was
to celebrate the election of General William Henry Harrison
to the Presidency of the United States. Mr. Felix G. Mc
Connell said if permission should be granted on the resolution,
the next step would be to place a watch over the illuminators."
They had deceived the people already. It was promised that
the expense should fall on those who undertook the work.
He would have it understood In advance that they should be
required to pay their bills in gold and silver, and not in fraud
ulent bank paper. He would demand that the bonfires be
made of shin-plasters, log cabins, hard cider, coon skins and
such other evidences of Whiggery as were abroad in the land.
* MlUedge ville Federal Union.

94 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
A Whig replied, that time after time the Governor of Ala
bama had illuminated the capltol at the public cost to cele
brate the election of a President. Mr. Terry objected to the
resolution. The people of Alabama had nothing now to re
joice in, as had been their good fortune in all previous
elections of Presidents. He had been disturbed by unusual
noises on the street all the morning, and had been jostled on
his way to his seat by excited crowds. He hoped quiet would
be restored without farther mortifying scenes at the capital
of the State. Mr. McConnell moved to lay the resolution on
the table, and this was carried 19 to 10. After the lapse of
an hour Mr. Reese, of Chambers, moved to take up Mr. Phil
lips resolution and this was voted down, 21 to 8, and the
Senate adjourned.
There was something of revenge left to the Democrats of
Alabama, at least. Van Buren had carried the State. Harri
son had carried Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connec
ticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana
and Michigan, of the free States; of the slave States, Dela
ware, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Louis
iana, Tennessee and Kentucky. Harrison received 234 electoral
votes to 60 for Van Buren. Harrison received 1,275,017 popu
lar votes. Van Buren 1,128,702, and Birney 7,059 with no
electoral vote.
The vote for the Whig candidate received no little strength
from a division of the Democrats on the monetary and finan
cial measures of Mr. Van Buren's administration, which it had
inherited from the bold action of General Jackson when in the
Presidency. The faUure of the Bank of the United States, in
Van Buren's term, was attributed by thousands of citizens, of
the Democratic party, to the refusal of President Jackson to
¦execute the law creating that institution as a depository of
government monies. The friends of Jackson urged, that he-,
having discovered the fiagrant corruption of the bank, only
changed the place of deposit of government monies on the eve
of its utter prostration. Mr. Calhoun took the side of the
Whigs in their issue with the President, on what was called
the " removal " of the deposits, and this conduct of his, to
gether with his open enmity to Van Buren, of long standing.

ACTIVE FORCES AND DECISIVE EVENTS. 9.5.
was supposed to have contributed to General Harrison'^
sweeping victory.
The Democratic Governor, Arthur P. Bagby, lead the Dem
ocratic Legislature to avenge itself on the Whig national
¦victory. Two of the Congress Districts were Whig as has
been explained. In order that the Democratic party in
Congress might be increased two members from Alabama the
Governor recommended that the Districts be abolished and
the delegation to the Lower House be chosen on a general
ticket. He said : " The general ticket is believed to be not
only defensible on principle, but perfectly equitable in practice.
It gives a majority of the whole people of the State, at all
times, whatever may be their political opinions, the entire,
undivided weight- of the whole representation In Congress.
Whereas the District system not only tends to engender an
attachment to local or sectional interests, at the expense of the
whole, and, sometimes, to nurture a factious spirit, but to
weaken the force of the State representation, and sometimes
to paralyze it altogether in the national Legislature." Six
States of the LTnion, under different pretexts, chose their Rep
resentatives on the general ticket plan, at this date. The
Senate referred the radical advice of the Governor to a select
committee, composed of one-third of its membership, which
reported favorably. All the Democrats of the body, save Mr.
McVay, of Wilcox, supported the report. Late in December
the Senate bill, to make safe against " factious temper " in the
politics of Alabama, came up in the House. The Whigs had
a strong minority in that branch, trained parliamentarians of
abUity and courage. They foresaw defeat, but they entered
the contest with unrelaxed determination to speak for their
rights. When called they voted, or refrained to vote, by con
cert among themselves. The sergeant-at-arms was dispatched
to bring into the hall two Whigs, reported abed at their hotel,
ill, for they were needed to make a quorum in the pre
arranged absence of other Whigs. At another stage of the
proceedings, all the Whigs rose in a body and retired from the
hall. Mr. James E. Saunders, of Lawrence, now addressed the
House. He said: "If the tax-paying counties of the South,
these Whig owners of great numbers of slaves should ever be
disturbed in the peaceable enjoyment of their possessions.

^6 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
either by invasion of a foreign foe, or by internal commotion,
let them not turn their eyes to the North for aid. The gen
eral ticket would save the State from federal bribes. It was
the policy of the Whigs, from the time of Hamilton, to keep
the States out of view and talk about local or District in
terests, manufactures, commerce, etc. He would ask the
House if local rights or local interests were the true Republi
can doctrine as against State rights and State interests."
After days of wrangling the previous question was called,
amidst great excitement. The gallery and lobbies were
crowded by citizens. The uproar was so great that the
Mayor of the city came upon the floor and oft'ered the ser
vices of the city police to maintain order. The Whig minor
ity presented a protest 'against the passage of the bUl,
denouncing it as " tyranny," and making speclflc charges
of partisan rulings against the Democratic Speaker of the
House. The Speaker flled a reply, charging the protestants
with " calumny."
Mr. Yancey was In attendance upon the State Democratic
Convention, at Tuskaloosa, while the general ticket was. under
discussion, as a delegate from Coosa. He assisted to nominate
Benjamm Fitzpatrick for Governor and endorsed the course of
his party on all questions before the General Assembly.
The editor of the Argus did not neglect unduly his regular
occupation during his voluntary canvass for Van Buren. He
wrote voluminously for both of his papers. His brother
retired from the newspaper copartnership, in the midst of the
campaign, to devote his time to the law practice. Left alone,
the sole editor proposed even an enlarged newspaper enter
prise. No Press Association had ever been formed in Alabama.
The Wetumpka Arg-us now called upon editors throughout
the State to organize " to protect the editorial corps against
loss and Imposition." In the heat of the campaign the Argus
published the prospectus of the flrst agricultural journal ever
proposed in Alabama, to be called the Alabama Planter. It
was to be the individual enterprise of the editor of the
Argus, to be issued twice a month, terms $3 a year, in
advance, and $5 if payment be delayed beyond three months.
*' It has been remarked (said the prospectus) that the pros
perity of a country is to be measured by the number and

ACTIVE FOECES AND DECISIVE EVENTS. 97
circulation of its agricultural publications. Is it not true
that ignorance and obstinate prejudices have been dispelled
only by the light of science, and that plenty and prosperity
have thus alone been made to succeed penury and want?
Why ? The interests of farmers demand such publications ;
the interests of merchants demand their circulation. When
agriculture flourishes commerce revives."

CHAPTER 3.

Yancey a Legislator.
1841-1844.

A memorable incident of the times was a speech delivered
at Montgomery, May 8, 1841, by John C. Calhoun. The people
exacted a promise from the statesman, as he passed through
the town a few weeks before on his journey to a cotton planta
tion in Marengo county, owned by him in association with his
son, resident there, A. P. Calhoun. The freedom of society in
the slave States was Illustrated by an experience of Mr. Cal
houn in progress through Alabama. He alighted from the
Columbus, Georgia, stage coach at the Montgomery Hall, an
excellent hostlery, where passengers from New York to New
Orleans awaited the uncertain departure of steamers down the
Alabama river. It was the habitual evening amusement of a
planter residing in the town of Montgomery, a pronounced
Unionist, to repair to the hotel parlors to discuss politics with
the travelers so disposed. With sagacity, drawn from long
experience in making choice of a companion, tete-a-tete, he
made advances to Mr. Calhoun, unsuspicious of the importance
of his selection. In the ordinary preliminary parleying, the
planter discovered the traveler was from South Carolina, and
his occupation a farmer. Supported by his general knowledge
that Pendleton District, where this farmer lived, was in the
Union section of the State, the Unionist entered upon an
animated denunciation of NulUflers and their leader. The
attention of the company in the room had not been attracted

YANCEY A LEGISLATOR. 99
to the two men thus far, nor did any one present seem to
know either. After the explosive sentiments of his self-con
stituted inter-viewer had spent themselves, Mr. Calhoun began
to explain what he understood to be the merits of the poUtics
of South Carolina. Very soon he became the centre of general
attention, the persons in the room coming near and standing
intensely interested. Calhoun's voice was not strong, but was
well trained and was pleasant to hear. His manner was en
thusiastic, but never boisterous. The astonished planter had
become silent and absorbed in what he heard when another
gentleman of the city coming in recognized the speaker, made
his way to him, grasped his hand calling aloud his name. The
planter, yielding to his own confusion at the discovery, threw
his weight heavily on the back of his chair, which giving way,
both man and seat rolled upon the floor. Mr. Calhoun, stand
ing erect, amidst the laughter of the company, exclaimed:
" Now, sir, you confess you are floored ! " Passing on to the
" Tulip Hill " plantation he spent the weeks of his visit mark
ing off ditch and fence lines and in making other practical
suggestions on farm work. He rose with the dawn, walked to
the fields with a fowling piece on his shoulder, and gave evi
dence of his good marksmanship by returning, ordinarily, with
some game for the table. Four years later he came again to
" Tulip Hill," en route to preside over the convention of the
Mississippi valley States, North and South, assembled at
Memphis, for the purpose of petitioning Congress to improve
the river. On that occasion the citizens of McKinley, twenty
miles distant, sent a young lawyer, W. B. ModaweU, bearing,
their invitation to the distinguished visitor. At the door
ModaweU remarked on the personal re-introduction he desired
to Mr. Calhoun, not having fallen into his company for four
years, and then only in a casual way. He was assured that
one introduction was sufflcient for a lifetime with Mr. Calhoun,
who rose promptly from his seat as the young man entered,
shook his hand, called his name, and reminded him of the
place of their former meeting.
A crowded audience of ladies and gentlemen listened to Mr.
Calhoun's speech at Montgomery. The orator said he had
found the people of Alabama industrious and enterprising,
but not as prosperous as they had the right to be. They were

100 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
In debt, and while various relief measures were proposed to
escape from this condition. Indeed a burdensome load upon
them, the only profitable escape from debt was to pay out.
The means of payment was in the production of the soU.
Producers of crops, therefore, were deeply interested in the
relation of government to their industry. The States of
Alabama and Mississippi contained one million people. This
was one-sixteenth part of the population of the United States.
The total exports of home-raised articles from all the States
was not much over one hundred millions. The joint exports
of Alabama and Mississippi was forty-five millions and, there
fore, nearly half of the whole, instead of one-sixteenth of the
whole, as an even proportion of exports to population would
require. Under these circumstances, it was an anomalous
state of affairs to see Alabama and Mississippi borrowers of
money from other States far below them in marketable pro
ductions. Why should these States not be lenders of their
surplus products rather than borrowers? The exports of these
two States were on the market for gold, the ci-vilized world
over. A very different condition of affairs might be seen in
the case of Cuba, hard by their shores and with like institu
tions. Cuba only exported seventeen millions a year, the
amount paid to the government out of this was nine millions,
the area of Cuba was about the combined area of Alabama
and Mississippi, Cuba supported a market city of one hundred
thousand population but neither of the two States named had
a city of much over flve thousand population. A diff'erent
rule of collecting and disbursing taxes prevailed in Cuba, and
the Island was exceedingly flourishing even under an enor
mous tax assessed and collected. The depression in Ala
bama and Mississippi was the result of the flscal action
of the federal government. The government of the United
States undertook, by the tariff of 1828, then about to ex
pire, to " protect home industry." What a misnomer ! Of
all people the farmers and the planters were most engaged
in " home industry." Not only did their industry yield a
greater volume of commerce than the industry of any other
class, while employing a greater number of individuals, but
it was pursued on the land owned by those engaged in
it, where they slept at night and eat their meals day after

YANCEY A LEGISLATOR. 101
day. The tariff was made to protect a smaller number of
people, many of whom had no homes, at the expense of
the masses, domicUed on their landlords' possessions. Under
the tariff of 1828, the imports of the country were about
$64,000,000. This amount of imports paid into the treas
ury about $81,000,000. The question then arose, upon what
were the imports or exchange based ? They were undoubt
edly based upon the exports. It might be said that the
revenues from imports initiated in the cotton, rice and
tobacco sent out. When the revenues came to be disbursed,
only four millions reached the States producing the cotton,
rice and tobacco upon which the imports were based, to
twenty-seven millions for the protected States. An active
cause of depression and debt was, the control of the flnances
of the South by Wall street and Chestnut street. The paper
currency gave to banks an enormous power over property.
For example, if foreign exchange is against us to the amount
of ten millions, the specie in our business would be reduced
that amount, and if in our favor, the specie in our business
would be increased the same amount. On the other hand. If
our currency be paper, with three dollars in circulation to one
held in specie, the balance in foreign exchange against us
would be thirty miUions in the case supposed, or for us thirty
mUlions, making a fluctuation of sixty millions. The banks,
having the power to regulate fluctuation, bought and sold
exchange to suit their own convenience. The politicians who
lived upon the banks aimed at high taxes, liberal disburse
ments and a monied aristocracy. The masses would tire and
sicken of the whirlwind of ceaseless excitement which the
politicians kept up, in which their industry is absorbed and
their rights trampled upon. The motto of the South should
be : " Let us alone." The ceaseless struggle with tariff' and
bank, where neither is wanted, would weary the people with
the defence of their Uberties.
Neither Democrats or Whigs held a formal convention In
Coosa County, In 1841, to nominate a candidate for the Lower
House of the Legislature. Mr. Yancey was pressed in various
ways for eight months to announce his candidature. Early
in April he wrote a letter consenting. No other Democrat

102 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
announced. Four Whigs declared themselves in opposition to
him — " a perfect avalanche of Whiggery to overwhelm one
poor Democrat," as the editor of the Argus wrote. Yancey's
letter of announcement was full. He would demand bank
reform and Internal Improvements, by the State to extent of
its ability ; he would favor a penitentiary to enable reforms in
the penal code, abolishing the whipping post and branding
iron, for it was " the frequency with which crime is visited
with punishment, and not the severity, which is best calcu
lated to deter Its commission ;" he knew " the prejudices with
which one has to contend who enlists In the cause of public
education " but he would pledge himself to labor for that
cause " until the means of acquiring this right was within the
reach of every child In this State." " With the vigor of youth
and native powers (the letter concluded) this county is a
portion of a great and growing quarter of the State, where
hordes of savages have hitherto prevented more rapid devel
opment. Their removal has been followed by a worse scourge,
the late commercial prostration. If aided by judicious legis
lation and a watchful delegation in the Legislature, it is des
tined to become what Its natural advantages well suit it for, the
most desirable portion of the State." Three months later the
Whigs and malcontents among the Democrats sought to reor
ganize the people against the election day. A "bank meeting"
was called in Yancey's absence from the State. When the
adjourned meeting convened he was in attendance. A Whig
presided, W. S. Kyle, one of the four who contested his
election. Strong resolutions against bank corruption were
offered, to which was added a short resolution calling upon
bank reformers, regardless of party affinities, to meet at Rock
ford, now that election day was near, to nominate a candidate
for the Legislature. Yancey, sitting near the presiding offlcer,
rose at this. " I regret (he said) exceedingly the introduction
of this paper. I consider it selfish and incendiary, and calcu
lated only to destroy the harmony with which all should act
upon the important question before us. I deem it to be but
another intrigue, sheltered under the cloak of public indigna
tion against bank frauds, brought to bear upon political
questions for selfish ends." This was the first meeting ever
called to put Yancey down. It was not the last, but, in the

YANCEY A LEGISLATOR. 103
years that foUowed, all that he attended in person fared the
fate of this one. At the close of his invective he moved to
lay the resolutions on the table, "which was done almost
unanimously." Yancey was triumphantly elected. He received more than
twice the combined votes cast for the opposition candidates.
President Harrison died, exhausted, in his old age, by a
single month's importunities of the office seekers. Mr. Clay
had been extremely excited at the news of his defeat at Har
risburg (Wise's Seven Decades), and now contributed nothing
to the aUeviation of the difflculties of his successful rival.
General Harrison wrote to their mutual friend. Brent: "I
have received only ungenerous treatment, in requital for years
of devoted service," from Mr. Clay. Before his death, the
President had called an extra session of Congress. The Ala
bama Legislature was called in extra session to order an
election for Representatives to Congress, for the terms of all
had expired March 4th, whereas none would be chosen, in
regular order, until August following. The extra session of
the Legislature passed a bill to allow the people to vote
" Districts," or, " General Ticket," at the August election.
The special election in May was conducted on the General
Ticket plan. Reuben Chapman leading, the entire Democratic
ticket was chosen, but the vote was so light as to indicate the
popular displeasure at the abolishment of the Districts. " Dis
tricts " prevaUed, by a large majority, at the August election,
and the old system was restored at once. At that time,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri, of the slave
States, maintained the General Ticket, with Connecticut, New
Hampshire and New Jersey of the free States.
The course of Mr. Yancey in the Legislature attracted at
tention throughout the State. He was looked upon as a young
man of extraordinary force by discerning persons who met
him on the floor or in social intercourse. Nearly half century
later a distinguished citizen of Alabama declared to me, with
enthusiasm, his reminiscences. " I met Mr. Yancey (he said)
for the first time when I had ridden forty miles to Tuskaloosa
to buy my wedding clothes. I saw him in his seat and in
general company. I cannot describe the impression he made
on my mind, but it is yet fresh. I have met many men, called

104 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
great, in a long life. None ever excited in me the lively per
sonal interest that Mr. Yancey did. I say confidently, he was
the most fascinating man I ever knew." A lady, eminent in
the society of many places in the Union, wrote to me : " Mr.
Yancey, then a young member of the Legislature, was intro
duced to me at a ball which celebrated my debut at hallowed
old Tuskaloosa. His gallantry was so distinguished and the
freshness of his wit so captivating that all others seemed stale
in comparison. I was spoilt for the evening. The next morn
ing I received from him some lines addressed, ' To the Lady
with the White Plume.' The very mention of the name re
vives in my bosom memories like to the exiled child of Erin
comes the echo of the harp of Tara's Hall." The letter of
United States Senator C. C. Clay, resigning his seat, was sent
by Governor Fitzpatrick to the House, accompanied by a
special message recommending its sentiments. The Senator
wrote in censorious words of the course of the Whigs In the
Senate. They were allies of the Abolitionists, he aUeged,
voting to confirm the many appointments of prominent Aboli
tionists by President Harrison. "The people will find (the
letter insisted) nominations of Abolitionists, of the most ob
noxious character, confirmed by votes of Southern Whigs,
while every Northern Democrat, in his place, voted against
them." A motion was made to print one thousand copies of
the Senator's letter. At this the Whigs rose indignant. The
Senator resigning should not have written a formal public
document in such temper ; the Governor exceeded his authority
in recommending a vindictive letter to the Legislature; the
Legislature had no right to print it with the people's funds.
Charles McLemore, of Chambers, "his nature lofty and his
gifts brilliant," stood up to speak for the Whigs. The accusa
tions of the letter were " foul, false and slanderous," he said.
His protest was earnestly applauded by his party. Yancey
had never addressed the House. Few members had ever
heard him. As Mr. McLemore, pale in anger, resumed his
seat, there was no movement perceptible on the Democratic
side to reply. Yancey rose, slowly, indicating in his manner
his readiness to give way to any other member on his side of
tne House. His speech was reported by the letters of members
in all parts of the State. It was a great surprise to the Whigs

YANCEY A LEGISLATOR. 105
and a great triumph for the Democrats. Its invective estab
lished a reputation for him in Alabama which was never lost.
Governor Fitzpatrick had been elected as "a man who
never owed a bank a cent, nor held a bank offlce." Yancey,
too, had been elected as a bank reformer. A printed bill was
placed on members desks creating a committee to investigate
bank affairs, with power to compel the attendance of witnesses.
Mr. Yancey spoke to the bill, and this speech, at the outset of
his official career, laid down the rules of conscience which
continued to govern his public services, in the future, and
announced the one cardinal principle in politics upon which
his fame was, in the future, erected. Rising to address the
Speaker, he averred that his hopes had been excited by a
cursory examination of the bill, as it was laid upon his desk
the evening before, and he had retired to his apartments with
the expectation of voting for it. But, returning to his seat in
the morning, he became oppressed with disappointment and
regret. Upon closer examination he would vote against it.
"In the first place (he said) the bill creates an extraor
dinary court, whose offlces would conflict with many provis
ions of the State Constitution. * * The fourteenth section
of our Declaration of Rights declares that all courts shall be
open. Thi^ bill provides for a violation of that section by
empowering a committee of judicial powers, in effect, to sit
with closed doors. * * The committee is allowed to meet
when and where it pleases, to re-assemble on adjournment at
any time and place, without previous notice. In fact, this
body of men is made, as far as frail humanity will admit,
omnipresent and omniscient. * * Am I not then authorized
to assert that the bill delegates powers which it has cost years
of civil war, many a political revolution and thousands and
hundreds of thousands of human lives to snatch from the
hands of the despot, to be vested as inalienable rights in the
persons of the community ? * * The gentleman from Mont
gomery (Mr. Hutchinson) tells you he Is unable to perceive
the similarity between the powers conferred by this bill and
those exercised by the Star Chamber and Courts of High
Commission in England. Let us compare them and see if
his conception be clear in this matter. Hume informs us
the English Courts possessed discretionary authority as to

106 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Imprisonment. The third, section of this bill confers power of
Imprisonment for not ' less ' than three months ! The only
check upon the power of punishment conferred by the bill is
in the leniency of the committee. A single member of the
English Courts could issue a warrant oi arrest ; so can the
committee here contemplated. In both cases members are the
sole judges of what shall constitute contempt. In both cases
judges could proceed on suspicion, heresay testimony or doubt;
in both cases judges have power to administer oaths, under
which persons brought before them are bound to answer all
questions propounded to them. * * Sustained by the high
esteem in which I hold most of the members of the committee
upon whom it Is proposed to confer these perilous powers, I
might consent to commit my personal liberty to their keeping.
But, sir, I cannot heedlessly or with deliberation risk, in the
slightest degree, beyond the pale of the Constitution the rights
of the people which I am sent here to protect. * * I am
willing to yield much to the spirit of the hour and to clothe
this committee with great powers. I will go far in this matter
— not as far as the fartherest. It Is true — but as far as the
limits prescribed by that Constitution — ever more sacred in
my eyes than a mere expediency can be — will permit. There
must I pause. * * I have not yet found myself in that
passion for reform which stands ready to barter right for gold.
No, sir. Better far, in my estimation, that your banks In
ruins shall cover the earth, than that you should erect for
their preservation an institution founded upon the broken
fragments of your Constitution."
June 15, 1842, the new law flrm of Harris & Yancey was
announced. Sampson W. Harris, the senior, was a remarkable
man. A son of the eminent jurist of Georgia, Judge Stephen
W. Harris, he was first honor man at college, chivalrous, pol
ished, and an extraordinary orator. He had come to We
tumpka, a young lawyer, two or three years before Yancey
came. The flrm was strong in every requisite of the bar,
except experience. A wide and lucrative practice quickly
came to it. In the spring Yancey had leased the Argus to J.
W. "Warren ; and, when the lease of one year expired, sold it to
Warren and McAlpin. Blanton McAlpin, the junior partner
and the editor, had been Mayor of MobUe and long a member

YANCEY A LEG IS LA 'TOR. 107
of the Legislature. He was an intense partisan Democrat. In
publishing his valedictory, Mr. Yancey wrote : " In the eight
years of my connection with newspapers I may have unwit
tingly injured the feelings of many and have borne too harshly
upon the characters of others. If so, I regret it. Feelings of
resentment towards all those with whom the duties of my
station may have brought me in conflict, amidst the scenes of
great political excitement, have been eff'aced from my own
mind and I leave it with unkind feelings towards no one."
He then proceeded to say, that " to maintain a respectable
paper at a cheap, yet fair price, advance payments are abso
lutely necessary," and he would leave with his former readers
those parting words. The salutatory of the new editor
declared the Whig party to be " now developing their dan
gerous principles attempting to subvert the most conservative
and RepubUcan principles of the Constitution " and the Argus,
if supported, would strive to counteract their influence.
In the general election of 1842, Mr. Yancey was not a
candidate. He was too busy with the work of mending his
private fortune to accept the nomination tendered by the
people of his county. He moved to West Wetumpka and
became a citizen, therefore, of Autauga county.
Returning from the circuit of his courts, in the spring of
1843, Mr. Yancey found a letter numerously signed, by citi
zens of Autauga county, soliciting him to stand for the Senate
from the District composed of the two counties of Coosa and
Autauga. He flrst ascertained, before making answer, that
Mr. William W. Morris, the Senator in office would not stand
for re-election. He then wrote an open letter saying he did
not desire offlce and that he had at one time resolved to refuse
to stand for the Senate. The Constitution of the State re
quired, however, that a census should be taken every six years
on account of the rapidity of immigration, and especially to
the Indian country, as it was called. Upon the State census
an apportionment of representation In the Legislature was to
be made, in 1843-4, by law. A party had risen up to demand
the enumeration of negroes, slave or free, for apportionment.
Yancey would oppose any apportionment for representation,
save on the basis of whites only. In order to establish the
white basis, so far as his influence would assist to that end, he

108 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
consented to stand for the Senate. The question of " white "
or " mixed " basis was a sectional one. The Whig counties of
the prairie region, where the large planters lived, and the
monetary centre of the plantation interest. Mobile, supported
the mixed basis. The hill counties supported the white basis.
The quarrel waxed hot. Yancey entered the campaign with
alacrity and with his wonted zeal. Autauga, containing many
large plantations as well as many small farms, stood divided
on the question ; Coosa, with fewer slaves, was less divided
and was safe for the white basis. Thus Democrats, and
Whigs rich in slaves, were found united to defend their
property, while poorer Democrats and Whigs joined in sup
port of what they declared to be their rights of citizenship.
Mr. Morris was Induced to retract his refusal to stand for the
Senate. Flattered by the assurance of the mixed basis men
that he alone could be depended on to cope with Yancey, he
announced himself. It was reported that each candidate
would publish in the same issue of the Argus an elaborate
exposition of his side of the paramount question to come be
fore the next Legislature. Under an agreement to this effect
Yancey delivered to the editor his promised manuscript.
Morris had not yet handed in one when the day of weekly
publication arrived. Yancey consented that his letter should
wait a week on the editor's table. Great was the indignation
of the white basis men when the mail brought in the Talla
dega Watchto-wer with Mr. Morris' delayed address ; and
still higher rose the outbreak of feeUng when it was reported
that it had been circulated also in pamphlet form through
out the county. In the next issue of the Argus Yancey
published a preface to his address, which then came forth,
with an explanation of Its apparently tardy appearance, ac
companied by some exceedingly caustic refiections upon the
premature pubUcation of his rival. It was not customary
then with gentlemen to employ vituperative language, aimed
only at the personal failings of each other, unless the com
plainant intended to concede his personal responsibility.
Morris rejoined in a strong defence of himself, but neither
disputant descended to the plane of a war of words. Both
wrote of their obligations to their respective parties, in the
approaching election, with unmeasured words, but Yancey

YANCEY A LEGISLATOR. 109
e-vidently had the strong side in the quarrel over the prema
ture letter of his opponent. Mr. Yancey's address declared :
" The sole duty of the provision apportioning slave for
representation in the Constitution of the United States is to
furnish a standard by which to measure the relative strength
of each sovereign State in the Federal councils. It is the
written contract entered into by which to divide amongst its
members the political power of the whole Union. The very
materials of that measure of apportionment attest this fact.
Alabama claims that she shall not only be entitled to repre
sentation in the National Assembly, in proportion to her free
members, but claims her superior political weight under the
Constitution. Why ? To counteract the overwhelming influ
ence of a free population in the free States. * * 1 assume,
as well established truth, that no two principles antagonistic
to each other can exist in the same Constitution. It inevita
bly follows, that the white basis is the only constitutional
doctrine. Congress has the right to appoint the time, place
and manner of electing Representatives. It has said they
shall be elected by Districts. Under that contingency either
the white or mixed basis can operate. But suppose Congress
had decided Representatives should be elected on the general
ticket. Then the mixed basis would have been impracticable,
while the white basis would, under the general ticket, act in
its greatest -vigor and purity. All must admit that the law
which would meet any contingency arising under the Consti
tution is expedient and Constitutional. * * The interests
of many of the States are very dissimilar and those interests
must be protected by laws peculiar to the States. Therefore
arises the absolute necessity for a fixed rule in the federal
system whereby to apportion among the States, with such
deeply conflicting interests, the political weight which each
shall have in the councUs of the Union. (Art. 1. Sees. 2 and 3
Con. U. S.) The citizens of Alabama bear toward each other
entirely different relations from what is described in these
pro-visions of the Constitution. The people of Alabama are
governed, in respect to this question, by one Constitution
only. * * In these views my opponent, Mr. Morris, differs
from me and claims opinions for the framers of the United
States Constitution never dreamed of by them. He would

110 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
bring into Alabama the rule of suffrage of the whole Union,
regardless of the special reason for the federal rule of appor
tionment prevailing here. To show how preposterous would
be the practical effect of his views, let us illustrate them on
paper, for, in the name of the genius of the Republic, I pray
they may never operate practically among the people." The
rule of the federal Constitution, for the apportionment of
Representatives and direct taxes having been cited, the letter
continued : " Mr. Morris says place this standard by every
ballot box m the State and as every citizen comes up to vote
apportion off the share of representation to which he may be
entitled by it. A poor man comes forward and is classed as a
' free person ' without ownership of slaves. A rich merchant
next advances and, having no slaves, his vote is accepted and
counted as one. The owner of a hundred and fifty slaves then
comes forward. By this federal standard in force, he casts
one vote as a ' free person ' and ninety votes as a slave-holder
— ninety being ' three-fifths ' of one hundred and fifty. * *
I ask, fellow citizens, in all candor, can such ^ monstrous
inequality as the application of this federal rule to our domes
tic and State affairs be correct, either in conscience or under
a just construction of the Constitution of Alabama? * *
And why, in conclusion, this bitter hostility directed a.gainst
my humble self? Certainly not on account of my personal
importance. I attempt to represent the great mass of the
people versus the aristocracy. You are to be lulled into secu
rity and ease. Is it not true that you have been told this is a
question of no importance at all ? That it has been gotten up
only for effect ? Indeed, you have been so told and if you
consent to remain quiet the active and vigilant tools of the
wealthy wiU succeed at the baUot box. The effect of such,
action would be to commit to the hands of a slaveholding
minority the whole power of the State."
Yancey was elected by a great majority, receiving 1,115
votes to 825 for Morris. It was announced that one hundred
and fifty Whigs voted for Yancey and six hundred Whigs
voted for Morris.
Fitzpatrick was re-elected Governor. At the soUcitation of
the Democrats of the First, or Mobile, District, Henry Goldth
waite resigned his position on the State Supreme Court to

YANCEY A LEGISLATOR. HI
stand for Congress in the pending campaign. James Dellet,
an Irishman, a graduate of the South CaroUna College, and a
very eloquent orator, had been announced as the Whig candi
date. It was supposed that Judge Goldthwaite would be
better able to debate with him than any other man available
to the Democrats. A most exciting joint canvass of the
District was entered upon by the candidates, resulting in
Delict's election. Goldthwaite was immediately restored to
his place on the Court when the Legislature assembled. The
contest was Interesting from many standpoints. The debates
between the rival aspirants for votes were highly instructive
and inspiring of patriotic ardor. The conduct of Judge
Goldthwaite, in resigning the highest judicial honor only to
preserve the judicial ermine from possible contamination
while his candidature for another office proceeded, was an act
typical of the political leader of that time. The New England
origin of the Democratic candidate and the foreign origin of
the Whig candidate attested the impartiality with which the
Southern people dispensed confldence to the true and high-
minded men who came to reside among them. Dellet married,
in South Carolina, a lady of the highest class of slaveholding
society ; Goldthwaite married a daughter of a planter and
gentleman of wide influence in Alabama.
The lower House of the General Assembly had spent
several of the earlier weeks of the session in discussing a bill
providing for "mixed basis" and the Senate awaited quietly
its action. The bill was defeated in the House. No speeches
of considerable length had been made in the Senate, when a
bill was reported authorizing the President, and Directors of
the State bank and its branches to appoint Marshals with the
power of Sheriffs. Mr. Yancey spoke against its adoption.
He said it was legislation without the letter and intent of the
Constitution of the State. The bill created an offlce supple
mental to the constabulary provided by the Constitution, but
while the State controlled the one the banks alone appointed
and controlled the other. The bill actually placed the liberty
and property of the citizen under the banks instead of leaving
liberty and property under the courts and their officers.
Senator Walthall, chairman of the committee reporting it,
rose \»ith a motion to re-commit the bill which, he declared.

112 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
would not have been presented had he enjoyed the benefit of
the speech he had just heard from Mr. Yancey, at an earUer
moment. The new question of protecting the separate estate of
married women received the earnest support of Mr. Yancey,
both in his addresses to the people and in his offlcial labors.
The Declaration of Independence, he said, had been limited to
the rights of men. The oppressive common law of England
yet controlled the rights of American women. He would not
be classed with those who believed innovation was dangerous
to justice. He had no fear that women would be unsexed by
a reform In laws which made the home secure — "that intri
cate net work of sentiment, pure principle and veneration for
things holy, which goes to form the national character."
When It was announced that he would speak upon a bill to
define and protect the separate estate of married women the
floor and galleries were crowded with ladies to hear him.
Robert Dougherty, of Irish origin and Irish wit, " stout
and brawny," and able, withal, came to Macon county, Ala
bama, from Georgia, where he was born, the same year that
Yancey settled In Dallas. Mr. Dougherty was a lawyer and
planter. He was elected to the Senate, the same year Yancey
was elected, as a Whig, and was nine years older. A reso
lution came before the Senate memoralizing, Congress to pay a
sum of money, a judgment of the court, in default of which
Amos Kendall, Postmaster General under Jackson, was then
held in prison bounds at Washington. Stockton & Stokes,
mail contractors, presented an account to Kendall for extra
service. The claim was disallowed with the President's appro
bation. Through various proceedings the matter remained
until Kendall's term of offlce expired. The claim was flnally
granted, the plaintiffs brought suit against Kendall on his
personal account and were allowed a judgment for $12,000,
which the defendant could not pay, and was, therefore, im
prisoned. Mr. Dougherty opposed the resolution, and in his
speech discussed, with acrimony, the political character of
Jackson. He "despised the character of Andrew Jackson
as a statesman ; the Muscovy drake cannot fly in the wake of
the eagle," were among the expressions of his invective.
Jackson had ever been Yancey's ideal of a hero. Dougherty's

YANCEY A LEGISLATOR. 113
speech aroused in him a profound sense of injustice and indig
nity heaped upon this aged man, in retirement, whose life the
world had felt and noble minds every where now revered.
The debate was expected and as usual, when Yancey was to
speak, the Senate was full and the galleries crowded. " True,
sir (retorted Yancey), never was the soaring eagle in his pride
of place hawked at and brought low by the mousing owl. In
the heaven of his fame, bathed in the sun's glittering efful
gence he still calmly makes his splendid gyrations, unscathed
by the missiles of his impotent foes, and far, very far, above
the reach of imbecile party malignity."
The session of the Senate expired. Never before had
Mr. Dougherty encountered an antagonist in debate who could
not be embarrassed by his incisive wit, who would not flinch
before his sarcasm or recoil at his stern argument. All con
fessed Yancey stood at the head of the young men of Alabama
in the qualities of a political leader.

CHAPTER 4.

Schools and Banks.
1841-184^.

The State of Alabama was organized at Huntsville and the
framers of the Constitution were duly Impressed with the
problem of finance presented to them. The great amount of
productive capital coming under the new government was
Inadequately supplied with a currency. It was apparent that
the known workable mines of the precious metals of the world
were almost exhausted. The bulk of commerce had no egress
save through the port of Mobile, by sailing vessels. Exchange,
to the necessary extent, was impossible. Under this emer
gency, a provision was incorporated in the organic law, allow
ing the Legislature to create a bank of the State, to be located
at the capital and from time to time to establish branch banks.
The banks, the navigable streams, leading to a single metrop
olis, Mobile, oft'ering one mile of navigable water front to
every twenty-five miles square of farming lands, thp salubrious
climate and fruitful soil, in co-operation, produced an unpar
alleled general prosperity, smooth as the music of troubadour's
song. The original and most valuable resources dedicated to
public education in Alabama became early and, innocently,
involved in the public necessity -^ the State banking system.
When this system had degenerated into a public evil its
radical reform or summary removal became a condition prece
dent to the restoration of the public education fund to its

SCHOOLS AND RANKS. 11,5
legitimate purposes. But the richer class, to which the bank
ing system had afforded greatest relief, were least dependent
upon the public education fund. Hence, when Mr. Yancey,
upon entering his first canvass for the Legislature, pledged
himself to the people in extraordinary eff'orts to release the
fund, he also declared : " I know the prejudice with which
one who enlists in this cause must contend." A public school
system was not established in the State until fifteen years
later. Therefore the cause of which he was one of the earliest
friends was indebted to him only for wise counsels In its early
struggles. The rights of the schools began to be pressed, as
the Indians retired and non-slaveholding whites filled the
vacated land. As early as the fall of 1840, while Benjamin
Fitzpatrick yet pursued his canvass as Presidential elector,
the Wetumpka Argus, knowing him to be free from all bank
entanglements, as officer or borrower, lead all newspapers in a
call upon its party to meet in convention at Tuskaloosa, early
in the December, for the purpose of nominating that gentle
man for Governor. The disinterested nature of this counsel
became apparent when it was known that the relative and
earliest and most steadfast friend of the editor, in the State,
Major Jesse Beene, a party man of eminent services and the
highest personal merit, was a candidate for the nomination.
The editor confessed, feelingly, the sacriflce of his personal
predilection to his sense of public duty in recommending Fitz
patrick over Beene. Successful, both in the call for the
convention and in the acceptance by that body of his recom
mendation of a nominee, Yancey, both as editor and orator,
kept alive the leading local issue, bank reform. In the midst
of the campaign, of 1841, involving Fitzpatrick's election to
the offlce of Governor, and his own to the Lower House of the
Legislature, he was caUed upon by a public meeting, convened
for the purpose, to define his position on this question. In
reply he published an elaborate letter. The opinions expressed
become noteworthy here because they formulated the entire
principle, in the abstract, upon which, five years later, bank
reform was set in motion and the school fund thus far
released. He had never studied finance, he said, much less
the science of banking, with a special object in view. In this
xigency the essential object was, not to carry on banking by

116 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the State but to prepare to withdraw the State from banking.
" I am not in favor (he wrote) of entirely abolishing the
existing Bank System at once ; for to do so would leave us
without a circulating medium of any kind, or at least with one
not at all adequate to the wants of the community or the
necessities of trade ; or it would impose upon us the hasty
adoption of some other system, ill digested in its details and
probably as defective and as dangerous as the present one.
It would also cause a most sudden and ruinous depreciation of
the bills of these institutions — a state of things upon which
the broker and speculator might thrive, but which would
entail ruin upon the poor who held the bills. * * I am,
therefore, in favor of so changing and altering the present
system as to produce no sadden or violent convulsion in the
currency of the State, already greatly deranged ; and to make
"it (the currency) the means ot paying off the State stock as it
falls due ; thus saving us from the necessity of a direct and
oppressive tax to sustain our honor and our credit and, at the
same time, to give us time to prepare such a plan of banking
as the light of experience shall suggest to be good. * *
Should I be elected, I shall listen to all propositions with
candor and a fixed determination to select that one which will
best subserve the interests and the honor of the people of
Alabama." The first school in which the English language was taught
in Alabama was kept by a New Englander, John Pierce, at
" the boat yard " on the Tensaw river, in the early years of the
flrst decade of the nineteenth century. The flrst public ap
propriation for schools in Alabama was made by the Legisla
ture of the Mississippi Territory, In 1814. One thousand
dollars was divided between Washington Academy, at St.
Stephens, on the lower Tom Bigbee, and Green Academy, at
Huntsville, in the other extremity of the settlements. Green
Academy prospered, until burned by the United States army
of invasion flfty years later. A provision of the fundamental
law of Alabama, adopted in 1819, preparatory to the appli
cation of the State for admission to the Union, took the most
advanced view of the sacred duty of the State toward public
education. The public school system of the United States, at
least of all the States not included in the original thirteen.

SCHOOLS AND HANKS. 117
was founded upon a plan of endowment, adopted by the " old
Congress," in 1785, by which the section numbered sixteen. In
every township surveyed, in territory belonging to the Union,
should be sold or leased and the proceeds constitute a perma
nent fund for the maintenance of public schools in that
township. Ohio, IlUnois, Indiana and Alabama were the flrst
four States admitted with the beneflt of land grants by the
United States for purposes of education. In addition to the
sixteenth section grant for public schools, the government
gave the State of Alabama seventy-two sections, or 46,080
acres to be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury for
the sole purpose of establishing and maintaining " a seminary
of learning." In this last named grant originated the Univer
sity of Alabama. The flrst Governor of the State, William
W. Bibb, urged the Legislature to provide for the application
of the government grants. As to the LTniversity lands,
trustees were appointed and the lands vested in them. The
question arose, how to dispose of the funds arising from the
sale or lease of the LTniversity lands. There was small oppor
tunity to invest in stocks in Alabama, where property con
sisted in land and slaves almost exclusively. A bank of the
State was established and by order of the Legislature the
LTniversity fund, arising from the University lands, was in
vested in the stock of the State held in the bank. The bank
was allowed to absorb the money paid into the Treasury from
the sales of the sixteenth sections. From 1836 to 1844 the
State bank and its branches |f)aid the entire State taxes. The
banks naturally opposed any diversion of the Treasury
receipts from their control, and, therefore, the banks were
unfriendly to the separation of school monies from the general
receipts of the Treasury. The banks, being creations of the
Legislature, soon learned to corrupt the Legislature, the better
to perpetuate their own power. The Legislature elected the
Presidents and Directors of the banks — the parent bank at
Tuskaloosa, the branches at Decatur, Huntsville, Montgomery
and Mobile. A report was prepared by the Legislature, at its
sessions of 1840-41, showing that forty-five Whig members
of that body, and Whig Directors and Presidents owed the
banks of the State $572,596 ; and that forty-three Democrats,
members of the Legislature and offlcers of the banks, owed

118 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
those institutions $149,312. The largest Whig debtor, T. Mc-
C. Prince, owed ¦ $120,436 ; the next largest, C. C. Langdon,
editor of the Mobile Advertiser, the leading Whig journal of
the State, owed $89,311. The largest debtor among the Dem
ocrats was the President of the Senate, Nathaniel Terry,
who owed $46,049. Besides debts on their individual accounts,
many of the members of the Legislature, of both parties, were
deeply irivolved as sureties on the promissory notes of their
constituents, held by the banks ; some to the extent of $100,000
and over, each.
It is easy to trace the Infiuence emanating from Wetumpka,
as a political centre, favorable to bank reform. It is certain
that bank reform in Alabama was made a political issue, first
in the territory of which Wetumpka was the commercial and
social centre. The Argus, being the only bank reform news
paper published at that town, exerted a determining influence
over public opinion. At the sessions of the Legislature of
1840-41, the Representative of Coosa, Willlam W. Morris,
Introduced resolutions so startling to the House In direct
charges against the conduct of the banks and their relations
to the Legislature, that the resolutions were indeflnitely post
poned. This was the flrst decisive step toward reform, for
Morris' resolutions had made a deep impression. The Argus
reproduced them and argued with untiring zeal from their
standpoint. At another day, in the same session, the Governor
sent to the Legislature majority and minority reports of a
Commission of three citizens appointed, before the assembling
of that body, by himself, to examine the books of the branch
bank at Montgomery. Ho-well Rose, a large planter In the
vicinity of Wetumpka, a member of the committee, prepared
the minority report. Mr. Rose's report differed from that of
his associates in the fullness of the exposure of bank corrup
tion and legislative collusion presented by it. June 21, 1841, a
meeting of the citizens of Autauga and Coosa counties, regard
less of party affiliations, met at Wetumpka to consider meas
ures of relief from " a spirit of speculation and fraud abroad
in the land which is destined, unless speedily arrested, to
destroy the banks and bankrupt the people."
July 3, a large meeting of citizens assembled at Vernon,
.\utauga county, to inquire into bank frauds. A list of

SCHOOLS AND BANKS. 119
citizens indebted to the State bank and its branches, at Tuska
loosa and Montgomery, in sums ranging from $200 to $4,000,
was read. Affidavits were read signed by the " mark " of
IlUterate people, testifying that they had been bribed In sums
of ten dollars to lend their names as sureties on promissory
notes discounted at the banks. Resolutions were passed
declaring State Senator Dixon Hall, Democrat, jmpllcated in
obtaining, on worthless paper, large sums of money from the
banks, and demanding his resignation. On complaint of
Danifel Pratt and other leading citizens, Mr. Hall was Indicted
by the grand jury and, by change of venue, his case was sent
for trial to Macon county. Hall was in debt, on account of his
" recommendations " of irresponsible farmers, in small sums, to
the banks to a great amount. Samuel F. Rice, a member of
the Legislature, from Talladega, went to the branch bank at
Huntsville to borrow $10,000. He was refused. Continuing
on his way to the branch bank at Decatur, he met some of the
Directors in the parlor of that institution. Denouncing there
the conduct of a bank that would not lend money to the
people, he avowed his purpose to bring the subject up in the
Legislature. At the conclusion of his remarks, he presented
his request for the loan of the sum just refused at Huntsville,
and it was promptly paid over to him. One of the Commis
sioners of the Decatur branch, iodignant at the transaction,
reported it to the Legislature. The complaint was formally
investigated, pronounced baseless, and Rice was elected State
printer. The State lost heavily on purchases made by the
banks of cotton, by advances on cotton in the warehouses in
Alabama and at Liverpool and advances made by them on
unhar vested cotton.
From the formation of the Union up to this hour It has
been extremely difficult to bring local questions, questions
capable of being solved alone by a town, a county or a State,
before the voters of town, county or State unembarrassed by
the affinity of the voters with national parties. In nothing,
more than this fact, has the inherent tendency of public senti
ment toward centralization of the power of government been
made manifest. Mr. Clay had brought forward his American
System and Mr. Adams had compelled Congress to become
the debating ground of the New England Anti-Slavery Society.

120 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
General Jackson had, for the time, at least, supported both
Clay and Adams. The South was not deceived. The Demo
crats believed a specifled policy in national aff'airs promised
relief ; the Whigs believed the reverse policy promised relief.
Democrats and Whigs recognized the peril of their domestic
Institutions. Hence, when Governor Bagby presented in his
message, of 1839, a just and indignant arraignment of the
banks he proposed no adequate reform. He was silent on
the claims of the public schools against those institutions, nor
did he mention the duty of the State to public education,
except to express, in measured phrases, the hope that La-
Grange College, in Franklin county, and Madison CoUege, in
Perry county, might be assisted through the flnancial depres
sion of the times, assuring the Legislature that he was " not
conscious of- the necessity for any legislation at present " to
promote the welfare of the University of the State. The
message declared, that in two years the members of the Legis
lature and the officers of the banks had received accommoda
tion from those institutions to an amount greater than all the
balance of the people of the State. The message discussed, at
great length, the encroachment of the federal authority upon
the liberties of the people and the sovereignty of the States.
Indeed, reform in State abuses of flnances and monetary
systems promised little amidst the all pervading degredatlon
of the L^nited States Bank and its connections. A report was
made by special committee to Congress, bearing date April 3,
1841, Joshua Llpplncott, chairman. Among many items of
misconduct, the committee reported the conversion by Mr.
Joseph Cowperthwaite, Mr. Thomas Dunlap and Mr. Joseph
Cabot, to their own private accounts, of two thousand shares
of the Reading Railroad stock given, as the road had be
Ueved, as collateral to the bank. On August 18, 1888, the
bank guaranted a contract of its President, In his Individual
capacity, for $5,000,000, purchase of Mississippi State bonds.
Mr. W. M. Payne, Representative in Congress from Alabama,
reported to the State Democratic Convention, of 1889, that
the records of the United States Bank proved that Henry
Clay, Senator, had received a fee of $40,000 from the bank,
Daniel Webster, Senator, a fee of $50,000, besides a loan of
$110,000, John Sergeant, Representative, a fee of $40,000

SCUIOOLS AND BA.XKS. ]2l
and Ewing, of Ohio, a loan of $200,000. The bank accounts
farther showed that large sums had been expended by the
institution in pubUshing pamphlets and speeches of members
of Congress, favorable to its continuation, for general circula
tion through the mails.
The people of Alabama hesitated. Should the Democratic
party supremacy in the State be weighed against bank re
form ? When Fitzpatrick was nominated for election to the
Governor's offlce, in 1841, so pronounced a Democrat as
WUliam K. Pickett urged the party to bolt the nomination
and give its support to McClung, less a bank reformer. In
1843 the banks had not been greatly disturbed and party
precedent gave Fitzpatrick another term. He had been faith
ful to the public expectation, up to the full extent of the
consent of his party. But the moral force of a local question
had not been permitted to put to hazard the integrity of
the political community of Alabama in a contest of parties
for the Presidency. Alabama was a Democratic State, her
representation in Congress was nearly wholly Democratic,
her electoral vote had been always Democratic. Thus, year
after year of Democratic control of the State government
closed and, with the close of each year, neither Legislature
nor Governor had been prepared to avert the impending crash,
visibly coming nearer, holding out repudiation and ineffa
ceable disgrace. So earnest had been Governor Fitzpatrick
for bank reform, within the party, that he avoided in his
annual message, of 1842, the least mention of federal politics.
But Alabama finances were not made safe. At the end of the
last session of the Legislature, in Governor Fitzpatrick's four
years in offlce, there were five banking establishments left
under the control of the Legislature, with five Presidents and
ten Directors, eleven clerks and a corps of attorneys, agents
and servants whose aggregate salaries were only a little below
the total expense of the State government. Nobody knew
what the actual condition of the flnances of the State was.
The derangement of the currency embarrassed and inter
rupted the simplest as well as the greatest transactions of
commerce. There was no standard of value on which to base
a contract ; a traveller by the stage coach could not foretell
what discount would be exacted on his bills at the breakfast

122 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
house. The most startling fluctuations took place from day
to day or from week to week in the value of the money of the
people, for which they were wholly unable to account. Lands
suddenly rose and fell in price, slaves were in demand on the
market to-day and unsaleable to-morrow. In 1838 a committee
of the Legislature had reported only $100,000 of the millions ,
loaned to farmers, and planters, and doctors, lawyers and mer
chants, under the head of "bad debts." In 1841 the bad debt
column had risen to a sum higher than three and a half mill
ions of dollars. In 1843-4, the last session of the Legislature,
in the Fitzpatrick reform administration, the bad debt column
footed up $6,292,599. Meantime, In accordance with the Gov
ernor's wishes, John A. Campbell had entered the Legislature
from Mobile to devote his rare and logical acumen to the bank
question, and John Erwin, a large planter and great lawyer,
wholly free from bank debts or complications, had been made
Speaker of the House with power over committees and pro
ceedings. Meantime, too, a strong minority of Democrats in
the Legislature, lead by Nathaniel Terry, of Limestone, and
Dixon Hall, of Autauga, and supported solidly by the Whigs,
blocked the way to bank reform. In response to the urgent
recommendations and appeals of Governor Fitzpatrick and, the
discerning and eloquent reports of John A. Campbell, from the
Committee on Banks, the Legislature consented to certain
executive changes. In a system itself intolerable. The rev
enues of the State were to be again raised by taxation of the
people rather than from the alleged proflts of the banks ; the
salaries of all offlcers of the State were reduced ; expenses of
courts were reduced ; the House reduced the pay of its mem
bers but the Senate refused to alter the per diem of its
members ; the number of bank offlcers was reduced, leaving
the supply as just stated, and their salaries reduced, leaving
the aggregate as also stated ; the power of the banks to lend
money or increase their debts was revoked and the four
branch banks were put in liquidation ; the charter of the
parent bank expired, January 1, 1844, and it was not renewed.
Bank reform in decisive measures was, nevertheless, left where
it had been for long. The winding up of the banks, so as to
save the credit of the State, and the private fortunes of the
people, ha'd not been provided for. The bank offlcers, in

SCHOOLS AND BAyKS. 123
reduced numbers, were yet in their old places ; no attempt to
ferret out the conduct of officers or legislators, attorneys, or
agents, or borrowers, by whose malfeasance, machinations and
corruptions the State had been dishonored, was made ; a large
party was known to be in favor of retaining in circulation the
notes of banks whose powers had terminated and of resorting
to various other expedients calculated to favor certain classes
at the expense of the credit of the State. The evil, so univer
sal in its effects, was far from eradicated, when the great
Whig victory, achieved in the election of Harrison, in 1840,
was turned suddenly to the greater triumph of the obscure
Democrat, James K. Polk, over Clay, in 1844. Few Demo
cratic leaders of Alabama possessed the courage to Impeach
the jubilant partj' at home, to expose the corruption of its
operation in the State government and to risk its reform
before the country.
When the season approached for the nomination of a
successor to Governor Fitzpatrick the party was evidently
much demoralized. The bank faction alone seemed resolved
to maintain a vigorous battle for power. The last Legislature,
by report of the Committee on Banks, had declared that " it
was not believed that the disasters which have overtaken the
banks and which have depreciated their character and cur
rency have had the effect of destroying the confidence inspired
by the benign Influence of those institutions in the first years
of their existence." What then should be the issue upon
which a nomination of a successor to Fitzpatrick must turn ?
A call was issued, but it was almost an unwilling call, for the
regular biennial State Convention of the party to meet at
Tuskaloosa, in May, 1845. The time arrived and delegates
appeared but they did not come from the customary enthu
siastic primaries. The boat from Mobile bearing many dele
gates from the entire western border of counties, even to the
centre of the State, was delayed by low water. Nathaniel
Terry, the largest bank debtor among the Democrats of the
Legislature, had arrived with his friends who proposed to
nominate him for Governor. It was an easy undertaking and
speedily performed. Ere the delayed boat arrived, the con
vention of delegates on hand assembled, nominated Terry and
adjourned.

124 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Under these circumstances. Chancellor Joshua Lanier Mar
tin resigned his judicial office and declared his candidature for
Governor on the issue of bank reform. A campaign of
unequalled activity followed — Terry and Martin being the
only candidates and both Democrats, both extraordinary in
their personal qualifications to instruct and please the people.
In 1843 Fitzpatrick was elected by something in excess of six
thousand majority ; In 1847 Reuben Chapman, Democrat, was
elected Governor by a majority over three thousand. Martin
carried the intervening election, in 1845, by a majority exceed
ing five thousand. Whigs and Democrats desirous of prolong
ing the practical career of the State banks voted for Terry ;
Whigs and Democrats desirous of winding up the State banks,
as speedily as sound discretion would permit, cast their ballots
for Martin. The joy of the Whigs over a disrupted Democ
racy was more to their credit than the display of ill temper
on the part of Democrats, compelled to witness the courage
and capacity of one of their leaders occupying a position far
in advance of the majority of their leaders upon the true test
of the statesmanship of the day, gave them honor.
The Governor elect was not an accident. He was one only
of his blood and name who have adorned the political and
judicial history of Alabama. The question which he carae
out frora the trammels of party to adjust to the operation of
society is seldom adjusted within a party. It is a question
destined to occur again and again and Its somewhat elaborate
discussion In this narrative, it is hoped, is not out of place.
Governor Martin was one of the first lawyers who received a
license from Alabama. He had hardly reached manhood when
he began to practice in the northern counties of the State.
He had been Solicitor of a circuit ; four years Judge of the
Circuit Court ; four years Representative in Congress, and
four years Chancellor, when elected Governor. He had never
been defeated for any office to which he aspired, had ever been
a firm adherent of Democratic principles, was forty-six years
old, in the enjoyment of a singularly happy private life, to
which he had voluntarily retired, when he came forth to
redeem the State from financial degredatlon.
Governor Martin promptly off'ered to the Legislature a
matured plan for winding up the State banks. It was original

SCHOOLS AND BANKS. 125
in some respects, practical in all, simple, and so commended
itself to that body that, with enthusiasm, they adopted it in
its essential details. Five thousand copies of his brief message
explaining the plan were ordered printed and were freely dis
tributed among the people. The substance of the plan was,
the immediate vacating, by law, of the offices of President and
Directors of the banks ; the appointment of three Commis
sioners with power to collect and secure the debts and wind
up the affairs of the banks.
The Legislature proceeded to elect the Commissioners. F.
S. Lyon, of Demopolis, Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Autauga, and
Willlam Cooper, of Florence, were chosen. Mr. Fitzpatrick
declined to serve and ex-Senator C. C. Clay took his place.
The candidature of Martin for Governor was not the only
evidence of the public discontent with the Democratic party
organization, in 1845, and the resolution of > the people of
Alabama to transcend party bounds In applying a remedy to
bank mismanagement. Samuel F.- Rice had been formally
nominated in the Talladega District as the Democratic candi
date for Representative In Congress. His course on the
question of bank reform was not satisfactory. Felix Grundy
McConnell, a Democrat, opposed him, and the people chose
McConnell. Probably no- two rival candidates ever appeared
in Alabama of equal resources in wit and humor with Rice
and McConnell. Both, too, were excellent stump speakers
and of far above the average Intellect of political leaders.
Francis Strother Lyon was soon made sole Commissioner
with John W. Whiting, cashier of the branch bank at Mont
gomery, his assistant. Mr. Lyon was one of the natives of
North Carolina who came to St. Stephens, the centre of the
Tom Bigbee settlement, when Alabama was in a territorial
condition. He was born of highly respectable parentage, in
January, 1800. He came, when seventeen years old, to live
with his uncle, the noted factor of the government in charge
of Indian affairs at St. Stephens, George Strother Gaines. He
was clerk in the bank at that place, read law, moved to
Demopolis, the French settlement, higher up the river, and
married there a daughter of a planter. He served in the
State Senate and took a high stand at the bar. In 1835 he
was elected from a Whig district as a sub-treasury Whig,

126 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
having been ere then known as a Whig. In 1837 he did not
canvass for re-election but was chosen by a very small major
ity. In 1839 he declined to stand. He was noted for the
industry of his habits, for the suavity of his manners and the
correctness of his judgment. He was without vices and was
free from foibles. In seven years from the date of Governor
Martin's message recommending the retirement of bank Pres
idents and Directors, and six years from the appointment of
Mr. Lyon as sole Commissioner, the banks were wound up,
their bills were at par and the credit of the State was fully
re-established. A single example of the remarkable success
of the Commissioner will suffice. The State owned six hun
dred thousand dollars of the stock of the branch bank at
Mobile. This was one of the most disastrously conducted of
all the State banks. Two members of the Legislature from
that city were indebted to it on their individual accounts, or
as endorsers, to an amount exceeding half million dollars.
The transactions of the Commissioner not only restored the
bills to par, but returned an actual profit on the stock, held by
the State, of fifty-two thousand five hundred dollars. No
executive duties In Alabama ever required more methodical
labor, raore unvarying patience, and higher personal integrity
than the duties of the Bank Commissioner. Thousands of
individual bank debtors, farmers, planters, merchants, were
dependent on hira, not only for justice, but for the indulgence
which would save them. To protect good citizens, each pre
senting a case to be treated on Its own merits, and to protect
the fair fame of the State In its financial obUgations, was the
Herculean task before him. Dr. Charles Lucas, a planter of
Montgomery county, owed the branch bank there a sura he
was unable to pay on raaturity. Taking a steamer, he pro
ceeded by the most expeditious route, down the Alabama
from Montgomery, and up the Tom Bigbee to Demopolis, to
confer with the Commissioner. Mr. Lyon was on a visit to
his plantation, twelve miles out. Finding his visitor's card on
his return, he hastened to the hotel and took him to his house
for the night. In five minutes a memorandum was prepared
of instructions to John A. Elmore, bank attorney, at Mont
gomery. The debt was delayed in collection and finally set
tled in full. Both men passed beyond four score years, ana

SCHOOLS AND BANKS. 127
from the day of the arrangement of the debt became earnest
friends. So with hundreds of like examples. Other States
sent messages of warning and encourragement to Alabama.
The progress of her Bank Commissioner's work was watched,
at the flrst, with anxiety and distrust in Europe, where her
bonds were held, but soon apprehension of peril gave way to
confidence, the fruits of which are at this day apparent.

CHAPTER 5.

Two Elections to Congress.
1844-1847.

The two classifications of public sentiment, the Abolition
and Whig parties, moving, pari passu, toward enforced eman
cipation of slaves, protective tariff', national bank, national
Internal Improvement, nevertheless drove Mr. Clay into retire
ment. In August, ] 842, the Congress which had come in with
the election of General Harrison passed a bill revoking the
"compromise," of 1833, on the ground that it was an act of
Congress entitled only to the respect due to ordinary legis
lation, and re-established a protective tarlft'. This conduct
transpired a few months after Mr. Clay reached his farm.
Abolitionists and Whigs joined forces -in consummating it.
In January, J 841, too, before Mr. Clay left the Senate, Mr.
Adams presented in the House the petition of Benjamin
Emerson and forty-five other citizens, of Haverhill, Massachu
setts, praying Congress to take the necessary steps to dissolve
the Union. Mr. Adams disclaimed sympathy with the plan
of the petitioners to absolve themselves of responsibility for
slavery, but justified the petition, on the principle laid down
in the Declaration of Independence, asserting the right of the
people to alter or abolish their form of governraent at will.
Mr. Calhoun, also, retired to his farm. The indecision of men,
and the -vicissitudes of events were so startling, that the hon
est masses turned, instinctively, to the farm "Ashland," in
Kentucky, and the farm "Fort HUl," in South Carolina, as

JOSHUA LANIER MARTIN.

TWO ELECTIONS 'TO CONGRESS. 12!)
their predilections controlled, for a leader to formulate the
issue of the Presidential carapaign of 1844. But the last of
contests for the Presidency on great national issues, had been
fought, in 1840. Geographical Issues, to be deterralned by
the expediency of the moment, were destined to contain the
history of national elections in the future. Neither Mr. Clay
or Mr. Calhoun could become the impersonation of such
politics. Mr. Adams was content and confident.
This was the aspect of politics when. In January and
February, 1844, Mr. Clay, setting out from his retreat, followed
the Western rivers to New Orleans and up the Alabama to
Montgomery, on his way to attend the celebration of the sixty-
seventh anniversary of his birth, with great demonstrations,
at Raleigh, North Carolina. February 28, 1844, a gun on the
stearaship-of-war, Princeton, on the Potoraac, exploded, killing
Secretary of State LTpshur and others. The next morning, at
the request of Representative Henry A. Wise, whora he mis
takenly supposed had authority from President Tyler, Senator
McDuffle wrote to Mr. Calhoun that he would be appointed to
fill Secretary Upshur's vacant place. Wise told the President,
after raaking sure that McDuffle's letter was on the way, what
he had done, making it a personal matter to have the place
offered to Calhoun. The President hesitated, but the offer was
made and accepted. This arrangement, at so late a day, was
supposed to be unfavorable to Calhoun's prospects before the
National Convention of his party, to meet in May.
Mr. Clay was received at all important landings of the
steamer on which he had taken passage down the Mississippi,
with great rejoicings. At Mobile he was raet by hundreds of
gentleraen from the country and, unfortunately for their enjoy
ment, took up his abode at the private residence of Dr. Le
Vert, under the special care of Madame Le Vert, a devoted
admirer. A formal invitation from the city Councjl of Tuska-
loasa, the capital, borne by distinguished citizens, to visit that
place, was presented. Continuing his . course up the Alabama
river, at the ancient town, Claiborne, a characteristic greeting
was prepared for the distinguished guest of the people. Sorae
young planters procured a number of coon skins, hung them
around the river side of a small log- cabin on, the bank and
upon the roof placed empty cider barrels. The day passed.

130 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
but the expected steamer came not. Torches were placed and
lighted, to rival the sun in the light thrown on the Clay signal.
Weary with watching, the patriots fell asleep, while the
steamer passed, with Mr. Clay m his berth oblivious of the.
shore honors prepared for him. The next day he sent a
message of appreciation.
Alabama Democrats were divided between Van Buren and
Calhoun for the nomination for President. Dixon H. Lewis
favored Calhoun ; W. R. King favored Van Buren ; Yancey
was of the Calhoun men. The State Convention of the party
voted 67 for Van Buren to 50 for Calhoun. A motion to sub
stitute Jaraes K. Polk, of Tennessee, for King for the vice-
Presidency, was voted down by a great majority.
Early in May, 1844, the Whig National Convention met at
Baltimore and nominated Mr. Clay for President and Theodore
Frelinghuysen, of New York, for vice-President. The plat
form of principles adopted was almost identical, so far as It
went, with the declarations of Democratic National Conven
tions of later times. It was silent on the question of slavery.
The party demanded a "well regulated nationa.l currency,"
but nothing was said about a national bank. On the subject
of federal taxation, it called for "a tariff for revenue to defray
the necessary expenses of the governraent, and discriminating
with special reference to the protection of the domestic labor of
the country." What " necessary expenses " of the government
should consist in, was left to conjecture. The platform farther
called for one term only in the Presidency, for the distribu
tion of sales of public lands among the States, for efflcient
adrainistration and " a well regulated and wise economy."
Later, in the sarae month, at the same place, the JDemocrats
met in National Convention. Mr. Calhoun declined to allow
his name to go before the body. The devotion to abstract
principle which prevailed so widely in Southern politics was
forcibly Illustrated in his conduct. The nominating conven
tion, his letter of refusal averred, represented, not the people in.
their free and intelligent action, but a series of inferior con
ventions all of which had been, more in one place and less in
another, controlled by individuals with personal objects to
serve. While the convention was ostensibly regulated in its
composition by the theory of the electoral college, each State

TWO ELECTIONS TO CONGKESS. 131
having the same vote in the one as in the other, the delegates
to the convention were controlled by strictly partisan rules
adopted by State conventions, and Intended to take away frora
individuals the right to give voice to their constituencies.
For example, Virginia had instructed a bare majority of her
delegates to cast the vote of all. On the other hand, the only
possible way to obtain a fair expression of the will of the
people in the convention was to constitute It of District dele
gates, who should vote independently of all considerations of
superior authority to- the people by whom they had been
chosen. • The President, Mr. Van Buren, went into the convention,
with a decided majority, for the nomination. The two-thirds
rule was for the first time put In force, for which his friends
were not prepared, and to it he was sacrificed. Most unexpect
edly to himself, Mr. James K. Polk, of Tennessee, received the
nomination. Mr. George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, was nom
inated for the vice- Presidency. Polk had been in the House
and Dallas in the Senate. The Democratic platform denounced
the Abolitionists in Congress and without ; demanded all of
Oregon, to please the Northwest and the re-annexation of
Texas, to please the slave States ; condemned the Whig policy
of distribution of sales of public lauds among the States, re
quiring that the proceeds should be devoted " to the national
objects specified in the Constitution ;" supported the Execu
tive veto as a conservative feature of government ; re-afflrmed
the earlier opposition of the party to a National Bank and
demanded a tariff for revenue only.
Mr. Clay's letter of acceptance was an exceedingly frank
avowal of his belief that the American people demanded his
election. Taking up the confidence of their leader, the Whigs
adopted the rallying cry of their canvass : " Who Is Jaraes
K. Polk?" There was a Northern and a Southern plan of campaign
within the Democratic party. In Pennsylvania, " Polk, Dallas
and the tariff of '42 " was emblazoned on transparencies,
borne on banners and posted in the literature of the party.
This motto was apparently justified in a letter written by
Mr. Polk in the progress of the contest known as the " Kane
letter." In New York, a secret circular was issued by Messrs.

132 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Butler, Dix, and others. Democrats, who had taken offence at
Van Buren's defeat, advising local leaders to pronounce for
" Polk and Texas " but to take care that only men opposed to
Texas annexation should be chosen Representatives in Con
gress. Mr. Polk made no secret of his position on the claim
for all of Oregon, however readily he dropped the claim after
the election. The United States and Great Britain had main
tained a treaty of joint occupancy of a part of Oregon, since
1818. On the part of the United States, the treaty was based
upon the claim of discovery and settlement, and on the part of
Great Britain upon her treaty with Spain for all the land
west of the Rocky Mountains. Subsequent to the treaty of
1818, Great Britain ceded all her rights in Oregon to the
United States, nevertheless, the joint occupancy continued,
neither government attaching any Importance to the land.
Mr. McDuffie declared, In the Senate, It was a useless country,
destined never to be inhabited. It was a stipulation of the
treaty of joint occupancy that twelve months notice of the
desire of either party to suspend it should be given. In 1844
the demand for " notice " was so great in the free States, and
especially In the Northwest, that It attained to recognition In
the Democratic platform. A difficulty arose In diplomacy
between the two countries respecting the Oregon northern
boundary line. General Lewis Cass, Senator from Michigan,
lead the Western Democrats in the cry for " 54° 40' or fight."
Calhoun and his following were in favor of the British line,
the forty -ninth parallel, and opposed to war, but Mr. Polk in
his public utterances, as has been said, in the campaign of the
party, fully committed himself to the Western attitude. " A
masterly inactivity " was the counsel of Calhoun adopted, as
will appear, by Yancey when in position to make his views
felt. Calhoun's counsel flnally prevailed.
Mr. Polk, a farraer, young, educated, of aristocratic South
ern lineage, ambitious, yet without an Inconvenient personal
record, soon discovered very admirable qualities of the political
leader. The Democrats joined the contest with Mr. Clay with
utmost zeal, which soon ripened into enthusiastic confldence.
Mr. Dallas displayed excellent tact and added no little, in the
dignity of his character and the timeliness of his utterances,
to the party prospects.

TWO ELECTIONS 'TO CONGRESS. 133
No question in American politics involved ultimate results
of equal Importance to the re-acquisltion of Texas by the
Union. It will not be amiss here to explain, with some detail,
why the States of the Southwest were especially anxious
for the recovery of Texas. England was justly suspected of
attempting to colonize that Republic, in order to injure the
United States. A large amount of gold was subscribed in
England and paid over to petty German princes and nobles to
induce them to promote the emigration of their dependents
thither. Twenty-five German princes and nobles entered the
scheme. In the spring, of 1843, several ship loadb of emi
grants were collected at May ence, ready to sail. None were
granted passage tickets, save those who had in hand an
amount of money to start themselves at the end of the voyage ;
those who had money were persuaded to surrender it to the
agent of the colonization Company, with the promise that it
should be deposited in a European bank subject to draft
through the Company. On these conditions the several ship
loads of emigrants made sail. They arrived penniless. Their
money was lost to them forever. About this time Mr. Cal
houn came into office as Secretary of State, under Tyler.
Hearing of the activity, in England, of the Texas colonizers,
he sent General Duff Green to ascertain particulars. In the
voluminous evidence sent back by this agent of the State
Department, was a speech delivered by Lord Brougham in the
Upper House of Parliament. The noble lord said : " I am
irresistible anxious for the abolition of slavery in Texas. It
would put a stop to breeding slaves for the Texan market.
The consequence would be the abolition of slavery in Amer
ica." Texas was already the adopted home of thousands of
emigrants from the United States, a large part of whom
had carried their slaves and opened estates. Mlrabeau Lamar,
James Hamilton, Albert Sidney Johnston, were typical of
a class of men controlling the Republic. Besides, grave
apprehension existed in the mind of the Administration of
interference by England on the Pacific coast. There was a
well grounded suspicion that the British government hoped
to see the Mexican State, California, alttiost as great in area
as Texas, united with Oregon to form a Republic. Captain
Suter, a Swiss, an old soldier of Napoleon, was practicaUy

134 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
ruler of California. He had two forts under his independ
ent command with two thousand natives and laborers, to
man them, well drilled. Mexico had more than once ordered
hira to disband his forces and dlsraantle his forts, but received
no other attention In its demands than the bold comraander's
laconic response : " Corae and take thera." Mexico, clairalng
both Texas and California, was naturally jealous of both Eng
land and the United States. Nor were the apprehensions of
English Interference in Texas and California without other
sources of apology than the open conduct of that country in
those localities. In the first half of the nineteenth century
England received from Mexico, annually, half as much silver
as was kept in the Bank of England. Her monetary system
was largely dependent on the continued operation of the silver
raines of Mexico. The raost valuable of these raines were
owned and operated by English capitalists and the British
governraent maintained two agents in the vicinity of the
mines to protect thera. Gold was known to exist in Cali
fornia. True, England was only half in earnest. She had
been defeated, at least for a time. In her original scheme to
erect a great dependency on the Western Hemisphere. The
United States had absorbed the most valuable territory and
had already become a dangerous commercial rival. To beat
down this rivalry, to discourage comraerce upon the Western
and build up comraerce upon the Eastern seas, England had
aboUshed African slavery in her Western pdfesessions ; but in
the East, she had conquered, at the point of the sword, an
ancient and free people, robbed their temples of the wealth of
unknown ages, reduced to her own rule sacred incas and
proud moguls, and enslaved the comraon people in peonage
whose heartless oppression exceeded the blackest record, over
which her humanitarians wept, of the African slave-trade and
African bondage on the Western Hemisphere.
In the progress of the campaign of 1844, the Democratic
Association of Montgomery invited Mr. Yancey to deUver an
address before It. The Montgomery Adverflser, of the next
day, referring to the occasion, said : " We were never better
satisfied by any speech we ever heard. It is utterly impossi
ble that we could give any idea of the character of ^t by an
attempt to describe it. The orator spoke for two hours and a

TWO ELECTIONS TO CONGRESS. 135
quarter, yet no one seemed to count the tirae. The audience
seemed swept away by their sympathy with the speaker and
burst out in loud, long and reiterated cheers." The orator
said the Whigs reUed on their shibboleth : " Who is James
K. Polk ? " The question had been asked in former times and
he would explain how it was then answered. The Lord
having resolved to depose Saul summoned Sarauel, ordered
him to fill his horn with oil and go to Jesse with a message.
From the sons of Jesse, Samuel was commanded to choose a
king for Israel. Before Samuel passed seven of the sons of
Jesse, beginning with Abinedab, and to each, as he passed, the
prophet said : " Neither hath the Lord chosen thee." And
Samuel asked : "Are here all thy children ? " " There re-
raalneth yet the youngest and he keepeth the sheep," was the
answer of Jesse. So David was brought in, and the prophet
said : " Arise, anoint him, for this is he." The coincidence
went farther, said the orator. Saul became sore troubled in
mind because of his deposition from the kingdom. His ser
vants sought to comfort him by the music of the harp and
timbrel and by singing songs. "And is not this the way of
the Whigs ? In their alarm they strive to drown their fears
in the sound of music. Do you not hear the sound of the
banjo at their meetings, do they not sing songs 'and do you
not continually hear the words : ' Git out of the way, you're
all unlucky.' " " Here the applause became perfectly uproari
ous and loud cheers, mingled with shrieks of laughter, lasted
for some time," added the reporter.
The integrity of the Democratic party of Alabama was at
last made safe. The rivalry of Dixon H. Lewis and William
R. King for leadership had arisen from conflicting views on
the measure of sympathy due from Alabama to the nulllfl-
cation movement of South Carolina. Lewis was graduated
from the South Carolina college, with honors, under the influ
ence of Cooper's principles of political economy and federal
obligations. He was invincible before the people and had
been, since 1829, regularly returned to the Lower House of
Congress from a District including Mobile, Eufaula, Mont
gomery, a great area embracing the richest part of the State.
He was earnest and rugged, and a NulUfier without guile.

136 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
King was one of the first chosen Senators In Congress, from
the State, polished by thorough education and foreign travel,
a bachelor, chivalrous, politic and devoted to the Union. He,
too, was invincible before the people, so far as the Legislature
represented public opinion, for he had never lost an election
for the Senate, where he had already served a quarter of a
century, refusing all proffered favors of the executive until
now. He declined to accept Mr. Van Buren's off'er of the
Austrian mission, because he had assisted to elect that Pres
ident. But when Mr. Tyler, whom he had labored to defeat,
oft'ered him the mission to France, in a trying period of
foreign relations with the United States, he accepted. King's
resignation brought about Lewis' appointment, by Governor
Fitzpatrick, to fill the vacancy In the Senate. The Governor
ordered an election in the Third Congress District to fill
Lewis' place. The District was composed of eight counties —
Lowndes, Dallas, Perry and Autauga, dominated by rich
planters, and Bibb, Coosa, Shelby and Jefferson, where the
non-slave holding proprietary farmers lived. The Democrats
of the District called a convention to. meet at Wetumpka.
There was misunderstanding of time and place. Jefferson
did not appear, but Moses Kelly wrote, explaining the cause
of non-appearance and declaring the people of that county
unanimous for Yancey's nomination. Four counties, with a
majority of delegates, raet. James R. Powell, of Coosa, intro
duced resolutions recommending Yancey to all the counties.
All the counties ratifled the recommendation, and, so soon as
the fact was published, the candidate took his private convey
ance to make the canvass. He proposed to raake one hundred
speeches and there was not one raile of railroad in the District.
In the hill counties were hundreds of voters who had never
heard a steam whistle. He was not yet thirty years old, his
health was perfect and he rejoiced, as an intellectual athlete,
at the prospect of the fray. Ere setting out he resigned his
seat in the State Senate.
Daniel E. Watrous, a resident of Shelby, a State Senator,
representing that county and the county of Bibb, a gentleman
of education, a delegate to the Baltimore convention that
nominated Clay, was set up by the Whigs to oppose Yancey.
The Whigs had not opposed Lewis, often, anticipating the

TWO ELECTIONS TO CONGRESS. 137
invariable result of his candidature. Watrous omitted to
resign his seat in the State Senate. As Yancey started out on
his canvass Watrous sent through the mall thousands of
copies of a printed circular appealing to his party. Impera
tive private business caUed him from the State. The questions
to be discussed were the questions of the pending Presidential
campaign. The Whigs arranged to encounter the candidate of
the Democrats with their best speakers, fresh in every county.
Never did a party so prepare for its own discomfiture. The
hot debates, the scene of the single young orator, meeting
everywhere fresh and strong men, aroused the sympathies of
all the people. Original thought, compact and resistless argu
ment was the spontaneous response of Yancey's mind to the
boldest attempts of his opponents. Never were audiences, in
the District, so large as now ; never before did so many of the
same people follow a canvass frora precinct to precinct, and
from county to county. Opening his addresses In Lowndes, he
was met by the Whig spokesmen, Thomas J. Judge, GUchrist
and Alexander, assisted by Mr. Hutchinson, a legislator frora
Montgoraery. Passing on to Dallas, Judge John S. Hunter, a
legislator, and Mr. Norris stood up for the Whigs. Entering
Perry, Messrs. Lea and Upson carae out to debate for the
Whigs, while at Unlontown Mr. Rodney V. Montague, a
planter, of Marengo county, came to the aid of his Whig allies.
The surviving tradition is, that when Yancey had proceeded
with his rejoinder to Montague a few minutes, the planter, not
waiting to the close, rode off. In Bibb, Mr. King stood up for
the Whigs. Jefferson and Shelby were reached when Mr.
Watrous took his place in joint discussion. Election day in
September came. The Democrats were amazed and the
Whigs confounded. Yancey defeated Watrous in the latter's
own Senatorial District 91 votes ; he received more votes in
Dallas than his rival for the nomination, George W. Gayle, of
that county, had ever received for any office he aspired to ;
the District, which the year before had given Lewis 688 major
ity, not a few Whigs in the numljer, at a regular election, now,
at a special election, proverbial for a small relative vote, gave
Yancey 718 majority.
Having spoken of the character of the planters of the
lower tier of the District and their social habits, I refer briefly

138 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
to the farmers of the upper tier. There was no difference
between the two populations, except in those habits of life
which were no where accounted prejudicial to a common
public faith. In the prairie region, the largest relative slave
population was found In the Whig counties ; in the hill region,
Shelby, with 40 per cent of its population slave, was a Whig
county, while Jefferson, with 20 per cent of its population
slave, was a Democratic county. Mr. Yancey lived for months
among the people of both regions and at no house was he
perraltted to pay a dollar for his accoramodatlon. If he
sipped sherry over the prairie planter's board, with equal
rights of hospitality the home distilled peach and wild bees'
honey were proffered on the porch of the hill farmer. If his
horse was sent to the plantation blacksmith to have a shoe
re-set, a suggestion of expense to the planter would be Intol
erable, and If the same courtesy was discharged by the farmer
host, with his own hands, while his wife's own hands prepared
the abundant breakfast, the different habits of the family
there or here In no respect compromised their respective
rights of hospitality. " I was elected twice to Congress and
my canvasses did not cost rae $5," he said. No social state was
more self containing than the domestic life of the hill farmer.
The boundless wooded commons, verdant with grasses in sum
mer, and friendly with mast in winter, supplied the meat for
his table. The neighboring mill on the creek bank ground his
home-grown wheat. Beside every flre place was the teck
wheel that spun the woof and warp for the hand-loom that
sat under every back shed. In Jefferson, at least, even the
coal for the neighborhood smithy was gathered from the hill
side, and the iron ore by its side, melted in an open oven,
Avas hammered into bars on the anvil. It Is not to be over
looked, that In the hill counties had settled some of the best
blood of the Carolinas and Virginia, whose culture was not
surpassed among the people of any part of the State.
In all this wide District there was no Executive Committee
to take charge of the candidate ; there was no carapaign fund ;
a pauper was a pubUc curiosity and there were, probably, not
a dozen prisoners in the jaUs. Whatever the hold of doubt
in other things may have been upon the minds of the male
raembers of the community, throughout its width and length,

TWO ELECTIONS TO CONGRESS. 139
man's skepticism never here impeached woman's sanctity.
Lettered and unlettered enfranchised men were well-fed, well-
clad, and together supported an Ideal of civil liberty. The
best man in debate won the votes at the polls. Yancey fully
appreciated his constituency. He never electioneered. In the
ordinary sense of the phrase. No hand met his grasp with a
lurking suspicion that its frankness conveyed a bid for a vote.
A neatly dressed man, habitually wearing a smile, an admirable
relater of anecdotes, erect, self-poised in aU companies was
this leader of the people. He was not silent In company like
Patrick Henry, nor convivial at table like Prentiss, nor brill
iant in the parlor like Clay. His mind did not act In the
length and breadth of Its power until he came before his
audience. Then it was, as Goethe says of Shakspeare's, as a
watch, seen not only through the crystal to the dial, but
through the dial into the machinery in all its workings.
There were no mental reservations in what he said to the
people. Least of all was there room for a rival's industry
in disclosing any secrets of his private life. He was as free
from personal vices as from public disappointments.
Polk and Dallas carried fifteen States, with 170 electoral
votes; Clay and Frelinghuysen eleven States, with 105 elec
toral votes. The AboUtionists ran Birney, again, and he
received 63,200 popular votes, an increase exceeding eight
hundred per cent over his support in the previous election.
When Mr. Yancey took his seat in the House of Repre
sentatives, December, 1844, he was well prepared to discuss
the Texas annexation question, then pending, and the oppor
tunity for his appearance in the debate, which promptly
opened, soon offered Itself. The Whigs from the North were
unanimous in opposition, the Abolitionists, under Mr. Adams'
lead, were in open alliance with them, and the Southern
Whigs, taimted by the Deraocrats with reflections upon their
political association, had grown desperate. The Southern
States passed resolutions through their Legislatures deraand-
Ing annexation, while the Northern States were even more
emphatic in denouncing the threat of annexation. The North
Carolina Legislature had acted on the general Southern view
and in the House, in the flrst few days of January, 1845, a

140 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
young Whig Representative from that State, Mr. Thomas L.
Clingman, rose to speak against the Texas bill. He charged
against the Deraocrats, that they desired to foment sectional
trouble, he upbraided and denounced the Southern members
of the Democratic party with extreme bitterness and censured,
in sarcastic phrases, the Legislature of his own State. While
Mr. Clingman spoke, the Indignant Southern Democrats took
counsel among themselves. They resolved that one of their
number should make reply, in tone and temper equal to the
provocation. They selected Yancey, the youngest meraber
on the floor, in point of service. The legislative day was far
spent when Mr. Clingman closed, but Yancey rose promptly
to proceed with his maiden speech. A motion to adjourn
was carried, for not a few members were prepared to ex
pect no ordinary oratorical display, and were unwilling that
it should be interrupted by the lateness of the hour when
once under way. The news went abroad that Yancey would
speak the next day. Mr. Calhoun, Secretary of State, sent
for hira, warning him " not to do his best in a flrst en
counter." The severity of Clingman's remarks, as they were
reported In the morning papers, the general excitement at
this critical stage of the question before the country, the
news that Yancey would speak had the effect of crowding the
House and galleries. He discussed the question in its national
importance and, flnally, turning to Mr. Clingman, took up the
aspersions of that gentleman against the motives of the South
and the course of Southern Democrats on the floor of the
House. His invective was " both the vial and the contents."
Mr. Bailey, of Virginia, a meraber of long service, rose as soon
as Mr. Yancey ceased, declaring he felt unusual erabarrass-
raent in proceeding to occupy the floor ; that the speech of the
gentleman from Alabama was the most eloquent he had ever
heard in that Hall. The correspondents of all the metropoli
tan press wrote in highest appreciation of . it, and the Demo
crats wrote in highest eulogy. The letter to the Baltimore
Sun is especially notable, because it gave, at that early day, a
description of the orator and his style, which critics held true
in all his later career : " Great was the expectation (wrote this
correspondent) in relation to Yancey's talents as an orator,
but it fell inflnitely below what truth and justice warrant.

'TWO ELECTIONS TO COXGRESS. 141
His diction is rich and flowing, he is at once terribly severe in
denunciation and satire and again overpowerlngly cogent In
argument and illustration, but ever dignified and statesman
like. He is comparable to no predecessor, because no one ever
united so raany qualities of the orator. He stands alone, and
has attained a name and an elevation which is glorious and
unapproachable. He denounced with becoming severity the
tendency to bring all questions to the test of party rather
than of national benefit, and he expressed the fear that the
people were fast A'erging to a nation of embittered partisans
rather than of enlightened, generous freemen." The Wash
ington Globe said the speech was distinguished by " severe
sarcasm and fervid eloquence, and this couching of the eyes
of a Southern man by a Southern man, is quite appropriate."
The Richmond Enquirer, Thomas Ritchie editor, the acknowl
edged organ of the National Deraocracy, said, the question,
" Who Is Jaraes K. Polk," had been answered. The question,
" Who is W. L. Yancey," was on everybody's lips, " and if he
be not paralyzed by the admiration he has already excited nor
his head be turned by the incense of praise, he Is destined to
attain a very high distinction in the councils of the nation."
Yancey's speech was delivered January 7, 1845. The same
evening he received a note from Mr. Clingman, written from
his seat in the House, demanding to know " whether you
intended toward me, personally, any disrespect, or to be
understood that I was deficient in Integrity, honor or any
other quality requisite to the character of a gentleman."
Yancey replied the next day, referring Clingman to the pub
lished speech in the morning paper, adding : " Of tha lan
guage I did use or of my motives, I have no explanation to
make." CUngman authorized Yancey's friend. Representative
Armistead Burt, from South Carolina, to say that he would
repair to Baltimore for farther correspondence. Yancey had
requested Representative Robert Barnwell Rhett to take
charge of the correspondence with Clingman, but Mr. Rhett
construed his membership in the Episcopal Church a bar to
such a friendly service. So that, on the evening of January
9th, Mr. Yancey, accompanied by Mr. John Middleton Huger,
son of his father's law partner, left for Baltimore, arrived
there at 8 o'clock and put up at the Exchange Hotel. The

142 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
following morning Mr. Charles Lee Jones, of Washington,
appeared with a note from Mr. Clingman demanding to know if
Mr. Yancey declined a satisfactory explanation of his speech.
Yancey replied : " I deem any explanation superfiuous." To
this Clingman immediately replied : " I presume you wUl
now state whether in the report of your speech as furnished
by you to rae, you intended any personal disrespect." Yancey
replied Instantly : " I raust repeat, I deem any explanation
superfiuous." Mr. Jones then requested Mr. Huger to con
sider Mr. Yancey's first note in reply to Mr. Clingman as
withdrawn. This was agreed to, and the whole subject was
submitted anew to Messrs. Huger and Jones.
Mr. Jones, for Mr. Clingman, then inquired In writing of.
Mr. Yancey whether he intended by the language of his
speech to convey any personal disrespect or to cast any reflec
tion upon Mr. Clingman's honor or character as a gentleman.
Mr. Huger, for Mr. Yancey, said that Mr. Yancey, and the
body of Southern Representatives who heard Clingman's
speech, construed it to justify and to deraand Yancey's reply,
and that Yancey would refuse any explanation of a reply to
imputations cast by Clingman upon the character of his
"brother Representatives." The next day, January 11th,
Jones drew up a statement, in a few words, to be signed by
Huger, declaring that Yancey's speech was delivered " in the
heat of debate and not intended to be personal." Yancey
refused to admit the truth of the words he was invited to
sign, and Huger declined to accede to the demand.
Cllngraan then addressed the following note to Yancey :
"Baltimore, January 11, 1845.
" Sie : -— Having failed In all my eff'orts for an amicable
adjustment of the difficulty between us, nothing remains for
me but to deraand of you the satisfaction usual among gentle
men." " Your obedient servant,
T. L. Clingman."
" The Hon. Mr. Yancey."
The challenge was imraediately accepted, orally. I have
given the particulars In detaU to indicate the tardiness with
which the fleld of honor was approached by the most gallant
of gentlemen. Messrs. Yancey and CUngman had never ,met
each other in society ; no personal Introduction had ever taken

TWO ELECTIONS TO CONGRESS. 143
place between them ; they were about to combat for a prin
ciple. In the case of Mr. Yancey, he had not taken personal
offence at the speech of j\Ir. CUngman ; he refused to apologize
for his reply, on the ground that he had spoken for his
<' brother Representatives" by their appointment and with
their approbation ; he had spoken for his section which. In
this instance, was his country.
It was agreed between Messrs. Huger and Jones, these
gentlemen having been appointed by the principals as their
respective seconds on the fleld, that the meeting should occur,
as soon as possible, at BeltsviUe, Maryland, on the Baltimore
and Washington turnpike, twelve mUes from the latter city,
at three o'clock on the afternoon of January 13th. Saturday
evening, as soon as might be, Messrs. Yancey, Huger and
Buchanan, a member of the House, left Baltimore and drove
eighteen miles toward Beltsville. Sunday was spent at rest at
a wayside tavern. Sunday night was passed by Invitation at
a gentleman's residence near by.
The Clingman party arrived in due time in the vicinity of
BeltsvUle and Yancey and his friends took rooms at Brown's
Hotel. The seconds selected the ground and, as the hour
approached, all were in readiness to repair to It. At this
moment officers of the law appeared at Brown's In search of
the belligerents. Mr. A. B. Meek, of Alabama, who had gone
to Washington to bear the electoral vote of the State, with a
number of members of Congress, were in the parlor on the
flrst floor. Meek and Representative Reuben Chapman, of
Alabama, entertained the officers, and contrived to have them
selves bound over while Yancey and Huger, who were in an
upper story, made their exit by a private way and, walking
rapidly across the flelds, and woods reached the ground.
Meek had in possession the pistols. Finding Yancey had
gone, he, with Chapman, sprang into a carriage and ordering
the driver to put his team to the run arrived at the place of
meeting in brief time — the officers In hot pursuit. The com
batants were assigned quickly to position, ten paces apart, the
weapons, single-barrel pistols, placed in their hands and the
rules of combat explained. Upon the ground were Messrs.
Burt, of South Carolina, Belser and Chapman of Alabama, and
Saunders of North CaroUna, members of the House, besides

144 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Mr. Meek, and Mr. Huger, the second, together with Doctors
Gwynn and Tate, of Mississippi, all friends of Mr. Yancey.
Mr. John MarshaU, editor of a Jackson, Mississippi, news
paper, seems also to have been present. Of the friends of Mr.
Clingman, besides his second, Mr. Jones, there were present,
Messrs. Rayner, of North Carolina, and Cassin, of Maryland,
members of the House, and Dr. Gibson, of Maryland. The
words were given and in the giving there was allowed the
time of six seconds. Cllngraan fired proraptly ; Yancey fired
toward the end of the tirae. Four or five policeraen rushed
on the scene and were within a few feet of Yancey when he
fired. The shots were ineffectual. Mr. Rayner instantly
carae forward to suggest, that : " Mr. Yancey raight now
retract his personally offensive remarks applicable to Mr.
CUngman, to which Mr. Huger suggested that this difficulty
existed — that Mr. Yancey considered Mr. Clingman's speech
as casting personal and offensive Imputations upon the South
ern Democrats. Upon which Mr. Jones, as Mr. Clingman's
friend, at once disclaimed such construction and declared that
the speech was purely political, and that Mr. CUngman
Intended no personal Imputation upon any member of the
Llouse of Representatives." " Whereupon, Mr. Yancey made
the suggested retraction."
To this settlement Messrs. Huger and Jones attached their
signatures and shook hands. The principals advanced and
shook hands.*
High excitement prevailed in social circles at Washington
awaiting news from the field. The next day both combatants
appeared In their seats in the House. A few days later Mr.
Preston King, of New York, called the attention of the House
to the newspaper reports of the duel, and submitted a motion
that a committee be appointed to inquire into the allegation
that it had taken place, and if the reports proved true to bring
in a resolution for the expulsion of both principals. The
motion of Mr. King was debated all day. Mr. Payne, of
Alabama, declared " if he were in the places of the gentlemen
involved he would trample upon, yea, he would spit upon the
act of expulsion if it were passed." Mr. Houston, of Alabama,
*I have followed in all the important details of thia affair the published pam
phlet account, written withia thirty days after the occurrence and certified by
John M. Huger.

Tiro ELECTIONS 'TO CONGRESS. 145
opposed any resolution of expulsion. Mr. Rayner, from North
Carolina, protested against any " such tyranny " as Mr. Kino-'s
motion contemplated. The vote was taken and the motion to
appoint a committee of investigation was lost, 166 to 82.
Mr. Meek wrote, for a Tuskaloosa newspaper, a full account
of the scene on the fleld. He said Yancey had expressed a
purpose not to return Clingman's fire. It was remembered
that in the many aff'airs of honor in which Henry Laurens,
Resident of the Continental Congress, had been engaged he
never returned the fire of his antagonist. But Yancey's friends
informed him they would not appear should he go to the meet
ing with that purpose. He then consented to return the flre
of Clingman, but insisted he " would not aim at a vital part."
"Mr. Yancey acqmtted himself with the most scrupulous
propriety," wrote Mr. Meek. Mr. John Marshall wrote to his
paper, that he knew Yancey had not flred a shot in practice ;
that he had never taken a duelling pistol in his hand until he
took his stand on the fleld. "A more cool, dispassionate man
than Yancey I have never seen or expect to see," he wrote.
The Alabama Baptist, a religious journal of high standing,
attacked Yancey with extreme vigor. " He has prostituted
the influence of his splendid talent, of his brilliant reputation
as a star of the first magnitude, of his power as a leader of the
younger part of his party, to the support of a practice which
no man can defend ; which every enlightened citizen deems a
relic of barbarism and all religious people deem a gross viola
tion of the laws of Almighty God," said that paper. Yancey
repUed to the article in a letter from his seat in the House to
the editor. " I have no more to add to assure you (he said)
and those constituents, whose honor I shall endeavor here to
represent as well as their politics, that all these grave consid
erations so jointly brought to bear by your article, were
calmly, seriously and deliberately weighed by me. The laws
of God, the laws of ray State, the solemn obligations due that
'young -wife, tho mother of my children,' to whom you so
feelingly and chastely allude, were all considered ; but all
yielded, as they have ever done from the earliest age to the
present, to those laws which public opinion has framed and
which no one, however exalted his station, violates with impu
nity."

10

146 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
An extraordinary intensity of feeling was aroused in
Alabama when it became known that Yancey's political ene
mies would endeavor to bring his public life to a close
under the penal code of the State, proscribing duelling. The
duelling act was in two sections. The one created a felony of
the duel fought within the limits of the State by a citizen ;
the other disqualified for office the citizen engaged as principal
in a duel fought without the State. I anticipate, briefly, the
connected narrative of Mr. Yancey's career to introduce the
final incidents relating to his aff'air' with Clingman. When
the Legislature convened in the winter, following the duel, a
bill was Introduced relieving him of the disabilities of the
duelling act. To this bill was attached, for the same measure
of relief, the name of Daniel Sayre, of Talladega, and it
passed with no opposition, of importance. Governor Martin
returned the bill to the Senate, where it originated, " with
those objections which his sense of official duty required."
The Governor declared the theory of government must suffer
the raost raisehievous consequences from legislation of this
character. The bill robbed juries and courts of the right of
indictment and trial in a case of acknowledged violation of a
statute which the Legislature did not venture to repeal, but
only to suspend, and thus to anticipate the Executive preroga
tive of pardon. The Legislature had, in fact, assumed the
whole power of government. " What other or better definition
of tyranny have we (said the message) than that It is a govern
raent in which the authority which makes the laws, also
ascertains the guilt of oft'enders, and administers or dispenses
the punishment consequent to the offence." A hot debate
followed on the motion to pass the bill over the veto. The
Speaker of the House, Andrew B. Moore, came upon the floor
and addressed It warmly in favor of the right of the General
Assembly to repeal or suspend the operation of a statute.
Mr. Howell Rose knew It was sometimes necessary for a
gentleman to flght; Yancey had good cause to flght; he
trusted in God the House would come to his relief. Mr.
David B. Hubbard admired Yancey, but he agreed with the
invulnerable argument of the veto. Mr. C. C. Clay, Jr., was a
warm personal friend of Yancey, but he had heard nothing to
break the force of the Governor's reasoning, and he could not

TWO ELECTIONS TO CONGRESS. 147
get around his own oath to support the Constitution. Party
lines were lost in the final vote. The bill was passed over the
veto, by more than two-thirds majority in both houses. The
action of the body had little regard to the Governor's logic ;
it was taken in accordance with the impulse of society. A
meritorious exception to the principle of the duelling act had
arisen in Yancey's case. It could not be resisted. Yancey
and Martin were personal and political affinities. AUke in
fearless defence of principle and non-partisan both by nature,
it was inevitable that upon the same plane of action two men
so aggressive must soon or late collide.*
In Yancey's first term in the House he found a young
member, Stephen Arnold Douglas, and between the men a
warm personal friendship sprung up.
In the Jime preceding the action of the Legislature relating
to the duel, the nominating convention of the Democratic
party of the Third Congress District met at CentrevUle,
Bibb county. The presiding officer, Hamlin F. Lewis, of
Lowndes, congratulated the delegates that there was little to
be done ; " For the people have with unheard of unanimity
instructed us to vote for their late Representative, Willlam
Lowndes Yancey. Other Districts seemed to be divided, but
ours (continued the speaker) is united as a tribute of esteem
to one who had gallanlily maintained the true policy of the
country, and who has met our most sanguine expectations."
The nominee, not opposed by the Whigs, received an increased
vote over his first election. Taking his seat with the opening
of the Twenty-ninth Congress, December, 1845, Mr. Yancey
found there as new members, Jefferson Davis and Robert
Toombs. President Polk was greatly embarrassed by the attitude of
his party on the Oregon boundary question. He oft'ered Mr.
Calhoun the mission to England, with carte blanche privileges
to settle the dispute on Calhoun's own theory of " masterly
inactivity." But the Carolinian refused the appointment.
~*It will interest the reader to know the prevalence of duelling at different
periods ol history : Henry Laurens, Alexander Hamilton, Gouveneur Morris, of
the revolutionary period, are sufficient examples of the class of citizens who then
resorted to the field of honor; in the next generation, Andrew Jackson, Commo
dore Perry, Clay and Crawford; in the generation of Yancey, Albert Sidney
Johnston 'phll Kearney, K. V. Sumner. These are only an insignificant enumera
tion of the Americans. Of eminent Englishmen, may be named Marlborough,
Hastings, Olive, Pitt, the younger, Wellington, Beaconsfleld, and many of their
class, who resorted to the practice.

148 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The war spirit of the West dominated the House. The South
and East were for peace. South Carolina in both Houses was
again In the lead. Rhett, in the lower branch, made the first
Impression for a policy of change from the' comraittals of the
President in the campaign. Yancey joined him, and delivered
one of the most notable of his speeches. The peace party, in
all parts of the Union, praised it extravagantly. The Tam
many Society invited him to address the people of New York,
but he declined. He received from Baltimore the honor of
an appointment, to which any orator of the land raight have
aspired, to address the Jackson Monument Society and, on
May 22, 1846, the oration was deUvered before a large audience
of the wealth and culture of the city. Following this Invita
tion came one to deliver one of a series of addresses before
Mr. Hamner's Female Academy, of Baltiraore, Mr. Everett and
other famous orators being on the list of acceptances. Choos
ing for his subject the " Rights and Wrongs of AVoman," he
said, " every blow aimed at established usage is received as
prejudice or scorned as visionary," and upon this text argued,
at length, for the Innovation, normally evolving from the
growth of virtue and intelligence in the times — acknowledg
ment of the equal social rights of women by the law.
When it was understood that Mr. Yancey would speak on
the Oregon question the morning papers spread the news and
the floor and the galleries of the House were flUed to their full
capacity. The Impression made by the speech well sustained
his reputation. The newspaper correspondents called him
the " Charles James Fox of America," and the New York
Herald declared he was without an equal in the field of
oratory. The public Interest In his oratory made a singulai-
Irapresslon upon his mind. He feared to be classed with de-
claimers. Accordingly, when he spoke upon the River and
Harbor bill and the Postofflce bill he treated both subjects
with rigid analysis, discussing the relations of the measures
to the Constitution, and fortifying his argument with labori
ously prepared statistical exhibits. He participated in the
acrimonious debate on IngersoU's, from Pennsylvania, resolu
tion of inquiry into the expenditure of the secret service fund
under Mr. Webster's administration of the State Department.
President Polk declined the request of the House for offlcial

TWO ELECTIONS 'TO CON(friESS. 149
evidence showing the items of expenditure of the fund, under
Mr. Webster, on the general ground that it was confessedly
an appropriation made by law for the exclusive control of the
State Department. The debate became historically important
in exposing the variety of infiuences, brought into the govern
ment, in the tendency toward paternalism. Foiled by the
President's refusal to bring before the country the accounts of
the Secretary, the more ardent Democrats of the House, from
both sections, attacked Mr. Webster's private business char
acter with no little vehemence. The salary of a member of
Congress was then extremely Inadequate to the dignity of the
offlce. Mr. Webster was poor, with a dependent family, and
the sacriflce, in his example, was singulfirly great. His fame
as a lawyer was unrivalled ; his talents in Congress, in support
of the powerful manufacturing Interests of New England, were
of incalculable advantage to the rich manufacturers. Mr.
Webster was confronted by a great temptation. In his personal
habits of extravagance, to retire from public life ; the mapu-
f acturers resolved to remove the temptation by a supplemental
contribution of their own devising to his salary. After Mr.
Hilliard, of Alabama, in resisting IngersoU's resolution, had
pronounced a fervid eulogy on Mr. Webster, declaring that on
his own observation in Europe the ex-Secretary was reckoned
with Washington, among Americans, and after the subject
had assuraed a thoroughly partisan character, the Whigs on
the defence and the Democrats attacking, the (ipportunity
proved irresistible to Yancey. He arrested attention in the
House and In the country by the serio-comic style of his
speech. He said the gentleman from Pennsylvania, a most
dignified Representative, had risen in his place to ask the
House to inquire whether the Secretary of State had used the
money allowed to him by the House for tHe purposes contem
plated in the appropriation. The Whigs had denounced the
motive of this simple motion, as if it were an impeachment of
a favorite leader. In reply he would say, that the doctrine
that " the king can do no wrong " was left behind when the
Democratic theory was set up in the United States. That
morning, in Baltimore, he had heard a personal and political
friend of Mr. Webster declare in favor of a private bounty for
that great Senator to enable him to remain in the public

150 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
service. He did not consider a Senator as in the public
service, who held his place on the bounties of private interests.
That was the animus of his own course. Even the separate
States were not allowed to fix the pay or dispense the pay
of members of Congress. Mr. Hilliard had denounced the
" tracking down of public men," " the turning over of the
pages of vile party defamation." Mr. Yancey would ask his
colleague if, in the campaign of 1840, he himself had not
descended to " Ogleism ? " Did he not tell the gold spoon
story on Van Buren and repeat the count of the utensils in
the White House kitchen, and ransack the bed chambers for
an inventory of articles found there ? Mr. Hilliard confessed
he had quoted the speech of Ogle, in 1840. Yancey replied he
had never Indulged In " tracking down " public men after that
fashion. "Sir, (he said) as to Mr. Webster's intellect, all
acknowledge its power ; but for one, I do not award respect
to great men for the intellect, merely, which they possess.
When a name for intellect is unassociated with public integ
rity, I leave its praises to the hangers on of courts and to the
sycophants of the palace. It is unworthy of commendation
from the lips of a virtuous American." Mr. Yancey's sar
casm, directed against Mr. Webster, was not raore severe,
however, than the defenders of Mr. Webster eraployed. Mr.
Winthrop, frora Massachusetts, at last rose in the House to
explain, that no donation of stocks had been made to Mr.
Webster, that he had not been paid a bounty of $100,000, as
charged, but that his friends at home had arranged for an
annuity to enable hira to reraaln in public life, and that the
fact had been announced to hira the raonth before. This, Mr.
Winthrop considered, " as high a compliment as was ever paid
to any public man in our country."
Congress sat until August 10th. Of the great event of the
session another chapter will speak in detail.
Yancey debated with John Quincy Adams and with Win
throp, with Clingman and Alexander H. Stephens, New
England Abolitionists, and Southern Whigs. He debated
with Stephen A. Douglas, on the infidelity of the Democrats
of the West to every National Democratic platform adopted,
since Jackson's first term, on the vital question of expending
the public revenues upon local schemes. If Congress, in

TWO ELECTIONS TO CONGRESS. 151
support of the rights of commerce, must buy the Ohio canal,
what argument could be brought to show Congress must not
buy and operate the South CaroUna railroad. He delighted
to contemplate the West. Under- the beneficences of Provi
dence, there a great people were destined to live and prosper.
He had earnest hopes that, under the Constitution, a people of
grand character would develop there, whose political princi
ples would be as broad as their great prairies, and whose
hearts would be as fruitful in every high and noble impulse.
This ceaseless activity, bringing him In contact and conflict
with varying shades of opinion lead hira, in the native direct
ness of his mental conclusions, to discover, what few then
appreciated, the irremediable absorption of national principles
in sectional expedients. Not alone from the mouths of older
or more important members did he' learn. He referred, with
unconcealed emotion, to the time, not long ago, when he and a
raember from Connecticut, now a Whig and Abolitionist,
" had wandered together on the banks of Green river, with
Euclid and Horace between them, searching for knowledge."
But now, this former class mate and dear friend confessed a
loss of confidence, where no cause could be discovered save
that it had fallen to him to be able to speak for the Constitu
tion of a common country.
Mr. Yancey's brief service in Congress, his " peep behind
the scenes," as he later expressed it, had Implanted In his
mind a profound conviction that not there, but in the prima
ries and conventions of the people, political leadership would,
in the future, find its opportunity. The disputes of the
sections lay in natural causes. There was little hope of
adequate amendment of the organic law of the Union to
quiet them. Congress was estopped from its legitimate
sphere of action, in such brief and general legislation as
became a government of delegated powers, and compelled to
enter upon efforts to substitute its own ephemeral acts of
mediation, between the sections, for the province of a settled.
Constitutional organism. He did not enjoy his office ; he did
not take readUy to perfunctory tasks ; he declared to a friend
and colleague that his sense of duty lead him Into acri
monious discussions on the floor extremely distasteful to him.
In his first term of service he had accepted Mr. Clingman's

152 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
call to the fleld and In his second term mutual friends inter
vened to check a serious difficulty between Mr. Alexander
H. Stephens and himself. In June, 1846, he wrote to Gov
ernor Martm resigning his seat, with the expiration of the
session. A few weeks later he published an address to the
people of his District announcing his letter to the Governor.
He had no source of income, save in his profession ; he had
been compelled to make the tedious journey from Washington
to the courts of his circuit for the fees. " Duty to a young
and growing family " compelled him to make provision for
their support and education, which was not possible from his
salary as a meraber of Congress.
The salary of members of Congress was yet governed by
the statute of 1818. The pay was 18.00, by the day, for
the session. To this was added forty cents for the mUe of
travel, both ways, by the " usual route " from the home of the
member to the capital. Mr. Clay^ speaking in the Senate, in
1851, said It had taken his family an entire day to travel
seven miles of the road to Washington, at an earUer period.
The stage fare was ten cents the mile, not including meals for
the day or expense of delay. It was remarked in the Senate,
that some members of Congress were known to charge
mileage by extremely circuitous ways. In 1845, and In 1849,
on the calls of Presidents Polk and Taylor for executive ses
sions of the Senate, to convene immediately on the expiration
of the respective Congresses, the Senators claimed, and were
paid, full mileage both ways for that special session, albeit
they had not left the capital. The House denounced the
charge on the public funds and, for a tirae, refused to appro
priate the amount, but ultimately yielded.
It was a remarkable letter of resignation the people of the
Third District received from their Representative, whose pros
pects shone easily in the lead of all Representatives of the
State. It was the initial utterance of the most decisive and
reraarkable unofficial future leadership recorded in American
politics. To write down the evidences of the public surprise
at Mr. Yancey's retirement from offlce and the evidences of
the extent of the public interest manifested in what he would,
in future, do in the politics of the country, would be to present
his character in the strongest light. Four times in five years

TTT'O ELECTIONS TO CONGRESS 153
the people, regardless of party affinities, had elevated hira to
places of honor, ever ascending. " This District Is now filled
not only with the warmest personal and political friends of
j\Jr. Yancey but also with ardent admirers of his genius, who
would prefer him as a Representative to any other man whom
soever ; " " If we must have a Democrat from this District
in Congress we join the Deraocrats in deploring the step Mr.
Yancey has taken." These extracts from the newspapers of
both parties indicate the universality of feeling, not in the
District, alone, but in all parts of the State.
The letter of resignation was a bold impeachment of the
party whose favors the writer enjoyed, and upon whose
strength he could raost safely repose for promotion. Enumer
ating the more important labors he had performed, it an
nounced : He had voted for the annexation of Texas and for
a peaceful settlement of the joint occupancy of Oregon with
Great Britain ; voted for the separation of the governraent
from the bank ; voted to restore the compromise with South
CaroUna, -violated by the protective tariff of 1842, in the 1846
tariff for revenue only ; voted for Calhoun's bill to reduce,
gradually, the price of public lands to twenty-five cents an
acre ; voted to make the Postofflce self-supporting, because of .
the different degree of benefit it conferred on the farmers and
the commercial classes, the latter class then practically draw
ing one million dollars from the common fund under the
guise of supporting the Postofflce; voted, unsuccessfully,
against bills to expend large sums of money by Congress on
the improvement of Western rivers, principally, because the
new States of that region were Democratic, until corrupted by
the expenditure of public funds, because, counting from the
origin of the Union, the free States had received $10,193,000
for such purposes to the $3,020,000 received by the slave
States, while the latter were then paying sixty -three one-hun-
dredths of the common revenues. The sumraary was :
"In the measures alluded to, however, I have not found
co-operating with me those whom you had a just right to
regard as Democrats, and with whom you have held political
communion in general conventions, when all were pledged to
carry out Democratic measures. On the great and vital
questions of taxation and disbursement, I have had to encoun-

164 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
ter the most active opposition from the entire Democratic
delegation from Pennsylvania, with one brUliant exception,
(Mr. David Wilmot) and from a large portion of the Demo
cratic delegation from New York. On the question of dig-
bursement, nearly the whole West (there are several noble
instances to the contrary), together with the North and East,
have been generally opposed to us. In some instances, their
spirit of spite has carried them so far as to lead them to vote
down an appropriation for defence of a harbor of the South,
because the South had, in conscientious discharge of its duty,
opposed appropriations for Internal improvements. How long
you can hope to succeed in carrying out your great measures
of reform, if you adrait to your councils raen who are utterly
opposed to them, and who, by union among themselves, are
strong enough to control there your nominations and so to
word your resolutions as to make them a screen for every
political vagary, is worthy of your most serious consideration.
My observation here convinces me, that In such a party organi
zation the South, which is the only portion of the party sound
on these questions, is used merely to foot the bill and to aid in
securing to the party a power which shall give to our North
ern brethren the spoils. We shall never be able to act with
that pi-eclslon and energy necessary to Insure permanent
success, until we make, as a sine qua non of political fellow
ship, a strict adherence to principle. Upon the celebrated
bank question, had our ranks not been purified of all who
were not for us, we never should have succeeded. Upon the
far more Important question of taxation, the same course,
bequeathed to us by the example of Jackson, will alone insure
like success. If these measures are Democratic, opposition to
thera is Whiggery, and should deterraine our course. If
principle is dearer than mere party association, we will never
again meet in common Deraocratic convention a large body of
men who have vigorously opposed us on principle."
There was no menace to the Union held out in this letter.
It was a plain and paljjable plea for natural equity. It was
not the vc/lce of an outcast from party that was heard. Vol
untarily relinquishing the patronage and emoluments of offlce,
this writer entered upon a self- consecration to the public weal.
In the sources of public opinion he planted and nourished into

TWO ELECTIONS TO CONGRESS. 155
growth, by the splendor of his genius, a most extraordinary
public devotion to abstract principle. Friends deserted him,
foes defied him, but the substance of his argument was, an
appeal to the intelligence of the people. He threw no false
colors upon the current of events. He asked the people not
to be deceived. Through fourteen years of unofflcial public
service the people heard him with ever augmenting interest ;
heard him expound the theory of American Uberty and unfold
the proof of the perils which menaced it. " The great man
is the lightning, without which the fuel never would have
burned." This significant sentence closed the historic letter :
" In that private life which I seek I shall ever bear this proud
consolation, that I have used every endeavor to represent you
in the Congress of the Republic in your character as well as
in your politics ; and that I represented a people who could
appreciate, fully, the motives of my action."
It was a month after the date of Mr. Yancey's address to
his constituents that the friend of the South there lauded by
him, Mr. Da-vid Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, introduced the
historic Proviso, to an appropriation bill, which continued to
agitate the sections until the dispute involved in it was settled
by the sword. Mr. Yancey voted for the Texas annexation
bill which recognized the Missouri " comproralse," of 1820.
The bill to organize the Territory of Oregon carae up and
Mr. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, moved and amendment pro
hibiting slavery. Mr. Burt, of South Carolina, moved to qual
ify Mr. Winthrop's amendment by adding the words, "ina,s-
rauch as the whole of said Territory lies north of 36° 30'
north latitude." Burt's amendment was rejected by the aid of
the AboUtionists. Rhett, Yancey and all leaders of their school
voted for the Oregon bill with the Winthrop proviso, account
ing the proviso as surplusage, intended by the mover an insult
to the slave States, which they could afford to disregard.
In the family of Mr. Yancey, at Wetumpka, lived a young
student at law, his half brother, Samuel S. Beman, a Whig.
The brothers were devotedly attached to each other. A fall
from a horse, in his twelfth year, had injured Beman's spine
so that his stature increased no longer. " I love ray brother
all the more for his infirmity" said Yancey. Governor Martin

156 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
ordered an election for October, 1846, in the Third District to
fill the vacancy caused by Mr. Yancey's resignation. The
Democrats nominated James La Fayette Cottrell, a Virginian
by birth, a lawyer of Lowndes county and a gentleman of the
highest personal character. The Whigs, who had been wont
to declare, that could they bring Beman into the field, with his
extraordinary eloquence, they would triumph, even over Yan
cey, now came out to oppose the Democrats under their young
leader. The candidates made joint debate in all the counties.
At the outset, it became evident the Democratic candidate
must disappoint the expectations of the party, lead for nearly
thirty years by Lewis and Yancey, while he was confronted
with Beman, the match of either Lewis or Yancey on the
stump, in raany respects.
More votes were cast for Beraan than for Cottrell. Cot-
trell's legal majority, as counted, was less than twenty-five
and he took his seat. A box with sixty-four majority for
Beman was delayed by high water too long to allow a legal
count. Mr. Yancey was not a resident of the Third District
on election day. He had been called upon by party friends to
declare whether he would take part in the canvass or whether
the love of kindred would be paramount to the warm support
the party had given him so recently. He repUed openly, that
if a resident of the District he would support Cottrell and
that he considered the candidate of his party in every respect
worthy of election. Late in the campaign, the newspapers
declared that the Democratic candidate had circulated reports
injurious to the personal character of the Whig candidate.
Yancey was at Centreville, Bibb county, trying causes before
the Circuit Court. The noonday recess of the court arrived
and the candidates, who had just corae into town, were ready
to debate. Mr. Cottrell was about to open when Yancey
walked quickly up the aisle of the church where the people
had assembled and engaged him a moment in whispered con
sultation, then, turning to the audience, declared Mr. Cottrell
had been requested by him to deny then and there any partic-
ipancy, on his part, in the scandalous reports concerning his
brother's character. This act of justice, as he conceived, had
been refused. Mr. Yancey then denounced the reports as
slanderous. If of the District, he would surely have supported

TWO ELECTIONS 'TO CONGRESS. 157
the nominee of his party on party principle. " But if he goes
out of his way to make up an issue of moral worth in a pri
vate way; if he thus oft'ers another issue, he becomes un
worthy of the support of good men." The Whigs warmly
comraended the man who refused to permit the exigencies
of his party to sUence his conscience ; the Democrats bitterly
deplored the rashness of so gallant a man whose words came
too readily to his Ups. The circuit of the courts was followed
by Yancey and election day found hira at the capital of Au
tauga county. He avoided appearance at the polls or any
expressions which bore upon the contest.
One of the warraest and most steadfast of the personal
and political friends of Mr. Yancey, at Wetumpka, was James
R. Powell. The prairie planters and hill farmers, the mer
chants of the sea port, the lawyers and doctors seeking invest
ment for their fees, had talked earnestly, from the earliest
history of the State, of connecting the Tennessee river with
the Alabama, before raUroads were known, by a pike, and,
ever after they were known, by steam transportation. The
events to be presently related checked enterprise and dis
couraged the wholesome reciprocity of dependence between
enUghtened local civil government and an ambitious society.
Yancey fell on the verge of decisive industrial evolution in
Alabama, of which he was an earnest friend ; PoweU* survived
to act a leader's part.
Imraediately after his return frora Congress Mr. Yancey
took up his permanent abode at Montgoraery as a co-partner,
in the law, of John A. Elmore. He bought a farm five miles
from the city on the ferry road in a northeasternly direction,
and moved to it the residence he had occupied at Llarrowgate
Spring. His practice, however, required his fixed abode to be
at Montgomery. At the farm, he immediately put m practice
the purpose he had in view, when he bought the small place
in Coosa, of diversified farming to the extent of his means.
Between the co-partners an enduring personal respect and
admiration prevailed to the end.
Yancey's early law co-partner, Sampson W. Harris, suc
ceeded him in the State Senate, and succeeded him in Congress
*The first president of the Elyton Land Company, the founder of the city of
Birmingham.

158 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
at the first regular election after his resignation. He was
chosen at five successive elections, defeating the strongest
raen — Hunter, of Dallas, Mudd, of Jefferson, Moore, of
Lowndes, and Martin, of Benton, (Calhoun) and died at his
post of duty at Washington. Few men of Alabama possessed
a higer culture than he, of mind or heart.

CHAPTER 6.

The Abolitionists.

The discovery of the New World and the dispossession of
the aboriginees found in it ; the discovery of African labor
and the American commerce established in it, if not allow
able as incidences of natural law were, nevertheless, bona
fides of society ; the most important events in the history of
civilization, and were, in fact, evidences of actual escape out
from the vis inertice and sentimentalism of usage, into which
the institutions of the most advanced nations had fallen, upon
the -wide and fruitful plane of political economy. The discov
ery of African labor was an American enterprise. It was the
introduction of a hitherto unknown muscular force, proving,
on trial, to be the most perfect agent of production then
kno-wn to commerce. So ductile and efflcient was It, and so
limitless of supply, that it spontaneously assumed a quasi-
mechanical relation to capital employed in production. It
was the essential fact, premonitory of the advent of the age
of mechanics and political economy. The American " planta
tion " was the first example of combination in capital and
labor under legally established rules to effect general com
merce. In the principle of mutual dependence of capital and
labor, first established in the plantation, originated the wage
or factory system. The plantation economy forced revolution
upon the world's commerce and compelled a radical re-organ
ization of social order in commercial nations. The plantation
system delivered, by fixed system, its own products to the

H30 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
operation of the factory system, and thus set in motion irre
sistible infiuences of social activity and enlargement, unfavor
able, ultimately, whether in speedy or slow process, to all
oppression or bondage of raan over man. In both the planta
tion, or original system, and its creature, the factory system,
the principle of division of profits of labor was recognized as
the basis of its equity. Both distributed 'directly or indirectly
better food, better clothing, better shelter and provided better
care of the old and the young than the beneficiaries had previ
ously enjoyed. Both Inevitably tended toward an ideal of self
protection, founded upon the physical, mental and moral good
to be imparted, in their operation, to the labor Involved.
Slavery, it Is unnecessary to say, was the favorite institu
tion of Chaldeans, Israelites, Greeks, Romans, Saxons from
whom American Institutions descended and was, by all, left to
be determined, in its survival or extinction, by the convenience
of the State. Before African labpr entered Araerica, the " re-
deraptloners " of New York, the " indentured " of Virginia,
the " contract servants " of Georgia — all white slaves, sub
jects of commerce in their bodies, regulated In their marital
rights, governed in their social intercourse by written passes
signed by their masters, liable to be fiogged, to be branded, to
be dipped in water at the discretion of their masters — were
comraon enough. The superior economy of African slavery
over all other forms of involuntary servitude and the silent
operation of the expanding principle of liberty, set free the
Europeans from their bondage in America. The " soul driver,"
as the Quakers termed the merchant dealing in white slaves,
lost his occupation in New York and Pennsylvania when the
New England ship master began to deliver cargoes of Africans
to serve a better end. In 1670 Virginia Imported fifteen
hundred white slaves and two thousand Africans, but, after
that date, the superiority of the latter becoming evident, the
traffic in the former waned and gradually perished. Social
reformation and African importation moved apace. The whip
ping post, the branding iron, the law of entail and primogeni
ture, the established-church, imprisonment for debt, execution
for witchcraft, proscription or death for religious faith brought
to the colonies, with other customs of the mother country,
gave way as the States prospered under the new American

THE ABOLITIONISTS. 101
industrial factor, African labor. There was nothing new, but
rather time-honored, in the relation of master to slave. All
was new and unprecedented in vigor and high purpose in the
relation of African labor to commerce by sea and enterprise
on land, throughout the world.
The title to African slaves in America was a British title,
derived from the crown, until the colonies became Independent
States-. The crown gi-anted licenses to slave merchants and
derived great proflts in the sales. The federal Constitution
constructively affirmed the British title by recognizing the
slaves as subjects of taxation and otherwise, and by forbidding
Congress to Interfere with the Importation of more Africans,
"prior to "the year 1808, by any of the existing States.
African slavery is distinguished in its history by the fact, that
it preceded all municipal law wherever it was planted. Trade
in Africans prevailed forty years in Virginia before a statute
relating to Africans was enacted. The race was system
atically introduced into Georgia in deflance of an express pro
hibitory clause of the charter of the colony.
It has been the custom of modern writers to ignore the
feeling in the Southern States unfavorable to an indefinite
extension or prolongation of the Ufe of the Institution of
African slavery, and to conceal the fact that the defence of
the institution was ultimately involved in the preservation of
public Uberty. I well remember slave-holders, actors in the
nullification episode of South CaroUna, many years later, who
were wont to relate that being, before then, in favor of gradual
emancipation they had, after then, merged their opinions on
that topic in the superior issue of defence against the com
bined parties of Mr. Clay and Mr. Adams.
The happy eff'ect of the substitution of African slavery
for the slavery of other races in America is not difficult to
trace. Bancroft, writing of the attempt of the Pilgrims to
enslave the aborigines of Massachusetts, says : " So per
ished the princes of the Pakonokets. Sad to them had been
their acquaintance with civilization. The first ship that came
on their coast kidnapped men of their kindred, and now the
harmless boy that had been cherished as an only child and the
future sachem of their tribes, the last of the family of Mas-
sasoit, was sold into bondage to toil as a slave under the:

11

102 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
burning suns of Bermuda." An active trade in red men from
the neighboring continent proceeded with the West Indie
planters, but the proud warriors, refusing to toil, " died with
rapidity too shocking to contemplate." The loveliest land on
which the eye of explorer ever rested, tall mountains clad to
their summits with rose wood and blooming vines, valleys
deep carpeted in flowering grasses of richest hues, with brooks
and clear streams flowing to the sea, was San Domingo —
" Paradise," Columbus exclaimed. The French came, found
not a beast of prey or a venoraous reptile ; found the natives,
a race small of stature, light of color, peaceful and somewhat
devoted to agriculture. To open plantations by the labor of
the enslaved "indlglnes'' the French settlers devoted many
years. Unable to discharge tlieir tasks, the miserable people
sunk to decay. Parents sought self-destruction, offspring
carae Into the world deformed idiots. The noble Las Casas
carae, witnessed the degredatlon of the French Island, passed
over to the Spanish Island where prosperous Africans and
blooming plantations met his view. Hastening to his king,
he besought him to terminate the oppression of the indigines
by the sale of a Ucense to Import Africans to the French.
Genoese merchants bought the privilege. Immediately the
face of the land underwent a wonderful change. In a few
years, Avith the black man in the place of the native in the
flelds, San Domingo was clad in the beauty of great enter
prise. Continuous plantations of sugar, coff'ee, cotton, were
joined by beautiful roads. The planters lived In luxury; four
hundred ships annually sailed from Its ports laden with its
rich products and, in less than fifty years, one-half the sugar
consumed by Europe was borne in tfleir holds. It was not
ancient slavery of class but modern servitude of race that had
redeemed the Island. Labor shared then more evenly the
profits of enterprise. The system of division was modern in
the highest sense of raodernlty — it secured a reciprocity of
benefits to labor and capital. Sir Archibald Alison has writ
ten of it : " The negroes who, in a state of slavery, were com
fortable and prosperous beyond any peasantry In the world,
and rapidly approaching the condition of the raost opulent
serfs of Europe, have been by the act of eraancipation irre
trievably consigned to a state of barbarisra."

THE ABOLITIONISTS. 163
In 1789, two years before eraancipation In San Domingo,
the production of sugar was 672,000,000 pounds, fifteen years
later it had fallen to 47,516,351 pounds, thirty-five years after
emancipation it was given at 2020 pounds, and a few years
later had ceased altogether. Squalor, petty wars, ignorance
and brutality i-eigned supreme on the Island, but the " prin
ciples " of Robespierre and Marat had taken eff'ect. License
prevailed ; liberty was not.
In 1717, France chartered the Western or India Company
to settle the Louisiana country of unknown boundaries. Au
thority was granted- the Company to settle six thousand
whites and half the number of blacks, annually, ou its lands.
The first ship loads of whites preceded the blacks, intending to
prepare for them. March 17, 1721, a slaver arrived at Mobile
with three hundred and twenty-one Africans ; four days later
a cargo of three hundred and twenty-eight arrived, and soon a
third cargo of two hundred and thirty-eight. Plalf of the car
goes had perished on the passage. The whites already there
were in the greatest extremity of suffering from the climate,
and were upon the verge of starvation. The forests at once
supplied the imported savages with food ; their labor began
at once. A new face was put upon the colony. Indigo,
tobacco, cedar posts, square pine timber, tar and other exports
were made ready. A cotton gin, eighty years In advance of
^Vhltney's machine, was invented and put into use — two long
Iron rollers, grooved and turning in opposite directions. Gov
ernor Bienville Issued his proclamation forbidding miscegena
tion and announcing other restraints and customs for the
relation of the races, many of which survived, in the Gulf
States, for near a century and a half. A vain attempt was
made by the Company to establish colonies on the lower
Mississippi; especially in what is now Arkansas, without the
aid of the negroes. Wherever the blacks came, however,
prosperity and content followed, and by 1728 " Louisiana,"
where two thousand of this race cultivated fields of cotton,
grain, tobacco and indigo, was rejoicing In great success.
At the General Sessions of Peace Oyer and Terminer,
Assize and General Gaol Delivery holden at Charleston, South
Carolina, October, 1769, Chief Justice Robert Prlngle presid
ing, Rawlins Lowndes and George Gabriel Powell, "Assistant"

164 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Judges also on the bench, the Chief Justice charged the
Grand Jury. After mentioning the change of the law, against
horse stealing, frora the penalty of death to " the loss of one
ear or flagellation, or whipping," urging that the law for the
protection of negroes from cruelties be enforced, that negli
gent highway Commissioners be heavily fined and that the
" militia and patrol acts," intended to " prevent insui-rections
or danger from that quarter " should have strict attention, the
charge proceeded :
"The laudable and great industry of .the inhabitants of this
colony has rendered it the most opulent and flourishing colony on the
British Continent of America. And its various and valuable produce
increases in proportion to its number of inhabitants and extent in
trade; the quantity of rice no-w produced being double to -what it was
t-wenty or thirty years ago. What -was then considered a good crop did
not exceed fifty to seventy thousand barrels, and no-w, for some years
past, the crops of rice have been near double that quantity ; so that,
gentlemen, it evidently appears that th6 industry of the inhabitants has
been crowned with remarkakle success, and as this is a land of industry
and plenty, so it is to be hoped, will likewise continue a land of free
dom and liberty. '* * I am also to recommend to you the promoting
and encouraging of good seminaries of learning in the colony as an
object very -worthy of your particular notice and attention, and wliich
are greatly encouraged and attended with such success in our Northern
colonies — the -want of which here lays this colony under many disad
vantages and inconveniences: for instead, gentlemen, of having the
comfort and satisfaction of having our children educated at home,
under our eye and inspection, and obtaining a liberal education among
ourselves, we are obliged to send our youth to England, or to the
colleges of the Xorthern colonies for their improvement in literature,
art and the sciences, which is a great inconvenience, besides the
expense and the occasion of money going out of the colony especially
as this colony can as well afford to erect, maintain and support a
college as any of the Northern provinces whatsoever."
So much for the slave country. Of the up-country, the
Chief Justice spoke : " And it is likewise to be much wished
and hoped for, gentlemen, that our Legislature will think It
necessary, and for the general welfare of the colony that min
isters may be appointed, and public schools erected for the
benefit and instruction of the poor people in the interior parts
of the colony where they live in great ignorance ; the want of
which has, in a great measure, occasioned the riots and fre
quent disturbances and commotions that have happened in

THE ABOLI'LTONISTS. 165
remote parts these two years past, and which still continue In
some places as they have of late opposed, and will not suft'er
the King's writs," etc.
In the eighteenth century, Americans admitted to the
London Inns of Court to plead at the bar, numbered one
hundred and thirteen. Of this number, eighty-three were
registered as from the colonies known as agricultural colo
nies, and of those so registered forty-four were from South
CaroUna. Before the revolution, St. Phllipp's and St. Mich
ael's at Charleston were built. Original paintings of half
score of the most noted artists of Europe adorned the walls
of spacious and beautiful private mansions. The St. Cecilia
Society, for the cultivation of music, was founded ; and a
public library incorporated. In 1775, South Carolina had one
newspaper to twenty thousand inhabitants, and Massachu
setts one to flfty thousand two hundred and eighty-flve.*
The experience of Georgia, under a royal charter prohibiting
African slavery and encouraging the importation of Gerraan
servants, is extremely significant. This colony was set aside
by the king of England as a refuge for the poor of all Europe
and especially as an asylum frora religious persecution. Ogle
thorpe, a gentleman of noble birth, of rare virtues and a
member of the House of Commons, was selected as -Governor.
The colonists were distributed along the Savannah river, from
the town of Savannah as far up as Augusta. They were
encouraged to produce wine, silk, raise cattle, collect skins
and wild honey for export. Lieutenant- Colonel Cook, who,
was second in comraand to Oglethorpe, did not share in the
prejudices of the king, the Company and the Governor against
the Africans. John and Charles Wesley came, but took no
part in. the discussion prevailing through the settlements on
the policy of introducing the blacks. Meantime, the South
Carolinians, who settled Augusta, employed black slaves and
raised fine crops, while the German servants utterly failed in
the settlements below. Whitefield came and, seeing the con
dition of affairs, wrote to the Trustees urging relief of the
settlers by a revocation of the order against importing the
blacks. He declared the people were gloomy and poor and

*Hist. Higher Education Pub . Doc. Number 4. p. 228, Gov'nt Printing office,
1889.

166 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
many were preparing to abandon their land to go over to
South Carolina where black labor and plenty were found
together. The principal export of the colony was timber, yet
this cost just twice as much to deliver by the white labor of
Georgia as by the blacks of the other side of the river, where
there were eight blacks to one white. One German servant
would cultivate five acres of land. The value of the corn and
pease his labor would produce was less than the wages paid to
him. The high pine land, which white hired men alone could
cultivate, would produce twenty bushels of corn and forty
bushels of pease the first year, and, on descending scale, pro
duce nothing the fifth year. The contrast of this result with
the rice swamp lands of South Carolina where the black man
worked In comfort, was wonderful. The production of rice
increased annually and the bulk of the product was enormous.
The ship masters of New England and Old England, ever
ready to promote comraerce in black men, exerted their influ
ence to create discontent in the Georgia settlements with the
anti-slavery regulations. A pamphlet was prepared by the
leading settlers, Telfair, Anderson, Douglas, for the enlighten
ment of the Company, announcing the earnest wish of the
people to have the blacks.. The whites could not hue timber
and hoe crops In that climate, they said. " Such work causes
inflammatory fevers, fluxes, colics, dry belly aches, tremors,
vertigoes, palsies, etc." " The Board of Trustees have ruined
Georgia (they continued) chiefly from denying negroes, and In
persisting In such denial, after, by repeated application, we
had humbly demonstrated the impossibility of making im
provements with white servants."*
The combined demand of the white settlers and the ship
masters brought raany Africans, and the progress of Georgia
set In. In twenty-flve years from the beginning of the Afri
can slave trade with Its coast, the drooping colony was ready
to join In the movement for Independence on terms of, at least,
approximate equality with her rebeUing sisters.
It is well reraembered now that a pubUc road leading from
Caflaba to the capital, Tuskaloosa, was called, in the flrst
twenty years of the statehood of Alabama, "the widow's
road." The highway bisected a fertile belt for many miles.
*Prof. Scomp, in Mag. Amer. History, 1888.

THE AROLITIOMSTS. 167
Thither many young farmers with their wives and children
came from the mountains of North CaroUna, South CaroUna
and Tennessee, tempted by the high price of cotton and the
proxiralty of the rivers to float the crops to a safe and con
venient raarket. Bravely they cleared the flelds in winter
and spring, only to fall victims in summer and autumn to the
deadly malaria. The " widow's road " became at last the
warning, known far and wide to non-slaveholding farmei'S, to
avoid the rich lands for the hill country to the north or the
piney region to the south. The black man came, and in Ala
bama, as in Georgia, the problera of prosperity was solved and
Democracy made sure.
Facts which go to prove the discovered material economy,
African slavery, cannot be held to justify the origin of the
institution. Neither the status of slavery, or savagery, or any
other inferior existence of man is derived of abstract right.
The experimental character of the Institution In the United
States presents some curious and extremely determinate as
pects. Put on trial, faithfully, in the navigating States, it
failed as an economy, so that an early period negroes disap
peared frora the flelds there, to be found only as domestic
servants of the rich ; thus the blacks having driven out the
" redemptioners " became themselves freed in norraal action of
economic forces. Taking up the economic character of slave
labor in the agricultural States, or, as they were later known,
the cotton States, in another place I shall endeavor to show
that in its very profltableness was prepared for it a self-extinc
tion. There is last to be considered the political effects of
the institution on the British American colonies In preparing
them to sustain a revolution for their Independence and in
qualifying the States to form a voluntary Confederation on the
basis of reciprocal benefits and duties.
•The following advertisements serve to show the peaceful and orderly method
adopted in the navigating States to relieve themselves of the negro populatiim.
Trading vessels for the South and West India took them off lor sale.
From the ConstUutional Journal and Weekly Advertiser :
A NEGRO WOMAN FOR SALE. Bos-rON, July 4, 177C.
To be sold, a likely young negro woman that understands house work, common
cooking, etc., has had small-pox. Enquire of the printer.
From the Neiv England Chronicle: RUNAWAY. Boston, July 4, 1770.
Kuna-way from me, the subscriber, a negro man, named Sam, about 6 feet

168 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The following statement not only indicates that an abound
ing prosperity must have existed In the colonies when they
undertook the cause of Independence, but, also, that pros
perity was evenly distributed. What one section of the Con
federation needed in commerce the other was able to supply.
Upon the fact of social equality their political union became
convenient and possible. FEOM THE CENSUS OF 1790.
POPULATION.
NAVIGATING STATES. AGIilCUUTUBAL STATES.
White  1,931,296 White  1,241,168
Colored  !55,;379 Colored  701,986

Total  1,986,675 Total  1,943,154
Showing a dlft'erence of 43,521 In favor of the North, or
the navigating States. COMMERCE.
EXPOKTS. EXPOETS.
Pennsylvania  .$3,436,093 Virginia  $3,130,.865
Massachusetts  2,519,651 South Carolina  2,693,268
New York  2,505,465 Maryland  2,239,691
Connecticut  710,,353 North Carolina  524,548
Rhode Island  470,131 Georgia  491,250
New Hampshire  163,500 Delaware  184,379
New Jersey  26,988

Total  $9,264,001
Total  $9,832,181
The small difference In favor of the export commerce of
the navigating States was more apparent than real. The
coasting trade delivered no inconsiderable part of the com
modities of the agricultural States in the ports of the
navigating States, and the latter received credit from the
6 inches high, 30 or 40 years old. Had on, when he went off, a light crimson
colored coat; his upper fore-teeth stick out; speaks good English; has been nine
teen years from Africa. -Wliosoever takes up said negro and returns him to me
shall have one dollar reward. (Signed.) John Hunter.
N. B: All masters of vessels are hereby desired not to harbor or conceal or
carry away said negro,' so as to avoid the penalty of the law.
From the Penn Journal a-nd Weekly Advertiser: July 17, 1776.
To be sold, a large quantity of inch pine boards that are well seasoned.
Likewise, a negro wench. She is disposed of for no fault, but only that at pres
ent she is with child. She is about 20 years of age, has had the small-pox and
measles, and is fit for town or country business. Enquire of the printer.
From th,: Continental Journal and Weekly Advertiser: Boston, Oct., 26, 1780.
To be sold, a likely negro boy, about 13 years old, well calculated to wait on
a gentleman. Enquire of printer.
-•Vlso, to be sold, a likely cow and calf. Enquire of the printer.

TIIE ABOLITIONISTS. 169
re-shipment of the same articles under the general head of
" exports." The political effects of African labor in America are not
problematical, and are profoundly interesting. The heroism
which impelled the union of the colonies in the struggle for
Independence was born of common ambitions founded on
equality of social attainments. The attained status of social
equality was phenomenal. Frora Massachusetts Bay to Savan
nah a homogeneous people lived and prospered alike. The
wealthiest planter and most polished gentleman of South
Carolina, Mr. Izard, married the daughter of the aristocratic
Lieutenant-Governor of New York ; Gueveneur Morris raar
ried Miss Randolph, of Virginia. There is no roora for doubt
of the origin of the prosperity which blessed all. In the cora-
meree att'orded by the plantations. Nor can there be room
for doubt, that the early period of the eighteenth century
witnessed the achievement of Independence and Constitu
tional Union, because of the preparation for those events laid
in the marvellous material development, which had been
then accomplished and diffused by African labor. The main
industry in Massachusetts, on land, in the colonial times,
was the manufacture of rum frora West Indie raolasses, and
in this industry she employed a capital of half million doUars.
An active trade was pursued by the New England States
in exchange of spermaceti, whale bone and salt fish for rice,
molasses and tobacco. It is difficult to discover where the
New England commerce could have found a fleld so inviting
as the plantations opened to It. Indeed, it is certain no fleld
of corresponding advantages any where else existed. It is
difficult to say that New England was not dependent abso
lutely upon that trade ; not only[upon the products of labor
yielded by the plantations, but upon the richest of all com
merce, the traffic in Africans. The question is not to be sup
pressed : Of what importance to the settlement and develop
ment of the coast lands of the agricultural States was African
labor ?
Many are the evidences of history which attest the
strangely interesting character of the African transplanted to
America. In his native land he had already reached the most
abject degradation. If upon landing here, he was consigned

170 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
to bondage, it was a low condition with a silver lining in place
of a low condition without hope, to which he had been born.
The " middle passage," barbarous as it might be, was less of a
barbarity inflicted on him than his constant experiences In
Africa entailed upon him. What would have been the fate of
the Southern part of the British American possessions had the
African not come'? Whence would have come the lramlgr«iits
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to Araerica and
where would they have settled, had African labor not been
available ? The English came to the region south . of the
Potomac, bred to the common law, brought African labor and
determined the question of American Independence, at the
time it was accomplished. The experience of American settle
ment does not justify the prediction that Englishmen of the
class, which settled the southern Atlantic coast and developed
It with African labor, would have Immigrated in large num
bers to the Northwest Territory, where the African could not
go. The English colonist alone brought with him the knowl
edge and love of the common law necessary to the achievement
of Independence and the erection of a Republic. Germany
and France had once the same happiness and the same privi
leges that had been transported, by Germans, to England but
had fallen to a miserable condition. German, Irish and French
raight have colonized the Northwest and prospered In then-
own labor, but colonists of those nationalities would not have
met In Continental Congress, In 1774, nor declared Independ
ence, In 1776, nor fought for It under the political conditions
under which Washington and Greene achieved it, however
numerous they may have been.
The slave colonies, or the colonies where the African labor
seemed to be permanently established, had less to gain, and
more to lose In the risks of the movement for liberty. The
mother country encouraged agriculture, upon which they
thrived, but discouraged commerce and manufactures, neces
sary to the prosperity of the navigating States. The agricul
tural States maintained a safe monopoly of production in their
pursuits, but England and France were powerful contestants
for the flsheries in the Northern Atlantic where New England
seamen toiled. When the revolution broke out the navigating
States owned three-fourths of the tonnage which carried

THE AUOLiriO.MSTS. 171
American products, Europe owning the remainder, and to
protect this growing Ameilenii Interest, American Independ
ence was necessary. The Union, under the Constitution,
promised far more of relief to the Northern than the Southern
States, for, when it was formed, Araerican bottoms were
practically taxed out of the ports of Liverpool, Bordeaux, Lis
bon, Amsterdam, the Canaries and the West Indies, while
the flags of all nations sought the Southern trade.
Refusing to take root in the less abundant resources of the
North, African labor flxed, with eagerness, its marvellous
power in the varied and exhaustless wealth of the South. So
harmonious did the institution appear with the spirit of polit
ical progress, that In the chief slave colony originated the
scheme of American Independence ; and for the same commu
nity was written, by one of its sons, a slaveholder, the flrst
Constitution embodying fundamental principles of liberty, to
be placed in the public archives, to be read of all raen, that
ever was written in the history of modern nations — the
Constitution of Virginia, Thoraas Jeff'erson's work.
A digest of the federal Constitution, to show the beneflts
conferred upon the sections, respectively, will indicate the
compromissorial natui-e of its provisions.
AS TO THE NAVIGATING INTERESTS.
Sole power was vested in Congress to regulate commerce ;
Free trade between the States was ordered ;
Import duties were allowed but export duties were pro
hibited ;
Sole power to coin money was vested m Congress ;
A judiciary was created with authority to determine a
wide range of questions, the volume of which then arose at
the North. AS TO THE AGKICULTURAL INTERESTS.
Fugitive slaves escaping from one State to another were
required to be delivered up ;
A guaranty that the African slave trade should not be
prohibited by Congress, in the. States then permitting it,
"prior to" 1808; and that the import tax on African slaves
should not exceed $10, and three-flfths of the slaves should be

172 THE life: OF YANCEY.
apportioned for representation in Congress and In the electoral
college. In 1808, Benjamin Lundy, a youth, a New Jersey Quaker,
left his horae where African slavery yet prevailed, drifted
down the Ohio and stopped at Wheeling, Virginia. A saddler
by trade, there he opened a small shop. Wheeling was an
important slave mart. Wild Africans, often in chains, were
brought there to be sold on the block, to the farmers of Ken
tucky and Tennessee and the planters of the lower Mississippi
Valley. Brooding in discontent over the scenes daUy passing
before his unwilling gaze, the young Quaker packed his stock
in trade and, taking his departure In search of raore congenial
environments, established himself, once more, in business at
Clairsville, Ohio. At that place. In 1815, he put In motion the
flrst of those revolutionary organizations having for their
object the destruction of slavery. In less than a twelve
month the Clairsville Abolition Society carried flve hundred
names on its roll. Auxiliary Societies were organized. The
care of the whole movement devolved on Lundy and the
better to promote it he took his tools and stock to St. Louis,
sold thera and with the proceeds returned to establish a news
paper, an organ of the Society. So carae into existence the
Genius of Universal Emancipation, nominally pubUshed at
Mount Pleasant, Ohio, but really printed at SteubenvlUe,
twenty mUes distant, on a hired press, and brought on the
back of the editor and proprietor, walking the whole way, for
distribution once a week. Six subscribers only were obtained
for the first edition. The numerous members of the Society
were willing to spend long winter evenings in hearing solemn
harangues, on the evils of slavery, which involved no extra
charge but decUned to support the organ edited by an enthu
siast barely able to write legibly, so limited was his education.
Hearing at length of the failure of Wmbree's Emancipator, at
Greenville, Tennessee, and anxious to penetrate nearer to the
seat of the slave power, Lundy left his wife and children to
undertake, on foot, the perilous journey over the mountains to
that place. He revived the G. U. E, as he phrased it, at
Greenville, on the press and type of Umbree, learning, after a
clumsy fashion, to set type himself.

THE ABOLI'ITONISTS. 17g
In the three or four years his paper remained at Greenville,
he travelled in the Northwest, lecturing against slavery. He
went secretly twice to Texas, passing through the slave States.
He went to the West Indies to study the history of slavery
and slave insurrections there. He left agents in every part of
the slave States visited by him. Hearmg of Vesy's outbreak,
at Charleston, he wrote and published in his paper, at Green
vUle, the following Unes : «
" How ! faint hearted son of sorrow
Dost thou repine at fate !
¦rhou who hast not seen to-morrow.
Rush on death and force his gait !
" Go once more and serve with patience,
Weild again the pond'rous sledge.
Soon the blacks shall form free nations,
San Domingo is your pledge.
" Quick the cherub spread his pinions.
Vengeance blazing in his eye !
Down with tyrants and their minions !
Xations heard and joined the cry ! "
Abolition papers were destroyed in North Carolina and
Missouri. Rev. Mr. Lovejoy, taking an Abolition press and
outfit frora St. Louis, where it had been Interdicted, to the
interior of Illinois, was attacked, his property thrown into the
river and himself slain. Lundy found it prudent to move the
G. E. U. frora the more central location of Greenville, to Balti
more. There he was joined in its publication by a young Bos-
tonian, William Lloyd Garrison, Garrison assuming the part of
writer of the more radical paragraphs. The infiammatory
editor was soon arrested as a disturber of the peace, greatly to
the joy of himself and his coadjutors. Mr. Tappan, a wealthy
merchant of New York, signed his bond and, being released
from prison, he repaired to Boston and there established the
Liberator, without a dollar of capital, living meanwhile in dire
poverty. His appeals to the merchants for advertising patron
age were repulsed with scorn. They would do nothing to the
prejudice of their Southern trade ; Southern merchants re
quired six months credit and Boston jobbers willingly gave it,
yet would they do nothing to put in jeopardy their accounts ;
" besides (they said) negroes are unfit for self-government."
The people of Boston refused to allow the Liberator to be left
on their door sills. Nevertheless, the following year its editor

174 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
founded the New England An ti- Slavery Society which quickly
-absorbed all similar organizations. It was said by Intelligent
people of the North, in after years, that the successful work
of this Society was to be attributed. In no small measure, to
the preceding labors of agents of Mr. Clay's colonization
scheme, or alleged agents. These, oftentimes, were clergy
men, to whom pulpits in the towns were surrendered to make
known their philanthujpic endeavor. They solicited pecun
iary aid to deport to Liberia the free colored population of the
North. Persons of color, resident in the free States, it was
said, were captured and taken In chains to the South, where
they were sold Into slavery in large numbers. The better to
impress their audiences with the horror of this traffic, chains
alleged to have been used to bind the victims of It, were held
up In the pulpit, to the view of men and women. Lundy,
disheartened at the arrest of Garrison, moved his paper to
Washington, thence to Philadelphia, where It was burned
by the populace. Among other later popular demonstrations
against the press of the Abolition party, was the seizure of
the newspaper of Cassius M. Clay, at Lexington, Kentucky.
The entire machinery was carefully packed bj the populace
and shipped. In good order, to a responsible agent at Cincin
nati, on the presumption that it would be welcome there.
Exeter Hall relaxed not In Its support of the Anti-Slavery
Society. Wellington's denunciation availed nothing to turn
the energy of Its course. In every free State auxiliaries of
the parent Society were rapidly formed. In less than two
years, from the birth of the Society, on December 4, 1833,
sixty-three delegates, representing twelve free States, met in
the flrst Abolition "National" Convention at Philadelphia.
There the Republican party of this day was born. The hotels
refused to receive the delegates. The boarding houses offered
only closed doors to them. The mob loudly threatened with
the torch any door that should open to them. A few dele
gates, more fortunate than their associates, succeeded in gain
ing admittance to a landlady's shelter. Her regular customers,
discovering the mission of the fresh arrivals, waited on her to
demand their immediate expulsion. An immense and indig
nant crowd assembled in front of the Hall where It was an-
jiounced the convention would sit. A strong force of police

TIIE AHOLITIOXISTS. I75
opened the way to the delegates, but, in resentment, the Hall
was ultimately burned to the ground by the mob. A clergy
man was chosen to preside. The poet Whittier and Tappan
were appointed Secretaries. Agents were appointed to be sent
forth Into every State of the Union, charged " to warn, the
churches to be purlfled against the coming of the Son of
Peace." Tracts and newspapers were to be distributed every
where, " to exhort the people to flee from the wrath of God."
The revolution was flnally organized. President Jackson,
in his annual message to Congress, bitterly denounced the
Philadelphia meeting.
The Society established a printing house at New York,
assisted by Exeter Hall. Garrison went to England to induce
the noted Abolition orator, George Thompson, M. P., to visit
Araerica. The Englishraan landed at Boston. Appointments
were announced for him to speak and the people were assem
bled to hear him. PubUc indignation rose so high that he was
compelled to flee to the cover of a vessel and make his way
back to his own country. The Misses Grirake, members of an
old family, of Charleston, manuraitted tnelr slaves, took up
their abode at Boston and were the flrst females to speak In
public for the scheme of the Society. The Society raised a
fund to establish a laige negro school. The news spread that
New Haven, Connecticut, was the city selected for the site.
The mayor, at the head of a large body of citizens, solemnly
protested to the originators of the project. In Vermont, some
farmers, celebrating the anniversary of Independence, in the
vicinity of a negro school, after dinner hitched their oxen to
the building, to the front and rear, and pulling In opposite
directions, dragged the structure to ruins. At Utica, New
York, the Abolitionists assembled In a church with closed
doors. " Better the town be laid in ashes than bear the shame
of one AboUtion Convention," declared a town meeting called
to consider the situation. A committee was appointed to pro
ceed to the church and deraand the flnal and immediate ad
journment of the Convention and promptly enforced their
Instructions. Garrison, Rev. Theodore Parker, Wendell Philips, Gerrit
Smith and numerous female lecturers and a practically united
-clergy, in the East, Salmon P. Chase, Joshua R. Giddings,

176 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
political leaders, and a large part of the clergy of the West,
poets, essayists and journalists in all the North, canvassed and
agitated that section, ceaselessly. The Society sent, on salaries
ranging from $20 to |50 a month, spies. Informers and Incen
diaries, under the guise of book agents, peddlers, singing-
masters. Into the South. At Nashville, a divinity student was
found selling bibles wrapped in incendiary documents, was
taken to the public square, flogged and drummed out of town.
At St. Louis, a convicted felon, a school teacher, Charles
Brown, confessed at the gibbet his connection, as agent, with
the Society. A peddler of garden seeds, in Virginia, a ditcher,
in South Carolina, a confldentlal clerk, in Georgia, were found
to be agents of the Society. July 29, 1835, the United States
mall steamer, Colurabla, arrived at Charleston, from New
York, bearing the mall for all the Southwest. Suspicion
being aroused at the unusual bulk of printed matter deposited
for distribution In the Southern mails, inquiry was instituted,
exposing blank certificates of freedom, pamphlets, catechisms,
Illustrated tracts, sermons of the most incendiary character,
sent out by the publishing house of the An ti- Slavery Society
at New York, to its agents throughout the South. The city
was at once thrown into a profound excitement. The two'
dally journals, the Mercury and the Courier, plead for quiet.
Ex-Governor Hayne addressed a mass meeting, beseeching the
people to commit no outrage and advising that a protest to
the Department at Washington be sent complaining of the
use of the malls In a bold endeavor to Incite to insurrection.
Ex-Governor Wilson spoke in dift'erent tone. The mob broke
into the postoffice, seized the Incendiary publications and
burned them iij the public square, in the presence of a great
multitude. President Jackson urged Congress, at its meeting
In December, to enact stringent laws denying the maUs to the
Abolition literature Mr. Calhoun was raade chairraan of a
special Senate coraraittee to consider the President's recom
mendation. The committee reported against the power of
Congress to determine the freedom of the press, but advised
that each State should be authorized to deny the distribution,
within its own boundaries, of mail matter objectionable to the
State. The bUl reported by Mr. Calhoun, being put upon its
passage, was met by a tie. The vice-President, Mr. Van

THE ABOLITIONISTS. 177
Buren, gave the casting vote for it. Only two Senators from
the free States, .Tames Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, one of the
two, voted yea ; seven Southern Senators, Whigs, voted nay.*
Some account of insurrections and the threat of insurrec
tion is indispensable to expose the mind of the African, in
bondage, as the period of bondage advanced, to reveal the
terrible energy of the Abolition movement and to explain,
somewhat, the just complaint of the South. In the early
years of the eighteenth century, there were bloody insurrec
tions in the Northern States. In 1741 a mere false alarra of
outbreak in New York resulted in the execution of thirty-
three negroes. t The Southern people were better masters
and more trustful of their slaves than the people of the
North. Slaves in the South were owned in larger bodies and
being constantly employed, at one pursuit, were more easily
controlled and educated in peace than in the North, under
different industrial conditions prevailing there.
On the night of August 10, 1800, the first recorded im
portant attempt at insurrection in the Southern States oc
curred. A few years before that time the Humane Society,
organized in Pennsylvania and New York, planted a branch
at Richmond, Virginia. Gabriel, a slave, gathered a few syra-
pathizing slaves from the farms in the vicinity of Richmond
to lead in a night attack on the city. A shower of rain raised
a small stream on the line of march, the expedition was aban
doned and the rebels returned home. The leaders were
arrested and executed, oft'ering no excuse for their conduct and
avowing they had no cause of complaint.
June 10, 1822, Denmark Vesy, a West Indie mulatto, free,
of Charleston, South Carolina, a carpenter by trade aud a
property holder, organized a conspiracy to murder the whites
of the city and burn their houses. A year or two before this
tirae Benjamin Lundy had traversed the Southern States and
sailed from the Southern coast for the West Indies in the
interest of the AboUtion Societies he had organized in the
West. A gentleman's body servant exposed Vesy's plan.
*The census returns of 1840 show the loss in escaped slaves to have been
more than $1,000 000 annually for the ten preceding years. As the negro lost the
savage instinct by domestication and as the slave became less a subject of com
merce, remaining an inheritance to succeeding generations of the same family of
owners, the escapes were greatly reduced. They numbered one-thirtieth of one
per cent, in 1850, but in 1860 had fallen to one-flftieth of one per cent.
tEggleston's Hist. U. S. p. 106.

12

178 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
One hundred and thirty-one arrests of negroes of Charleston
were made and thirty-five were executed.
August, 1831, Nat Turner, a slave, headed an insurrection
111 Southarapton, Virginia. At that time Lundy and Garrison
published the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Balti
more, in easy cominunicatlon with the seat of the disturbance.
Sixty-one whites were killed by the rebellious negroes and
over one hundred negroes -were killed by the avenging whites.
(Moncure D. Conway's account.) The Governor assembled
the Legislature, in special session, to consider the race ques
tion In the State. Thomas Jeft'erson Randolph lead In debate,
urging gradual emancipation. Turner declared his master
had always been kind to him, and he had no complaint to
make against any of his white neighbors. The spirit of the
Lord had moved the act, he aUeged.
In the year 1835, the most elaborate efforts of the Anti-
Slavery Society were made to precipitate a general insurrec
tion. No cause for apprehension seems ever to have been so
universal throughout the South as was discovered In the
events of that time. The malls had deposited, besides at
Charleston, at Richmond and Mobile large quantities of
Incendiary publications, with many wood cuts showing the
extremest degredatlon of slavery. Agents were sent out to
organize the movement of blacks against whites. At Beattie's
Bluff', Madison county, Mississippi, the plan was revealed to
his master by a slave. It was shown that the States, from
Maryland to Texas, were Included in the one general uprising
to be put on foot. White raen, a low class of adventurers,
had been placed at points in communication with each other,
throughout the Mississippi Valley cotton region where the
work was expected to begin. At these points arms and
ammunition were provided. At Vernon, Mississippi, July
4, 1835, the outbreak was to be inaugurated by a general
slaughter of the whites and the burning of their houses. At
Vicksburg, Ruel Blake, a white leader, was captured and
hung. Hunter, a white leader, was seized in the Yazoo Val
ley and hung. Extreme leniency was displayed toward the
negroes, as very few seemed to have displayed any sympathy
with the white emissaries.* A meeting of planters assembled
*Clinton, Mits., Gazette, July 11, 1835.

TIIE ABOLITIoyiS'l's. I79
at Prairie Bluft', in Wilcox County, Alabama, on the Alabama
River, October 11th, following the news from Mississippi,
and passed the following- resolution :
" Our right of property in slaves is fixed and guaranteed
by the federal Constitution, and we regard the acts of the
Anti-Slavery Society at the North as a fearful crime and as
treason against the Union."*
While disturbances of this character were proceeding, the
Georgia Legislature oft'ered §5,000 reward for Garrison, If
caught in the State. A public meeting at Montgomery, Ala
bama, offered §5,000 reward for his capture and delivery to the
State authorities. A public meeting in Louisiana also oft'ered
a reward of §5,000 for the delivery of his person to the State
authorities. Following the massacre of San Domingo, the other West
Indie Islands expelled the free blacks and forbid their return
under severest penalties. Five of the banished ultimately
arrived at Wilmington, North Carolina. The citizens sent a
petition to Congress praying an act prohibitory of the landing
this class of Immigrants. The law was passed, and also an
act forbidding the employment. In the national marine, of any
" person of color." The motive of the act excluding negroes
from the national marine was to avoid collision of that class
with the local laws or prejudices In the diff'erent ports of the
Union. , The Anti-Slavery Society promptly undertook to
forestall the national policy. In August, 1835, the ship
Warsaw, from New York, arrived at Mobile with negro sea
men. A band of these entered the city and were discovered
distributing incendiary literature and otherwise Inciting to
disturbance the slaves. A citizens' court passed judgment of
death upon the leader and compelled the remainder of the
emissaries to return to the ship in the offing. A few years
later, negroes from a ship In the port of Charleston, from
Boston, were found on the streets, contrary to a long standing
statute of the State. They were lodged in jail to await the
demand of their Captain. The Captain resorted to the United
States courts to avoid the sraall fees the Sheriff' demanded as
the lawful condition of their release. No attorney. In South
Carolina, would undertake the Captain's side, .dassachusetts

*Mobile Register, October, 1835.

180 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
employed a venerable and distinguished lawyer, Mr. Samuel
Hoar, of Concord, to appear in the case. Mr. Hoar, accompa
nied by his daughter, arrived in due tirae at Charleston to
discharge his professional duty. Governor Hamraond sent
notice to the Legislature, then in session, of the arrival of Mr.
Hoar and the object of his visit. Public opinion was deeply
oft'ended by the conduct of Massachusetts. The prejudices
and resolves of the people, their perils and their relief were
felt to be rightfully in their own keeping. No Indignity was
offered to Mr. Hoar, by the people of Charleston, but every
raeraber of the Lower House of the Legislature, save one, Mr.
Christopher G. Meralnger, and every member of the Upper
House, save one, Mr. Benjamin F. Perry, voted yea, on a reso
lution requiring the departure of the attorney of Massachu
setts from the limits of South CaroUna, Immediately.
The growth In numbers, of Mr. Adams' party, in Congress,
and the ever increasing aggressiveness which distinguished it,
will be briefly noticed, ere resuming the narrative of Mr.
Yancey's career. It should be borne In mind, that, up to the
period thus far reached, the Miosouri " compromise " was in
full force, and that the only disturbance possible to slavery
was in attacks upon the Institution in the States where It
existed. Texas was a slave Republic, at this time, applying
for annexation. Mr. Adams spoke in the House several days
in succession (In 1838) opposing the application, solely on the
ground of slavery. Finding opposition useless he, with other
members, from the free States, addressed an open letter to
their constituents, advising that the annexation of Texas
should be followed by the dissolution of the Union. It was
determined by the leaders of the South, In Congress, to hold
up to the country the perilous growth of the Abolition party
and to attempt to cultivate in the public ralnd respect for the
Constitutional right of the slave States to a peaceful relation
to the Union. Accordingly, in 1838, Mr. Calhoun introduced
in the Senate, and Mr. Atherton, of New Harapshlre, Intro
duced in the House, resolutions (the latter written by Mr.
Rhett) deflnlng the right of each State to regulate its domes
tic aft'airs, and denying to Congress all authority over slav
ery. Both sets of resolutions would have comprised. In

TIIE ABOLITIONISTS. 181
substance, such an amendment to the Constitution as the
times seemed to require. They were peace measures, defini
tive of the sense of Congress on the question of the day.
They set forth State Rights principles in express antithesis to
the tendency to centralization. The resolutions of Mr. Cal
houn passed the Senate by more than two-thirds majority and,
therefore, by a majority greater than was necessary to propose
Constitutional amendments. The resolutions of Mr. Atherton
received all the votes in House, save six. Mr. Adams and
three other merabers, from New England, re-inforced by one
from New York and one from Pennsylvania, voted nay. The
resolutions were defensive in every sense against assaults
upon the Constitutional rights of the sla-ye States. They did
not propose to interfere with the affairs of other States ; they
did not propose to estop citizens of any States frora petition
ing Congress to relieve them of any evils which might be dis
covered, within the States of the petitioners. Mr. Calhoun
was much censured for the " stand for slavery " his resolu
tions were alleged to take. But, he foresaw the time rapidly
approaching when no poUtical party, in the free States, how
ever well disposed at the outset, would risk its own ascend
ency in measures calculated to protect the institution of
slavei-y in its normal operation under the Constitution. The
resolutions of Messrs. Calhoun and Rhett — the latter known
by Mr. Atherton's name — presented the issue of the sections.
The vote of the North in Congress for the resolutions was
repudiated there, at the next general election, by the elevation
of General Harrison to the Presidency and in the change
made in the complexion of the House of Representatives.
WUUam Slade, of Vermont, was one of the six members
voting against the House resolutions. At the same session of
Congress Mr. Slade found opportunity to offer a memorable
defiance to the repulse the Abolitionists had received in the
passage of the resolutions. In the spring, of 1 839, the Anti-
Slavery Societies sent forward many petitions, more numer
ously signed than ever before and exceeding all others in
Sveverity of denunciation of the South and Southern members
of Congress. The petitions were read from the Clerk's desk.
Mr. Slade moved the Speaker to appoint a special committee
to report favorably on ^hem. He foUowed the motion with

182 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
a speech of great bitterness. Mr. Legare, of South Carolina,
Interrupting, begged him to proceed with more propriety,
warning him that while he Instigated the North to aggression
he would surely excite the South to resistance. Mr. Dawson,
of Georgia, moved an adjournment ; Mr. Slade refused to
yield. Mr. Wise, of Virginia, called the gentleman from Ver
mont to order on a technicality ; Slade apologized and con
tinued his remarks, growing raore offensive to the Southern
merabers as he advanced. Mr. Robertson, of Virginia, moved
an adjournment, but the chair ruled him out of order. Mr.
Petrekin, of Pennsylvania, called the gentleman from Vermont
to order; Mr. Wise called him to order; Mr. Johnson, of
Maryland, appealed to the House to silence Slade. The
Speaker rose from his seat and rapped with all his strength.
Mr. Wise called the raerabers frora Virginia to retire with
hira from the hall; Mr. Rhett announced that the South
CaroUna members would meet in a certain committee room
and invited all Southern members to join them there ; Mr.
Halsey, of Georgia, called on the Georgia members to retire.
Mr. Rencher, of North Carolina, moved the House to adjourn ;
Mr. Adams demanded the yeas and nays on the motion ;
sixty-three opposed adjournment, two-thirds of the number
being from New England. Mr. Rhett, writing to his constitu
ents on the events of the day, declared Congress should
appoint a commission, composed of members of each House,
to negotiate a peaceable dissolution of the Union.
The city of Washmgton was moved, as a town beleaguered
by a foe, at the occurrences of the day on the floor of the
House. The highest apprehension prevailed that the House
had dissolved never to reassemble. The Southern members
were organized and determined. They would not longer sub
mit to the reception and reading of partisan docuraents, pre
pared under the auspices of the New England Anti- Slavery
Society, and presented under the guise of petitions to Con
gress. Congress, all adraltted, was powerless to take the
least step in furtherance of the prayer of the petitioners.
Why should Southern raembers be called on to hear traduc
tions of their people and malignant aspersions of themselves,
and to assist, by their silence, in giving documents of such a
character a place in the published proceedings of the House ?

'THE ABOLITIOyiSTs. 183
Senators, Representatives, Cabinet officers. Judges, distin
guished visitors, citizens of Washington, spent the whole
night, gathered in coteries at the hotels, boarding houses, pri
vate parlors, in discussing the action possible for the next day.
A course was agreed upon before the regular hour for the
assembling of the House. Mr. Patton, of Virginia, had placed
in his hands the resolution, known afterwards as the Twenty-
First Rule, as follows :
" All petitions, memorials and papers touching the aboli
tion of slavery, or the buymg, selling or transferring of slaves
in any State, District or Territory of the United States, shall
be laid on the table without being debated, printed, read or
referred, and that no farther action shall be taken thereon."
The vote announced, Mr. Adams turned to Mr. Joshua L.
Martin, a Representative from Alabama, with whom he main
tained friendly relations, exclairaing : "Your rule sounds the
death knell of slavery ! " Four years later, at a public recep
tion given In his honor, at Pittsburg, under the auspices of
the branch, there, of the Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. Adams
said : " I regard it as a violation of true RepubUcan princi
ples to enact laws at the petition of one people which are to
operate on another people without their consent." A few
weeks from the night of this speech, Mr. Adams moved Con
gress to repeal the Twenty-First Rule, and the motion pre
vailed. It was the Democratic Congress, elected in 1842.
The relation of the African race to Araerican affairs is at
the foundation of the biography of every Araerican statesraan,
since 1820. The tragic history of the relation of the African
race to American affairs is founded in the proceedings of Con
gress, touching the work of the New England Anti-Slavery
Society. Mr. Adams loaned the power of his eloquence, the
art of his training, the courage of his nature, the weight of his
fame, the influence of his lineage to introduce the scheme of
the Society into the proceedings of Congress. The Boston
merchants, who scorned to receive Garrison's Liberator at Its
birth, found the published proceedings of Congress dlft'used
over the land at the public cost, outstripping the despised
sheet in the virulence of their instructions. When James
Dellet appealed to Mr. Adams on the floor of the House,
warning him that his course would sacriflce " a million lives,"

184 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the venerable leader of the revolution replied : " Let it be
flve hundred million ! " So, when the slaves of Africa had
been transferred from masters of their own race, who held
women as beasts of burden who, when setting out on their
expedition, were wont to take in their trains a bevy of young
females " in order to enrich their feasts and regale their appe
tites in such delicacies " — when these hereditary slaves were
transferred to make of San Doraingo the brightest spot of land
on the earth's surface, the Brissots and Robespierres pro
claimed : " Perish the colonies, rather than sacriflce one lota
of our principles."
Mr. Adams died at his post of duty ; Mr. Yancey came
forward as a leader — both events In the same year.

CHAPTER T.

Yancey and Hilliard.

From 1840 to 1860, inclusive. Southern political ideas were
seeking an inevitable geographical centre. What Paris was to
the French revolution, Virginia to the American revolution,
Boston to the Abolitionists, Montgomery, Alabama, through
twenty years of activity of local influences, became to the
Southern movement, of 1861.
Mr. Henry Washington Hilliard was the foremost political
character of Montgomery, the recently chosen capital of the
State, when Mr. Yancey took up his abode there. The town
was small, but the county, to which it had given its name,
produced one mUlion dollars more in agricultural commodities
than Butler, Ohio, of corresponding area and population and
the chief corn growing county of all the upper Mississippi
Valley. The town, too, was the shipping and receiving port
of other highly prosperous counties. Yancey and Hilliard
were super-typical men, exponents of the happiest of modern
ci-vilizations. The political debates joined between these two, for twenty
years, erected in their common home its centripetal political
influence. Their debates were more frequent and of more
orderly arrival, covered a larger territory and a richer one,
were attended more universally by the domiciled population,
were more anxiously observed from beyond the State and
were an oratorical display more impressive than distinguished
stump speaking efsewhere, it is believed, even in America.

186 'THE LIVE OF YANCEY.
Nor is the effect of the oratory of such leaders difficult to
explain, silent of Its force as may be the written chronicles of
their times. The standard histories know it not; the most
voluminous of encyclopedias ignore the names of "Yancey"
and " HilUard." Coramerce in literature fears the prejudices
of the age of accumulation, too careless of the real strength of
States. But the educated men who listened to Yancey and
Hilliard were classical scholars, who revered the American
governraent created frora history. Oratory was their school.
It comported happily with the ease of physical existence
about them. In the eye to eye and face to face ordeal of ora
tors the att'ectlons of the audience were Invoked, and the
Intellectual nourishment society required was supplied. The
Impartation of knowledge by the art of making truth beau
tiful, " skilfully picking the lock of curiosity to unfasten the
door of fancy," was a genuine social advancement. So were
the people prepared to meet, calmly, radical changes in their
habits of life and to meet, bravely, unlocked for emergencies
of their country. Under unparalleled tests, they proved to be
resourceful, with a capacity of adaptation of which even they
had been in unconscious possession.
Mr. Hilliard was the personal friend and associate of not a
few of the men of letters as well as the famous politicians of
the United States, and, in the most select social circles from
Boston to New Orleans, he was an ornament. He was six
years older than Yancey. Born in 1808, in Cumberland
county. North Carolina, he was carried, by his parents, in his
Infancy, to reside at Columbia, South Carolina, and, at the
customary age, was placed under Dr. Cooper, at the college
there. Graduating, he entered the law office of Willlam
Campbell Preston to prepare for the bar, and, after a year's
application to his studies, removed to Athens, Georgia, to
continue their pursuit. So well known were his Uterary
attainments, that at the age of twenty-three he was chosen to
a professorship in the University of Alabama. The next
year, by appointment, he delivered before the General Assem
bly an address on the life and character of Charles Carroll, of
CarroUton, the last of the Independency Signers, which was
printed at the public cost.

YANCEY AND HILLIARD. 187
In 1834 Mr. HUliard took up his abode at Montgoraery,
and entered upon the practice of the law. He also took out a
license as an itinerant preacher of the ^Methodist church, occu
pied the pulpit irregularly, but always, in that position,
attracted overflowing congregations. He served in the Legis
lature as a Whig, and was chosen three times in succession to
Congress as a Whig. His maiden speech in the House of
Representatives, was an extraordinary success. He was
oft'ered the mission to Portugal by the Whig administration,
of 1841. Declining this, he accepted, the next year, the
mission to Belgium. He received the corapllment of an
appointment as one of the Regents of the Smithsonian Insti
tute while he sat in Congress.
The earnest citizens who made up the opposing parties
lead by Yancey and HilUard claimed, respectively, superiority
for their leader over his rival. Whenever the debate was
joined and the reminiscences were talked over, as was the
wont for days afterwards, by those who had heard, the Demo
crats continued to allege that Hilliard had evaded Yancey's
citations of history and had not contradicted his forebodings,
while the Whigs declared Yancey had failed to break the force
of Hilllard's warning that public affairs were in as favorable
condition as could be expected, and that an exigency requiring
extraordinary action of the people and the States had ijot
arisen and did not threaten to arise. All agreed, however, that
there was no match for the one save in the other. In their
contests the people never ceased to remember, that each spoke
the truth as he saw It, and that If either accepted office, the
office would be used to emphasize the very principles pro
pounded before them, and for no other object ; that the office,
if accepted, would be honored by the holder. Differing much
in temperament, the two leaders maintained, always, a pro
found respect for each other. This rautual feeling was well
grounded. Each knew the high breeding of the other; both
were classical scholars and too well informed to be betrayed
into loose statements of facts or to be deceived ; both were
courageous, ever maintaining the bearing of the gentleman.
The leaders were personal friends at the outset of their public
collisions and remained in that attitude towards each other

188 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
until their separate political courses at length merged into one.
(Letter of H. W. HUliard.)
Speaking more in detail of the art of oratory iUustrated by
each after his own method : Hilliard studied the construction
of sentences and the manner of delivery. His diction was
elegant and his utterance extremely fluent. His tall figure,
ever graceful, handsome features, brilliant eyes, distinguished
appearance, indeed, and well trained voice assisted his words,
as may be imagined. He grouped his facts well, avoided
wounding the prejudices of his hearers, seldom employed the
great power of sarcasm he was known to possess, and told of
the defeat of his party as if it were a triumph. The Demo
crats charged against him, that while he advanced with the
point of his lance concealed under a garland of roses, he often
succeeded in unsettling the con -v lotions of the unwary by the
argument the flowers concealed. He had a richer fancy than
Yancey, employed more art and was more adroit. He had the
self- confldence of culture and the subtlety of conscious power.
He was courteous, animated and brilliant. HUllard's friends
likened Yancey to the levelling rush of the storm ; Yancey's
friends likened HUliard to the repose of nature when the rain
bow spans the sky.
Those now living who best remember Yancey's oratory
compare it to the oratory of no one else. They remember
that, by his speech, complex things were made smooth and the
warm blooded enthused, while even tamer natures were trans
ported, but they do not admit that the rules of the school of
oratory were brought much into the result. His oratory was
his own — straight forward, common sense, impassioned. He
was ardent rather than ingenious, he had passion and em
ployed it, he left no suspicion that he spoke to please, and
never left an audience with the belief on their minds that he
had exhausted his ability to discuss the subject. He never
approached the line of the breakdown in words, voice or
manner; there was no suggestion of a lost link in his dis
course and never a sign of drudgery in the effort. Always
thoroughly informed on his subject, it was sometimes re
marked that, nevertheless, he did not employ syllogisms. But
a careful reading of his speeches will, perhaps, explain- this
criticism. The faculty of analysis and generalization was so

YANCEY AND HILLIARD. 189
developed with him, that he lead the listener to a generalized
result who had not marked the process. Thus, he covered a
great deal of ground in a short space of time. He never
attempted to find the level of his audience, and the speech
deUvered, in 1858, before a few hundred planters at the Uttle
hamlet, Benton, Lowndes county, Alabama, will be preferred,
doubtless, by the student of the theme, to the speech on prac
tically the same subject, delivered in 1860, to an overflowing
audience at Cooper Institute, New York.
Those hundreds of addresses by which Mr. Yancey shaped
the public opinion of the South were delivered, generally, in
the open air, the orator mounted upon a rough plank stand
under the shade of forest trees. The whole figure of the man
and every motion were exposed to the gaze of all. Beecher
relates that, his consent having been solicited by sorae pious
women of his congregation to draw a silk screen across the
place he stood to preach, to conceal from view a part of his
body, he replied that he had need in his oratory for his foot.
Yancey's physical man was In his favor. There was a fine
finish of muscular development with no tendency to bulkiness.
The chest was broad, neck full and rather long, with a head
neither large or small but remarkable for the symmetry of
the contour. His movements were nervous and graceful and
his appearance that of a man capable of great endurance of
labor. The exordium to his speech was delivered with marked
solemnity, in long sentences of Saxon words and few ad
jectives, the utterance rapid, the tones conversational and
every syllable of every word distinctly audible to the largest
audience. The exordium to one of his more notable political
addresses was of two sentences, of nearly equal length, making
one hundred and sixty words. In which he stated the argu
ment he was about to make. It is related of Preston, that
when he defended a beloved and venerable judge, impeached
before the Senate of South CaroUna, because of an ungovern
able infirmity, the advocate advanced up the aisle of the
chamber slowly, step by step, shaking his long finger toward
the President of the court and, posing under the judgment
seat, brought to a climax there his magnificent imagery. The
next day, even the next hour, few could recall the words or

190 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the thought whose delivery had enraptured all. McDuffie has
been declared by Benton the equ-al of Demosthenes. When
he rose to deliver his maiden speech in the Lower House of
Congress he attracted universal attention by rapping his
desk through the flrst sentence, and, proceeding, in the vehe
mence of action tore down the lappels of his blue broadcloth
coat. When WUliam Mitchell Murphy, "the Curran of the
Alabama bar," defended Gaines, before the Marengo Circuit
Court, for the murder of Curry, he opened a conversation with
the murdered man In hades, listening more and raore intently
until, bringing his ear down upon the floor to hear, he rose in
ano-uish to comraunlcate to the jury the terrible report of the
things he had heard. The poses of Patrick Henry and the
attitudes of Henry Clay were indispensable to the eff'ect of
their words. Yancey's gesture was short, quickly spent and
expressive rather of his own feeling than employed to assist
his argument. He seldora occupied raore than a yard square
of space through the longest of his addresses. There was an
expressive raoveraent of the head, the countenance " with the
Ught of battle shining " ; there was a slow swaying of the
body, as the thoughts " brightened as they burned." His
oratory was remarkable in its variety and the facility with
which it p-assed from style to style. At times, like animated
conversation. It flattered every Individual with Its appeal to
his own consciousness ; then, " snatching a grace beyond the
reach of art," it impelled men to clutch imaginary weapons
and spring forward to meet a fancied foe. Devoted to an
ideal, never dallying with truth, carrying about blm a certain
physical composure which nothing could unsettle, possessing
both a ready wit and an ardent passion he was prepared to
employ sarcasm with overwhelming force. In the higher
sense of Invective, -when the passion of the orator becomes
scorn of what he believes to be a base thought or an ignoble
device of his opponent, perhaps no one ever excelled Yancey
in the employment of the art. In this he was assisted by the
peculiar adaptableness of his voice. When hundreds before
him swelled to thousands his marvelous tones followed the
widening circle without any apparent physical labor ; passing
over the gamut of his own emotions with unerring certainty —
" the most perfect voice that ever aroused friends to the

YANCEY AND HILLIARD. 191
wildness of enthusiasm, or curbed to silence the tumult of foes."
A single example will suffice. The citizens of Montgoraery
asserabled at Estelle Hall, their ancient ditt'erences forgotten,
their feelings in unison of resentment of an Intolerable public
offence. They called Mr. Yancey to address them. No need
was there for more argument ; his own long argument had
culminated in the scene before hira. In course of brief re
sponse he quoted the faraillar lines :
" 'Tis not the whole of life to live,
Nor all of death to die."
The accentuation on live fell to a shrill whisper, revealing
to all the Ignominy of life without patriotic consecration ; all
leaned forward in anxious silence. D-i-b leaped and revolved
In the air In notes of pathos and energy, like rival embodied
spirits, and brave men sprang to their feet with a long shout
of defiance, destined to echo over an hundred flelds of carnage.
Like Cicero, Yancey indulged a marked egoism in his pub
lic discourse, a habit from which he. was singularly free in his
social intercourse. Standing in advance of his party, but
never deserting it, he spoke frankly from his own standpoint,
telling how he arrived where he was seen and what visions
were opened to him. Thus, to speak of himself seemed insep
arable from the vindications of theories whose advancement
he had undertaken.
Whatever of art or want of art the fascinations of his
oratory may have been conflned in, he never failed. Wher
ever it was known he would speak tbe hills and the dales for
miles around literally emptied their population of all ages and
both sexes before him. No listener ever wearied of him, and
for many years few could be found to confess they had ever
heard so good a speech from him as the last speech they had
heard. Wherever he spoke no hall could be found to contain
the people who came to hear.
Had Mr. Yancey not been driven frora the pursuit of agri
culture to the bar, for an income, like Demosthenes — to
whom he may be well compared in the structure of his intel
lect and the bent of his inclination — he might have written
great orations. The address to the Jackson Monument Asso-
clatiouj at Baltimore, and to the graduating class of the Ham-
ner Institute, at the sarae city, a eulogy on Jackson spoken at

192 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Wetumpka, and one on Calhoun spoken at Montgomery,
numerous addresses in aid of the Mount Vernon Association
were examples of chaste, classic and graphic oratory, prepared
in moments snatched from an absorbing profession. The
description of the battle of New Orleans, contained in the
eulogy on Jackson, at Wetumpka, presented a remarkable
picture of struggling combatants in contrast with the pict
uresque panorama of the battle field. He was a member of a
literary club at Montgomery and when he addressed It, as was
sometimes the case, he spoke with repose of manner and
elegance of gesticulation. By invitation of the literary Socie
ties of the University of Alabama, he prepared an address for
delivery at their annual celebration. The characteristic exor
dium here appears : " The daily progress of life has thrown
me into contact with living and practical questions, the inves
tigation and discussion of which have had an Immediate and
practical interest. I have had neither time or Inclination,
therefore, to select and elaborate a theme, in the closet, to be
unfolded before you to-day as a literary and classic perform
ance, disconnected with the Present and disinterred from the
Past, simply for the entertainment of an hour. But, floating
as we are upon the great tide of time, in the midst of the
Present and daily encroaching upon the domain of the Future,
though we may not alter the direction in which all are tend
ing, yet our relations to each other and the characteristics
which have given tone and color to them may serve to interest
if not to Instruct us on this occasion." The true relation of
government to the people was the theme.
Cicero says of the pen, as an auxiliary to the orator, opti-
mus et praestantissimus dicendi effector ac magister. Lord
Broughara delighted to confess that he had written at least
twenty times over the peroration of his speech for the Queen.
Mr. Yancey never spoke at considerable length without pain
ful preparation. Perhaps not a dozen of the hundreds of his
speeches -were written In advance of delivery. His prepara
tion consisted In the collocation of facts, their annotation in
logical order, and in storing in his meraory the richer veins of
thought for their illustration. He employed anecdotes and
even noted where one should appear. Hence, he was never to
be surprised by an antagonist. Relieved of anxiety for the

YANCEY AND HILLIARD. 193
use of words, he was ever ready to invite interruption from an
opponent, and when interrupted never failed to gain, in his
retort, fresh hold upon the confidence of the audience. The
freshness of his sentences was real, the fire of his logic was
not in servility to a manuscript, his power was electrical
because there was no restraint of feeling bound to a form of
expression ; there was genuineness of nature in his delivery,
because there was the least artificiality in his preparation.
Even with what Canning called in his own case the " white
horses," Yancey was often careless. This fault appears In
the reading more than in the hearing of his speeches. The
familiar conversational tone in which the sentences, in descent
from high rhetoric, were uttered, recommended them to the
sense of the audience, while the playful manner of the orator
absorbed the attention of the critic.

13

194 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Fac Sinille : Fragment of W. L. Yancey's preparation for
a political speech.

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SECOND DIVISION
1848-1860.

CHAPTER 8.
The Alabama Platform.
1848.
In less than t\^'o weeks from the passage of the act annex
ing Texas, Mr. George Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy, Acting
Secretary of War, issued the commission of Brigadier- General
to Colonel Zachary Taylor, of the First Infantry, United
States Army, with orders to concentrate all the troops, dlstrlb
uted in the Southwest, in Texas and to dispose them at his
discretion to protect the Interests of his government. Before
the end of March, 1846, General Taylor had placed about five
thousand troops at Fort Brown, on the east bank of the Rio
Grande, near Matamoras on the Mexican side. Meantime, Mr.
Buchanan, Secretary of State, had despatched secret orders to
the government agents in the Mexican State, California. A
late revolution in Mexico had banished President Santa Anna
to the West Indies. General Arapudia, commander of the
Mexican Army, lay with 6,000 men at Matamoras. Airipudia
notified Taylor that the occupation of Fort Brown would be
accepted by Mexico as a declaration of war. Captain Thorn
ton and sixty-three mounted men, of Taylor's forces, were
captured or slain by Ampudia's forces. The Mexican com
mander had crossed the river and was marching upon Point
Isbel, Taylor's fortified depot of supplies twenty miles to the
rear of Fort Brown, with his army. Taylor struck this
force, drawn up on a prairie, at Palo Alto, and drove it. The
next day he caught up with it at Resaca de la Palma, three
mUes from Fort Brown, and drove it, pell mell, across the

198 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
river. Many volunteers from Texas and adjacent States
rushed to join Taylor. The President sent an excited message
to Congress declaring Mexico had Invaded the United States
and spUt American blood. Congress declared war "because
of the act of Mexico," and Mexico recaUed the bravest and
most accomplished of her soldiers and the wisest of her states
men, Santa Anna, giving him the powers of dictator. While
these events were transpiring on the eastern borders of our
unhappy neighbor. Secretary of State James Buchanan's
orders resulted in the seizure of California by the navy, under
Commodores Stockton and Sloat, and Colonel Fremont in
comraand of a handful of men on land. General Taylor
crossed the river, occupied Matamoras, and marched Into the
Interior. Calhoun, Webster and Clay were now united in opposing
the prosecution of war. They were controlled by a common
motive. The- attenuated sympathies of the sections would not
be able to bear the strain of the legislation necessary tO'
" make needful rules and regulations " for fresh territory.
The Whigs bitterly opposed war, and even voted against the
supplies necessary for the array of invasion. The Democrats
favored war. Fresh conquest would recompense the South
for the gain, by the North, in the immense country north of
36°30'. It was a Union measure to restore the balance of the
sections. Rhett and Yancey, in the House, separated from
Mr. Calhoun, and while he alone of Southern leaders, in the
Senate, voted against war, they ardently voted for it. The
Abolitionists separated from the Whigs to demand war and
more territory.
The President called on the House for an appropriation of
$2,000,000 to be placed at his disposal for the purchase of
California, and to negotiate for peace. It was the eighth day
of August when the message of the Executive appeared, and a
joint resolution of Congress had already fixed upon the tenth
day of the. same month for adjournment of the session. Mr.
David Wilmot, Deraocrat, from Pennsylvania, moved the fol
lowing amendment to the resolution to grant the President's
request :
" As an express and fundamental condition of the acquisition of any
territory by the United States from the Republic of Mexico, by virtue of

TIIE ALABAMA PLATFORM. 191>
any tre.aty which shall be negotiated between them, and to the uses b.y
the Executive of the monies herein appropriated, neither slavery or
involuntary servitude, except for crime, sh.all ever exist in auy part of
said tenitoi-y."
This historic measure passed the House by a majority of
nineteen. It was the nucleus of revolution, immovable. Did
it Invade the Constitutional right of the President and the
Senate, to make and confirm treaties, with a condition pre
scribed in advance"? Mr. Adams protested against the Pro
viso. He would buy California, but the Mexican law in force
there, would continue to prohibit slavery until specially re
pealed by Congress. The day was past, he said, when Con
gress would legislate to enlarge the area of slavery. His
doctrine of foreign law, prevailing on American soil, was new
and alarming to the South.
On the morning of the tenth the resolution, amended by
the Proviso, reached the Senate. Mr. Davis, from Massachu
setts, who opposed the appropriation, though favoring, on
general principles, the Proviso, rose to speak to the measure
and intentionally prolonged his remarks until the moment of
the expiration of the session. While Mr. Davis spoke, Mr.
Cass went over from the Democratic to the Whig side of the
chamber, bitterly denouncing the Massachusetts Senator for
preventing a vote and declaring his purpose to support the
Proviso at the next session. The following day on the cars,
from Washington to Baltimore, Mr. Cass expressed to Mr.
Rathbun, Representative from New York, his dle^ppolntraent
at the conduct of Mr. Davis, avowing his hearty sympathy
with the Pro-viso.
February 19, 1847, Mr. Calhoun Introduced in the Senate a
series of resolutions which were debated, but never put to a
vote, inasmuch as the Wilmot Proviso did not come to a vote
in that body. These resolutions declared the comraon domain
to be the common property of the States, of which Congress
was the trustee, and refuted the theory of Mr. Adams, that
foreign laws or institutions attached to national acquisitions of
territory until expressly repealed. The resolutions of Cal
houn were subsequent to and inspired by the Wilmot Proviso
— its passage through the House and its pendency In the
-Senate. They were termed, nevertheless, by the Whig party.

200 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
of both sections, and by the large faction of the Democratic
party. In both sections lead by General Cass, " forcing the
issue." Speaking to his resolutions, while it was yet uncer
tain what action the Senate would take on the Proviso, Mr.
Calhoun said :
" In ray humble opinion the condition of Ireland is pros
perous and happy, the condition of Hindostan is prosperous
and happy, the condition of Jamaica is prosperous and happy
to that the Southern States will fall to if they do not stand up
manfully in defence of their rights."
A meraber of the Alabama Legislature wrote to Mr. Cal
houn for counsel. His reply outraged the Whigs and filled
the minds of not a few Democrats with consternation. The
Senator declared the Constitution of the United States pro
vided for the admission of new States which should be the
equals of the old States. To enact a statute by Congress
determinate of the institutions of new States was clearly
subversive of the federal theory. The letter continued :
" Had the South, or even my own State, backed me, in 1835,
when the spirit of J^bolltlonlsm first developed Itself, to any
considerable extent, I would have then forced the Issue on the
North. It Is a true raaxira in politics as well as In war to
meet danger on the frontier. * * But in raaking up the
issue we must look far beyond the Wilmot Proviso. It is but
one of raany acts of aggression, and, in my opinion, by no
means the most dangerous and degrading, though more strik
ing and palpable. * * With this impression, I would regard
any compromise or adjustment of the Proviso, or even Its
defeat, without meeting the danger In its whole length and
breadth, as very unfortunate for us. It would lull us to sleep
again without removing the danger or materially dunln-
Ishlng it."
In order to understand what the author of the letter meant
by " forcing the issue," it Is necessary to recur to certain local
laws of some of the free States. It was in 1838 that W. L.
Marcy was a candidate of the Deraocratic party, of New
York, for Governor, opposed by W. H. Seward, the Whig
candidate. Gerrit Sraith, the Abolitionist, addressed a letter
to each candidate demanding that he should make known to
the public whether or not he would favor the repeal of a State

THE ALABAMA FLATFORM. 201
-statute known as the " sojourn law," which permitted masters
to remain with their body servants, slaves, nine months In
the State without forfeiting the title to the slave. Marcy
briefiy replied in the negative. Seward replied at length,
arguing the right of citizens of one State to enter another
with their property, under the protection of the federal com
pact and, while reiterating his well knowyi opposition to
slavery, declared his desire that the sojourn law should remain
unirapaired. Pennsylvania also raaintalned a sojourn law,
which yielded to the gradual anti-slavery sentiment, to be
revoked after the disturbance in Congress over the Wilmot
J'roviso. And it should be mentioned, too, that Mr. Seward,
having been elected Governor, refused to honor a requisition
-of Virginia for the delivering up of a ship Captain, a citizen of
New York, In whose vessel a slave from Norfolk had escaped.
In retaliation, the Legislature of Virginia, by a large majority
passed a special act to inspect all vessels of New York in her
waters, after May 1, 1842, with heavy penalties punishing the
¦officer or owner, if a fugitive slave should be found thereon.
Mr. Calhoun's letter to the Alabama Legislator continued :
" This brings up the question, how can the issue be forced
without resorting to the dissolution of the Union ? I say,
without dissolution, for, in my opinion, a high and sacred
regard for the Constitution as well a,s the dictates of wisdom
make It our duty In this case, as well as all others, not to
resort to or even to look to that extreme remedy until all
•others have failed, and then, only, in defence of our liberty
and safety." The resort to retaliation was a peace measure,
admissible by the States. In no other way, argued the writer,
could the reciprocal obligations of the States be brought so
clearly into view. The repeal of the sojourn laws by the
free States and the refusal of Governors of free States to
-deliver up offenders against the laws and dignity of the slave
States should be followed by an act of Alabama interdicting
the commerce of those States in her ports. Alabama could
•and should, close Mobile to New York commerce so long as
-New York forbid the property of citizens of Alabama protec
tion in her bounds.
Representative Walker, from Wisconsin, introduced resolu-
-tlons in the House, written by Mr. Calhoun, as an amendment

202 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
to an appropriation bill, declaring the fiag of the nation and'.
the Constitution of the Union, protect the Ufe, liberty and.
property of the people of the United States in the common
domain and on the high seas alike. When these resolutions-
came to the Senate, Mr. Webster spoke against them. He
said : " It Is Important that we should seek to have clear
Ideas and correct notions of the question which this amend
ment of the member from Wisconsin has presented to us ;
and especially that we should seek to get some conception
of what is meant by the proposition in a - law to extend the
Constitution of the United States to the Territories.' Why,
sir, the thing is utterly impossible. We extend the Consti
tution, by law, to a Territory ! What Is the Constitution of
the United States V Is not its very flrst principle that all
within its influence and apprehension shall be represented in
the Legislature which It establishes, with not only a right to
debate and a right to vote In both Houses of Congress, but a
right to partake In the choice of a President and Vice-Presi
dent? Can we, by law, extend any of these rights to a Ter
ritory of the United States ? "
The question of unity in the Executive Department of the
federal government had been thoroughly discussed In the
formative period of the Constitution. There were two consuls
of Rome, but when It was found that the Republic had grown
too large to be governed by the same regulations, it was the
custom of the Consuls to cast lots for their respective spheres
of activity ; one to remain In command of the city and Its
environs, while the other repaired to the provinces to govern
there. It was supposed that the division of the Aijierican
federal system, between three co-ordinate Departments of
government, would fulflU all the requirements of divided
authority, and hence, a single President with a cabinet of
Constitutional advisers was adopted as the Executive func
tion. Mr. Calhoun, having failed to prevent war, now brought
forward a recommendation of a Constitutional amendment,
providing for a dual Executive — a President chosen by the
slave .States and a President chosen by the free States. The
object was to prevent a sectional preponderance in the legis
lation of Congress which, under the proposed reform, would
be impossible, for both Presidents would be required to

'THE ALABAMA PLATFORM. 203
approve aU bUls of the legislative Department. It was a
LTnion measure, emanating from the leader of the South. The
suggestion faUed to arrest the attention of other leaders of the
day. The unwary statesmen who trusted that in Mr. Polk's
election, and Mr. Clay's defeat, the flnal recovery of the con
servative direction of the government had been raade, frora the
Abolitionists, were in the ascendant. The calra before the
tempest had come. The pendulum of fortune which had
swung away from the Constitutional element. In 1840, had
swung back in 1 844, but it was a mere rebound of disorder
and not a healthy action of well regulated force.
In the events now transpiring, in Alabama, Mr. Yancey
began the public service on which his fame is founded —
leadership in the conventions of the people.
Three conventions, two regular and formal, one Informal,
all important, assembled at Montgoraery in the brief interval
between May, 1847, and February, 1848. These meetings
bore a common relation to one purpose. Taken together, they
inaugurated the popular movement in the slave States against
the aggressive doctrine and the revolutionary intent contained
in the Wilmot Proviso. They made of Alabama the pivotal
State of the Constitutional cause. In orderly succession of
events, Alabama retained the leadership she then assumed
which culminated in the federal reorganization of the slave
States at Montgomery, fourteen years later, in the forra of
governraent of the Confederate States of Araerica.
Mr. Yancey wrote the resolutions and addresses to the
people sent forth by each of the three determining conven
tions. He controlled the action of each. The rapidity of
organization of public opinion In Alabama In defence of Con
stitutional principles, in this crisis, and the clearness of the
public mind, were results from the energy of his speeches and
written expositions.
First in order of the conventions was that which met. May
3, 1847, to nominate a successor to Governor Martin. The
friends of WiUiam R. King proposed his name for presiding
officer and it was promptly accepted. Yancey, without pre
vious authority, placed in nomination the name of Reuben
Chapman, for Governor. No other name was presented. The-

-204 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
convention unanimously accepted Chapman. Chapman's polit
ical career had been long and successful. When Representa
tives were chosen on general ticket, he received a larger vote
than any other candidate. Long since, he had so completely
won the att'ectlons and confldence of the people of his District,
that no rival was bold enough, within or without his party, to
oppose him for office. But Chapraan's noralnatl»n, at Yancey's
suggestion, carried a far deeper iraport than the success of a
popular statesraan. It was Intended to mark the ascendency
of a great political policy. William R. King had just returned
from the mission to France and aspired to return to the seat
in the Senate he had voluntarily vacated. Dixon H. Lewis
was a candidate for re-election to the sarae seat. Yancey had
been the personal friend of both raen but had become the
political supporter of Lewis, In their contest, on the very
ground upon which the raen dlft'ered — a stern defence of the
rights of the slave States to equality in the common domain.
Yancey and Chapman were fast political and personal friends.
The choice of King to preside was not, therefore, a tribute to
his popularity only, but, on the part of the Lewis men, it was
a peace offering, preparatory to a bold raoveraent in which
King could not be expected to assist, but in which much was
looked for from Lewis.
The resolutions, written by Yancey, were readily adopted
by the committee, reported, and accepted unanimously by the
convention. Number 9 of the series covered the Southern
deraand. It declared :
" That any territory acquired (from Mexico) will become the com
mon property of the States of this Union, and will be held by the
general government as their .joint agent and representative; having no
right to make laws or do any acts whatever, which shall directly or by
their effects make any discriminations between the States of this
Union, by which any of them shall be deprived of equal and full rights
in such territory."
The campaign for State officers and Representatives in
Congress proceeded with the extraordinary excitement, attend
ing the great battles on the fields of Mexico. The war was a
Democratic measure; Democratic orators found in the fame
of Monterey, Buena Vista, Vera Crnz and Cherebusco an
inspiring theme, as comprehensive as their eloquence, upon

THE ALABAMA PLATFORM. 205
which the Whigs could say little. The Deraoc;i-ats declared
the Whigs were in practical alliance with the Abolitionists to
deprive the South of the enjoyment of the expected territorial
acquisition, and the Whigs were thus thrown on the defensive,
a most embarrassing position. General Taylor, a popular
favorite with the supporters of the war, carried popular
sympathy with hira in his mortification at the treatment he
received at the hands of his governraent. With a greatly
inferior force he had, on four successive fields, put to rout or
captured the flower of the Mexican army — Its regulars.
General Scott had gained successes, but they were against the
hasty le-vies of the enemy, inferior troops to those who had
lost at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Buena Vista and Mon
terey under their best commanders. Taylor, on his military
record, was generally accepted as the Whig candidate for the
Presidency, with a large and influential contingent support
from the Democrats. Cass, Buchanan and Woodbury were
the prominent candidates of the Deraocrats for the same
office. The Southern question was in an uncertain state.
General Taylor was a large sugar planter, in Louisiana, and
his poUtics were virtually undeflned in the present exigency ;.
of the two Whig Representatives in Congress, from Alabama,
Dellet had voted the year before for the annexation of Texas,
and HUliard had voted the same year, for the repeal of the
tariff' of 1842. More than that, Mr. Hilllard's was the flrst
voice raised in Congress to condemn the Wilmot Proviso, when
that measure was oft'ered. So the State campaign, of 1847,
progressed when, on July 14th, the friends of Mr. Hilliard
prepared in his honor a grand barbecue at Mount Meigs, " the
Gibraltar of Whiggery in Alabama," to which Mr. Yancey
was invited. Mount Meigs, twelve miles from Montgomery,
was a village without traffic, built on a sandy plateau dividing
the river swamp plantations on one side from the prairie
plantations to the other, where planters resided amidst envi
ronments of wealth and refinement, whose good report was
spread abroad by hundreds of travelers on the stage coaches
that daily passed that way, from North to South. At the
barbecue, Mr. Yancey delivered the flrst of those open air
addresses which comprise his leadership. It made a profound
impression. " I speak what I know (he said). I have lost aU

20C THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
spirit of partizanship since I took a peep behind the scenes at
Washington. * * If this foul spell of party which binds
and divides and distracts the South can be broken, hail to
him who shall break it ! If he shall be, as I fondly hope,
Zachary Taylor, honored be his name. But let not the Whigs
thmk of hira or attempt to appropriate him as a partizan."
Chapman defeated Nicholas Davis for Governor by about
the same majority by which Martin defeated Terry at the
previous election. Lewis defeated King for the Senate, the
first rebuft' the latter had experienced in nearly thirty years
of unbroken public life ; and in Lewis' election, the Alabama
Legislature endorsed and emphasized the attitude of the
Democratic Convention of the May preceding. Yancey was
content. Candidates for the Presidency were urged to declare them
selves on the all absorbing question, the Wilmot Proviso, for
on September 13, 1847, General Scott's army had entered in
triumph the gates of the City of Mexico, and acquired a vast
new territory. General Taylor persistently declined to deny
the reports, apparently well grounded, that he favored the
Proviso. He had indeed once written, that the Ordinance of
1787 should extend over all the common domain. Mr. Buch
anan wrote a letter to the people of Berks county, Pennsyl
vania, whom he knew to be In favor of the Wilmot Proviso.
It was liable to dift'erent constructions. General Cass foi
lowed with a letter to Senator Nicholson, of Tennessee. The
Nicholson letter opened a way for the Democratic party to
escape the determination of the Wilmot Proviso. The theory
advanced was, an amalgam of Mr. Adams' doctrine, that the
old Mexican law, until specially repealed, would exclude
slavery from the new territory, and the Wilmot Proviso.
General Cass contended that it would be the duty of Congress
to renounce its sovereignty over the new territory in favor of
the inhabitants who might be found there, when Congress
carae to organize Territorial governraents over it. " They are
just as capable of doing so (governing themselves) as the
people of the States," he said. The Nicholson letter pro
pounded the doctrine of " squatter sovereignty," lifting from
Congress, the trustee of the owners of the domain, its rightful
control to vest it in an uncertain population, irresponsible and

TIIE ALABAMA PLA'TFOHM. 207
unknown. The Wilmot Proviso was dropped before Congress,
when both great parties espoused squatter sovereignty capa
ble of accomplishing the sarae end. The fourth candidate,
-Justice Woodbury, of the federal Supreme Court, refused to
make a public announcement of his individual opinion on a
question Uable to come before the Court. It became, at once,
evident that many leading Democrats of the free States were
quite undecided on the question of the rights of the South in
the new territory. Mr. Martin Van Buren lead an open
defection. His chagrin at the failure of the party to re-nomi
nate him for the Presidency, in 1844, when a successful con
test was expected, prepared him for the deep resentment he
gave place to in the renewed struggle of the party now
progressing. In association with John Van Buren, his son,
" the Prince," B. F. Butler, Samuel J. Tilden, Preston King
and many others of great influence In the Democratic party
of New York, be organized a secession, expressly to support
the Wilmot Proviso and which, in the nomenclature of parties,
was termed the Free Soil party. The Democrats of Pennsyl
vania were also in a precarious state of mind. The Bradford
county Democracy, the immediate constituents of Mr. Wilmot,
passed resolutions declaring : " The safety of our institutions,
'the hopes of freedom, our o-wn and our country's honor deraand
an inflexible adherence to the principles of the Wilmot Proviso."
These resolutions were widely distributed, under Mr. Wilraot's
official frank, throughout the slave States. Nor were the
Democrats of the slave States flrm and united. Rives, of
Virginia, Berrien, of Georgia, Bell, of Tennessee, had com
mitted themselves to General Taylor's support, ere that can
didate had unequivocally committed himself on the question
of the campaign.
As was customary at that season of the year, the leading
men of the State had been attracted to the capital, to attend
the Legislature in session and the sitting of the Supreme
Court. The Taylor men, resolved to feed the flame of pop
ularity with which their candidate had retired from the fleld
of war, prepared to celebrate the anniversary of the vic
tory of New Orleans by holding a " general council " to be
-convened from all parts of the State at the capital. The
-•"general council "was, in its inception, a Whig convention

208 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
under the disguise of phraseology, supposed to be sufficient to-
reconcile wavering Deraocrats. The opponents of Jeft'erson's
theories became Federalists, in name, while holding fast to-
national party doctrines and now had become Whigs, in name,
while Tories in fact. The Democrats, under the lead of Yan
cey, set about to anticipate the Whigs in their scheme of
drawing recruits from the ranks of their opponents. Sup
ported by Leroy Pope Walker, John Cochrane, J. L. M, Curry,
and many young Democrats from every quarter of the State,
besides his law partner, Mr. Elmore, Henry C. Scrapie and
other personal and political friends In the city, he lead in
promoting a meeting at the capltol, in advance of the Whigs,
on the evening of January 3. Winston, of Sumter, McClung,
of Madison, Garrett, of Cherokee, Clitherall, of Pickens, Tate,
of Limestone, Clark, of Greene, Percy Walker, of MobUe,
Cottrell, of Lowndes, with many others of equal Influence,.
were of the audience. Benjamin Fitzpatrick presided. It
was a most animated meeting, fllling the hall of the House of
Representatives to its utmost capacity. A Whig, who wit
nessed the occurrence, and understood its party signiflcance,-
wrote : " Mr. Yancey, of Montgomery, a very able man and
a particularly smart manager, read the resolutions which
were, of course, adopted. I believe there is not an abler man
in the Democratic ranks ; and I believe there Is not one with
more Influence In his party ; though, at jircsent, he occupies
the station merely of a private citizen." Yancey spoke to his
resolutions, twelve in number, others followed in support and
they were unanimously adopted. One of the number stated
the causes of the war with Mexico as follows : " The govern
ment of Mexico having failed to pay the installments due to
our citizens, on account of lawless spoliations upon our com
merce, having failed to adjust other claims equally just,
having Improperly interferred in the annexation of Texas to
this Union, having refused to recognize a boundary between
Texas and her territory, having arrogantly and insultingly
rejected the arbitrament of peace, and having appealed to the
sword," etc. Mr. Yancey's speech was intendM to harmonize
the Lewis and King wings of the party preliminary to the
execution of the party policy, for the impending national con
test, which he had already well matured in his own mind.

'THE ALABAMA PLA'TFORM. 209
The resolutions touching the great question of the day declared,
that " the WUmot Proviso was antagonistic to every principle
of the Constitution and of the Democratic creed," and " we
hereby solemnly pledge ourselves to support no men for the
offices of President and vice-President of the United States
who shall not unequivocally avow themselves to be opposed
to the principles of that poUtical heresy." Leroy Pope Walker
offered a resolution, that a committee of flve be appointed to
prepare an Address to the Deraocracy of the State. Walker
was an accomplished belle-lettre scholar and one of the rising
young men of the State. When the committee raet to dis
charge its task, he requested Yancey to write the Address,
and thus the important document carae frora his pen. The
opportunity open to Walker in the authorship of so important
a paper, and neglected in the interest of Yancey, might well
have been envied by even the most experienced leader. The
Address included a call on the Democrats of all the counties
to send delegates to a State Convention of the party to meet
at Montgomery, February 14th, following, for the purpose of
organizing for the Presidential campaign and for appointing
delegates to the National Convention to meet at Baltimore.
" But another reason (declared the document) of a still
higher grade and more pressing importance urges this call.
Those great conservative principles, which heretofore have
been sufficiently strong to continue the legislation of Congress
within Constitutional limits, seem to be giving way under the
combined attacks of religious fanatlcisra and political despera
tion. The passage through the representative branch of Con
gress, at its last session, of the so-called Wilmot Proviso (but
which the Whig Speaker, Winthrop, had, at the session
before, moved as an amendment to the Oregon bill), and the
sentiments called forth by it in the Senate, together with the
approval of it by the Legislatures of ten of the free States and
by conventions of the people in other of those States, are
alarming indications of a disposition to hold the provisions of
the Constitution at naught in pursuit of political power and a
God-condemned heresy."
The bold declarations and eloquent appeal of the Address,
warning the people to " relax no vigilance and be wanting in
no effort," went out into every precinct. The season was mid

14

•2iO THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
winter ; the newly cut roads were at their worst. Neverthe
less, when the day in February arrived for the meeting of the
State Convention of the party, forty-four of the flfty counties
appeared with full delegations. " The Hall of the House of
Representatives was thronged to overflowing with delegates
from counties near and counties remote ; and not a section of
our State, however distant, but had an ample and honorable
representation; sorae veterans of long standing, tried and
true, others more useful but not less ardent and devoted;
some distinguished for their abilities and holding a proud
eminence in the political world; others known only in the
walks of private life but not less zealous and respected —
were all here, animated by one comraon impulse, knowing but
one common motive, the perpetuity and success of Democratic
principles Identical, as we firmly believe them to be, with the
best Interests and truest glory of our country."*
This was the body of men Mr. Yancey essayed to direct.
It should be explained, that In the Interval between the meet
ing of January 3, and the assembling of the State Conven
tion, the Democrats of Montgoraery county had held their
primary and at the county primary, Mr. Yancey dictated the
resolutions and was the principal speaker, "and as every
sentence fell with telling effect upon the crowded audience a
shout went up, like the roar of many waters, proving conclu
sively that the hearts of his hearers were with every word he
spoke." The orator spoke most hopefully of the Northern
Deraocrats. " He showed that a considerable re-actlon had
taken place at the North on the subject of the Winthrop
Proviso, as he verj^ properly called It, and that popular senti
ment there was becoming every day. In the Democratic party,
more In support of the Constitutional rights of the South, but
not one Northern Whig could be found on our side." But the
most reraarkable of the resolutions of the primary was the
reiteration of the pledge raade by the raeeting of January 3,
not to support for President or Vice-President any candidate
not committed to the equaUty of the South in the expected
Mexican acquisition. John McCormick Introduced the reso
lutions. Caff'ey, Burch, Elmore, Felder, Scrapie, Yancey,
Mastin, McGehee, Lucas, Hale, McCormick were among the
*'.)I(,nff/niiH'ri/ .Itlrprtisfr.

THE ALABAMA PLATFOUM. 211
forty county delegates chosen to the forthcoming State Con
vention. It was well known to Yancey that Mr. King's friends were
anxious to retrieve his political fortunes, frora the defeat for
the Senate, and that they intended to lose no time In pressing
his name before the State Convention for a recoraraendatlon
to the National Convention as a suitable candidate for the
vice-Presidency. They remembered that three of Yancey's
Tiewspapers had been first to urge King for the same offlce in
1840. King's friends had become Impressed with the belief
that, if Buchanan should receive first place, the chances for
King for second place would be enhanced.' The better to
make safe the continuance of the party in the line of policy
established in the resolutions of May, 1847, and in the reso
lutions and Address of January 3, Mr. Yancey took the
precaution to prepare a long series of resolutions for the Con
vention, before that body met. He read them In his office to
a few friends, put them In his pocket and took his seat In the
Convention to await developments. John McCormick was
appointed chairman of a committee of seven on resolutions, so
soon as the Convention organized. Yancey's apprehensions
of the infiuence of the King men grew as the committee
remained out longer and longer. It was the evening ses
sion of the second day ere its report was brought In. The
West was known to be for General Cass, a Senator from
Michigan, while the East offered Judge Woodbury, of New
Hampshire How to renounce Cass' squatter sovereignty doc
trine, and not offend the West; or how to retain the East,
without an explicit reiteration of the previous declarations of
the party, in the State, to which It was understood Mr. Cal
houn had pledged Judge Woodbury, was the problem which
the committee considered, painfully. When the report was
read. It was found quite up to the advanced demand of the
Alabama Democrats for the equality of the South In the new
acquisition, except that it entirely ignored General Cass' doc-
tine of squatter sovereignty. It repeated. In eff'ect, some
resolutions of Mr. John Campbell, frora South Carolina, passed
In the House four years before, declaring Congress could not
interfere with slavery in the States, but it pretermitted the
new and vital issue touching the power of squatters thereon

212 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
to exclude the Institution from the Territories. Mr. Scrapie,
seeing this, iramedlately off'ered an amendment to Resolution
7, to correct the omission. Mr. McCormick defended the re
port, Mr. Elmore spoke for Scrapie's amendment and Mr.
Winston replied to Mr. Elmore. At this stage In the pro
ceedings Mr. Yancey rose. The galleries were crowded with
ladies and their escorts, the floor, lobbies and rotunda were
packed with raen. He drew from his pocket his own resolu
tions and read them, sent them to the Secretary's desk and
the Secretary read thera to the Convention. By Mr. Yancey's
request, they were returned to him and by him were read to
the Convention again. He spoke at length ; in the progress
of his speech Mr. Semple interrupted hira to withdraw his
amendment; a few minutes later Mr. Cottrell Interrupted to
say he was authorized to withdraw the report of the com
mittee. In favor of Mr. Yancey's resolutions. A vote was
taken and Yancey's resolutions were adopted, without even
one opposing voice, amidst the most enthusiastic cheering on
the floor and in the lobbies, the ladles In the galleries waving
their pocket handkerchiefs In the contagion of joy. The res
olutions, in principle, were the sarae the committee had re
ported, except that they included in their condemnation of
unconstitutional political propositions, the new doctrine of
squatter sovereignty ; and, in this, they were in advance of
the Democratic party. They became the historic Alabama
Platform bearing no less important relation to the great
events of 1861, in the United States, than the resolutions of
Patrick Henry bore to the crisis of 1776.
THE ALABAMA PLATFOEM.
" Whereas, Opinions have been expressed by eminent
merabers of the Democratic party and by a Convention of the
party assembled In New York to appoint delegates to the
Baltimore Convention, that the municipal laws of the Mexican
territory, ceded to the United States, should not be changed
and that slavery could not be re-established except by author
ity of the United States or of the Territorial government,
therefore, to the end that no doubt should be allowed to exist
upon a subject so Important and at the same time so exciting.
Be It Resolved :

THE ALABAMA PLATFOUM. 21:!
* * * # # * *
" 9. Resolved, That the treaty of cession should contain a
clause securing an entry into those Territories to all citizens
of the United States together with their property of every
¦description and that the sarae should remain protected by the
L'^nited States while the Territories are under Its authority.
* * * * * * *
"11. Hesolved, Th&i the opinion advanced or maintained
by some that the people, of a Territory acquired by the com
mon toll, suffering, blood and treasure of the people of all the
States, can, in other event than the forming of a State Consti
tution preparatory to admittance as a State into the Union,
lawfully or constitutionally prevent any citizen of any such
States from removing to or settling In such Territory with his
property, be it slave property or other, is a restriction as inde
fensible in principle as if such restriction were Imposed by
Congress. "12. Hesolved, That the Democratic party is, and should
be, co-extensive with the Union ; and that while we disclaim
all intention to interfere in the local divisions and controver
sies in any of our sister States, we deem it a soleran duty,
which we owe to the Constitution, to ourselves and to that
party, to declare our unalterable determination, neither to rec-
•ognize as Democrats or to hold fellowship or coraraunlon with
those who attempt to denationalize the South and its institu
tions, calculated to array one section in feeling aud sentiment
against the other ; and we hold the same to be alike treason
to party faith and to the perpetuity of the Union of these
States. "13. Resolved, That this Convention pledge itself to the
country, and the members pledge themselves to each other
under no political necessity whatever to support for the offices
of President and vice-President of the United States, any
persons who shall not be openly and unequivocally opposed to
cither of the forms of excluding slavery from the Territories
of the United States, mentioned in these resolutions, as being
alike in violation of the Constitution and of the just and equal
rlghls of the citizens of the slaveholding States.
" 14. Resolved, That these resolutions be considered as in
structions to our delegates to the Baltimore Convention to guide

214 , THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
them in their votes In that body ; and that they vote for no-
men for President and vIce-Presldent who will not unequivo
cally avow themselves to be opposed to either of the forms of
restricting slavery which are described In these resolutions."
The Alabaraa Legislature endorsed the Alabama Platform
by special resolutions ; the Legislature of Georgia endorsed
It ; the State Conventions of the Democratic party in P''lorlda
and Virginia endorsed it. The press of the party throughout
the South repeated the praises of Yancey, confessing him to-
be the leader of the flrst organized eft'ort to resist revolution.
The treaty of Gaudaloupe- Hidalgo restored peace with
Mexico, ceding to the United States 632,157 square miles, an,
area greater than that embraced In the States which formed
the original Union.
Because of the failure of the Senate to pass the Wilmot
Proviso, Senator John P. Hale, ot New Hampshire, presented
a petition numerously signed, and supported in the Senate
by Senators William II. Seward, of New York, and Salmon P.
Chase, of Ohio, praying that Congress take immediate steps to
dissolve the Union by treaty between the States.*
Had the prodigality of power opened up to the young
leader of the Democrats of Alabama tempted hira too far?
Hume says of Sir Robert Walpole, "he was moderate In
exercising power but not equitable In engrossing It." Were
Yancey's resolutions equitable. In view of the report of the
coraraittee and Semple's amendment '? It was midnight when
the ladles and gentlemen who thronged the hall of the House
of Representatives to watch the proceedings of the Conven
tion, turned their faces homeward, in an intoxication of excite
ment. Few realized the Iraport of what had been done. Yet
there had been no disorder, no undue haste In the proceedings.
Several important resolutions touching dift'erent subjects were
considered and passed, after the Platform was adopted. One
of these was the recommending of Mr. King to the Baltimore
Convention for the vice-Presidency, without instructions to
the delegates to vote for hlni. Yancey made no opposition.
He was deeply impressed with the success of his resolutions
and entirely confident of the good faith of those charged
with their enforcement. The principles at Issue and not the
*Api-}. Cong. Olobe, Vol. 29.

THE ALABAMA PLATFORM. 215
personal aspirations of candidates occupied his thoughts. On
the morrow the delegates, in coteries, took up their homeward
journey — sorae by stage coach, sorae by steamer, others by
private conveyance. Yancey was in the mind of each and all.
Good and strong men in the Convention had been unable to
stem the tide of enthusiasm the leader had put in motion. It
was quite as reraarkable as true that propositions so original,
after mature deliberation, had united the party. Every Dem
ocratic newspaper in the State promptly accepted the Ala
baraa Platform. The Whigs in the Talladega District, the
strong hold of the party in the State, met and, under the lead
of Chilton, Rice, Cruikshank and raany other strong men, rati
fied the position the Convention had taken on the Issue of
the sections.
'^ Mr. Yancey set out on the spring circuit of the Courts, the
most lauded of leaders. He returned home, the middle of
AprU, to realize the first disappointment of his political career
in the sudden and radical change which had overcome his
supporters. Dispersed among their neighbors, the members
were called on for an account of the Convention. Editors and
office holders discovered that the party, upon -whose traditions
public opinion was founded and whose favors had promoted
many Individuals, had taken position, under a bold young man
of wonderful capacity, far In advance of the other States.
Their fears prevailed. On his table Mr. Yancey found two
Issues of the State Gazette, a newspaper of Montgomery, each
containing a lengthy letter from an anonymous correspondent,
" Giles," assailing his course in the recent State Convention
and both letters endorsed by labored editorials of the paper
which, when he left horae, was confessedly his ardent friend.
To the letters and the editor he replied In an elaborate and
caustic recital of the facts. He was deeply wounded. " There
is not a chapparal on my course to conceal either a deserter or
a foe (he wrote). The trick of the Convention, If there be any
In the passage of those instructions, lies in the flood of light
they throw upon the course the Convention intended its dele
gates to Baltimore to pursue." The opposition to him now
took form. He seemed to have no friends. The editor of the
Mobile Register, Thadeus Sanford, wrote over his own signa
ture : " Mr. Yancey's design was not suspected when he

210 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
adroitly inserted clauses claiming for the President and Con
gress the right to Introduce slavery In the Territories,'
although no such " clauses " were to be found, nor were they
Implied by anything Yancey had said or written. From his
Sumter County plantation, Mr. Winston wrote an open letter
declaring, " for the sake of harmony, the hour being late, the
resolutions of Mr. Yancey were allowed to pass." Yet the
sarae resolutions, in efi'ect, had been adopted In May, and
again In January, by large Conventions of the party. It was
understood Mr. Winston had striven to organize a defection In
the delegation to Baltimore. Long before the delegates set
out it was evident Yancey stood almost alone. " Except for
my courage to dare to do no wrong (he wrote) in this great
matter, I should yearn for that obscurity which Is protection
from such assaults and should seek peace by yielding the
principles, upon which I have acted, as a sacriflce to the angry
passions of ray assailants."
Williara L. Yancey and John A. Winston, delegates for the
State at large ; T. Sanford, R. T. Scott, A. J. Saffold, D. Salo
mon, Crawford M. Jackson, Sydenham Moore, John E. Moore,
Frank W. Bowdon, P. A, Wray, Porter King, M. A. King and
Williara Acklln represented the Democrats of Alabama at
the Baltimore Convention assembled May 22, 1848. "I saw
WUUam L. Yancey for the flrst time In the spring of 1848
(wrote Senator Henry S. Foote). He had an Interview with
Mr. Calhoun in the halLof the national Senate when he was '
on his way to Baltimore. * * Mr. Calhoun and Yancey, as
well as many others, pro-slavery men In the South, were not
tontent with the protection understood to be given by the
federal Constitution to slavery in the States, where it then
existed, but desired to obtain for this Institution additional
organic guarantees. This they hoped to obtain through the
Instruraentallty of the Democratic party." The respectability
of the source of this error Indicates the extent of the task
before Yancey. No " additional organic guarantees " were
demanded by the Alabaraa Platforra, but only the faithful
execution by Congress of Its trust under the existing organ
ism. The Alabama delegates paused at Washington, e« route
and asserabled at Mr. Yancey's apartments there to examine
letters received by hira from the several candidates for the

TIIE ALABAMA PLATFORM. 217
/
nomination to the Presidency. General Cass' letter referred
to his Nicholson letter, which was then a subject of divided
construction; Mr. Buchanan referred to his Berks county let
ter, which was not yet understood, everywhere. In the same
way ; Justice Woodbury replied, that so long as he was on the
Supreme Court it would be improper to advance an Individual
opinion on a questioii^ liable to come before that tribunal ; Mr.
Dallas referred to a former speech of his touching the political
question of the day. Mr. Sydenham Moore reported a con
versation held by him on Pennsylvania avenue, a few raoraents
before, with Mr. Buchanan. Mr. Moore understood Mr. Buch
anan to say he " could not corae up to the Alabama Platform,"
but Mr. Sanford had met Mr. Buchanan at the President's the
night before and the Senator there declared the construction
placed by Yancey on his Berks county letter was wholly
unwarranted. The Baltimore Convention, when called to order, was found
to be but little removed from the old Congressional caucus,
abandoned by the party by reason of its corrupt influences
and because of the irapracticabillty of reaching the will of the
people, in party measures, through the representation of mem
bers of Congress. A large proportion of the delegates were
offlce holders. Prominent In the membership was the veteran
editor, Thomas Ritchie, then In control of the Administration
organ at Washington, and a beneflclary of the government.
From Maine came as a delegate, Hannibal Hamlin, a pro
nounced Abolitionist. The Alabaraa Platform had alarmed
the old party managers. The usual Coraraittee on Resolutions
was composed of one from each State, to be selected by the
State delegation. The Alabaraa delegation withdrew to the
lobby to select their committee-man. Bowdon demanded the
place should be given to Yancey ; It was offered to Sydenham
Moore and by him indignantly rejected. Yancey retired to
permit the decision to be reached, saymg that while custom
assigned the place to him, he hoped his fellow delegates would
consider 6nly the rights and benefits of the Deraocracy of Ala
bama in their deliberation. The choice fell on him. Before
the Committee on Resolutions met, candidates for the nomina
tion to the Presidency were named and the balloting began as
the flrst work of the organized body. This order of proceeding

21 S 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
was tantamount to a decree In condemnation of the Alabama
Platforra, for the Instructions brought with the Alabama
delegates forbid them to vote until the candidates should be
pledged, by resolutions of the Convention, to the support of the
principles announced by Alabama. General Cass received the
highest vote cast at the flrst ballot for President, and received
the nomination, under the two-thirds rule, at the fourth ballot.
For the vice- Presidency, William R. King was supported, on
the flrst ballot, by the entire Alabaraa delegation, but received
only 26 votes out of, 294 cast. William D. Butler, of Ohio,
was nominated vIce-Presldent on the second ballot. Seeing^
the hopeless prospects of Mr. King, Messrs. Yancey and Wray
cast their votes, on the second ballot, for John A. Quitman, of
Mississippi, to emphasize the Alabaraa Platform. A motion
made to declare the nomination unanimous brought Yancey to
his feet :
" Alabama Is Democratic now and always (he said) but
Mr. President, let Alabama hear the principles upon which
this Convention proposes to send candidates to the people,
before you Invite us to endorse its nominees. There must be
no evasions here. Alabaraa is here to contend for principles
which she Is pledged before the country to insist upon. These
principles are of the true Deraocratic faith, because they are
founded on the Constitution. They cannot be passed over by
a Deraocratic Convention, save In violence to Deraocratic tra
ditions." Mr. Winston repUed, that Alabaraa delegates were on the
floor not as rulers but as delegates. Alabama did not set up a
dictatorship in her Platform. " I declare here (he said), as a
representative of Alabaraa, I do not belong to the ultra set of
factionists at the South who do as much harm as the ultra set
of factionists at the North." Mr. Porter King spoke, assuring
the Convention that Winston was " the father of the Alabama
Democracy." The Committee on Resolutions then retired. After pro
tracted discussion the Coraraittee agreed upon a report, with
practical unanimity, inasmuch as so far as the report went
toward the question at issue before the country, it met the
approval of all the committeemen. Mr. Yancey took an
active part In Its deliberations, assisted in remodeUng the

THE ALABAMA PLATFORM. 219'
former platforms of the party and gave his hearty assent to
the resolutions prepared, .so ftr us they went toward the posi
tion taken by the Alabama Platform. The report treated the
agitation of the slavery qustion In the following Imperfect
resolution :
7. That Congress has no power under the Couslitution to inter
fere with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and
that such States are the sole and proper judges of everything appertain
ing to their own affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution ; that all
efforts of the Abolitionists or others made to induce Congress to inter
fere with questions of slavery or to take incipient steps in relation
thereto are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous
consequences ; and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to
diminish the happiness of the people and to endanger the stability and
perpetuity of the Union.
This canon of the party faith was identical, word for word,
with one of the resolutions passed by the House of Repre
sentatives, in February, 1844, long before the Mexican war
and, therefore, while the slavery agitation was conflned to the
Incendiary projects of the Abolitionists In the States by means
of petitions sent to Congress, and the work of their agents
traversing the country. Mr. Yancey, perceiving that the Cora
raittee had studiously avoided the new aspect of the slavery
question, presented In General Cass' Nicholson letter and
which had been met in the Alabaraa Platform, oft'ered an
amendment to Resolution 7. His amendment was an addition
to the only resolution prepared by the Committee to which he
objected, in any particular, and altered no position of the party
on old Issues. The amendment was an eft'ort to define the
position of the party on newly developed practical Interests of
the country, upon which Congress could not avoid action,
without renouncing Its powers, nor act, in contempt of the
principle laid down in the amendment, without forcing revo
lution. The amendment was :
^"¦Resolved further. That the doctrine of non-intervention
with the rights of property of any portion of this Confederacy,
be it in the States or In the Territories, by any other than the
parties Interested In the said rights Is the true Republican
doctrine recognized by this body."
Mr. John SUdell, of J.iOulslana, in Committee, said the
amendment rebuked the well known opinions of General Cass,,

-220 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the nominee. Nine States, In Committee, voted yea on the
amendment — Pennsylvania and Wisconsin being the only
free States of the list. Twenty States voted nay. Now, far
after night, Yancey moved a resolution that the Coraraittee
re-adopt the provision of the party platform, since 1836, con
demning Internal Improvements by the federal government,
and the resolution was promptly passed. Great was the dis
may of the Committee to discover the following morning, on
Its re-assembling, that Senator Cass had voted to pass, over
President Polk's veto, every bill for internal improvement!
A motion made to recant was fiercely denounced by Yancey
as " a base surrender of principle " and failed of passage.
Messrs. Yancey, of Alabama, Commander, of South Caro
lina, and McGehee, of Florida, presented, in Convention, a
minority report incorporating Yancey's amendment. In all
other provisions it was Identical with the majority report.
The vote on the minority report was taken by States. The
States voting yea, had 36 electoral votes ; the States voting
nay, had 216 electoral votes. The majority report was then
adopted, and when the vote was declared Mr. Yancey an
nounced to the Convention that. In accordance with the in
structions of his State, he would not longer participate In the
proceedings of the body. Mr. Wray, of Alabaraa, announced
ills purpose to pursue the same course. The other delegates
from Alabama disregarded their instructions, retained their
seats and assented. In their action, to the nominees.
June 1, the Whigs met at Philadelphia and nominated
General Taylor, for President, and Millard Fillmore, of New
York, an avowed Abolitionist, for vice-President. More than
a raonth before. General Taylor wrote from his plantation to
J. S. Allison expressing grave doubts of his fitness for the
Presidency. He said he was without sufflcient knowledge of
the current political events to declare an opinion upon them.
Moreover, he did not think the opinions of the Executive
should control Congress and a candidate "who cannot be
trusted without pledges cannot be confided in merely on ac
count of them."
Martin Van Buren was the candidate of the Abolitionists,
now called " Free Soilers." So soon as the Baltimore Conven
tion adjourned the Van Buren men of New York held a

'THE ALABAMA PLATFOUM. 221
meeting in the city of New York, declaring that the Conven
tion In refusing to accede to the Alabama demands, had vir
tually declared for free soil. The candidature of Van Buren,
it was at once perceived, embarrassed the nominations made at
Baltimore to a peculiar extent. On all occasions this " political
magician," as the Democrats were only lately proud to terra
him, had been a consistent friend of the South. He AA^as the
favorite, among public men, of General Jackson, he had striven
with Harrison, he had been favorable to the annexation of
Texas and had voted against the Abolitionists. Many had
been his claims, in the past, upon the South and dear were his
present principles to the hearts of many Deraocrats at the
North. Tens of thousands in both sections had enjoyed the
honors aud eraoluraents of federal patronage at his hands.
His was now in : " The patient search and vigil long
Of him -who treasures np a wrong."
The Iraportant part Mr. Fillmore acted In the history of the
sectional conflict and the measure of confldence in which he
was held at the South, long after he had been repudiated at
the North, by all parties, is one of the most remarkable per
sonal experiences of his day. That he was an advanced Abo
litionist at heart no one doubted. He never denied the letter
he wrote in -answer to categorical questions of the Anti-
Slavery Society, in 1838, which comraitted him to all their
measures before Congress, nor explained his unfriendly votes
to the South in the House. He was wise enough to perceive
that the peaceful operation of the federal system, unamended,
would exterminate slavery in as brief time as peaceful influ
ences would admit.
To Mr. Yancey belongs the distinction of having flrst made
the issue with political party organism, that the platform of
doctrine should precede the choice of candidates.

CHAPTER 9. The Campaign. 1848.

Travel from the East to Alabaraa lead. In 1848, along the
Atlantic coast, by rail and boat, as far as Charleston. At
Charleston Mr. Yancey accepted an Invitation to speak, on his
Avay home. It was an Indignant and flery Impeachment of
the Baltimore Convention. " These virtuous politicians, these
trustAVorthy representatives of Deraocracy discovered that
aA'OAval of truth would put error to blush ; that the honor due
to a patriot Avould be the condemnation of a heretic. South
ern delegates had sacrlflced their principles to an election, and
from Alabama men were found Avho, to secure even the
vice-Presidency, were willing to be allured from their most
solemn committals to the people." These and many equally
sententious sentences marked his utterance.
Winston had preceded him and siDoken in vehement de
nunciation of his conduct In the Convention, to a public meet
ing at Montgomery. " The object of holding a Convention (he
said) was to consult and to surrender personal preferences to
the majority will ; to concentrate our strength on the candi
date raost acceptable to the raajority. Why go into a Conven
tion if instructions carried from horae are to govern ? Mr.
Yancey's code of morals would authorize him to go into
Conventions and if he could carry all his points, and his man,
too, he would be bound to abide the decision ; if not, he would
oppose platforra and nominee." Winston, Sanford, Salomon,
Porter King and A. J. Saft'old, each, wrote an elaborate letter

TIIE CAMPAIGN. 223
to the press, explaining the course of the delegation and
denouncing Yancey.
A large meeting assembled at Montgomery to hear Yancey
in his flrst appearance after his return. He was received with
demonstrations of unusual Interest. No hall could contain
the audience, therefore, he spoke from the porch of the
Exchange Hotel, the street being wide there. He said he had
only plain Avords to give in answer to the torrents of con
tumely which had been turned upon hira from almost every
Democratic newspaper in Alabama, for many months. At
Baltimore he had brought forward no demand before the high
assembly of his party, save that which the Democratic party
of Alabama, in solemn convention, had made It his bounden
duty to bring. He had complained of nothing that had been
done ; he had presented the demand of Alabaraa that certain
things should be done more than the Baltimore Convention
AAould consent to do. That was the sum of his sinning. He
had no innoA'ations to offer the party, nor did he propose the
least alteration of the structure of society. He did not
propose to Invade any people, to molest any customs, to dis
turb any Institutions or amend any form of government.
Adversity was often a good school for politics. Office had no
charms to seduce him from his sense of duty, nor a minority
position terrors to deter him from the dictates of his con
science. " When the resolutions of previous Conventions of
the National Democracy on the slavery question (he said) w^ere
adopted they covered the question presented in those earlier
times. The Democratic party was then eminently just to the
country in its action. Then abolition and faction sought to
enter the federal temple to disturb the harmony of its inmates.
As worshippers at the sacred fane you have driven them out.
You have solemnly declared, there is no power in the federal
government to interfere with slavery in the States of this
Confederacy. It was no light thing, I grant, that you should
undertake to defend even that position at the North. In the
conflict that ensued many a noble spirit was sacrlflced. Fcav
noAv are so hardy as to declare that doctrine wrong. But the
great enemies of Constitutional equality, and order, driven
from their positions in the federal temple, have taken up a
new position on the frontiers of the Confederacy — upon the

224 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
borders of your territory, in the bosom of which Ues the-
Incipient germ of many a State to be added to our galaxy.
There they meet the pioneer immigrants, and, if their doctrine
Is to be maintained, they will Avelcoine the laborer of the
North and turn back the la'borer of the South. * * I -was
instructed by the organized Democracy of Alabama to proceed
to Baltimore and to be guided by the speclflc Injunction,
unanimously imposed, to vote for no men for President and
Vice-President who would not unequivocally avow themselves
to be opposed to either of the forms of restricting slavery
described in the instructions. I rendered faithful obedience to
those instructions, and the Democratic party of Alabama
pledged itself to the country and the members of the Conven
tion pledged themselves to each other, 'under no political
necessity whatever,' to support for the offices of President and
vice-President of the United States any persons who shall not
be opposed openly and avowedly to either of those forms of
restricting slavery. I shall stand immovably by the Alabama
Platform. I cannot support General Cass for the Presidency."
The popular deraonstrations, in consequence of Mr. Yan
cey's course, in Alabama were, perhaps, not the least Inter
esting of the personal phenomena of his career. The meeting
he addressed at Montgomery passed resolutions far from
denouncing hira, but appealing aff'ectionately to him to re
sume his leadership. Ills former fellow townsfolk of We-
turapka specially invited hira to address thera, explaining his
position, and, Avhen the speech was over, the meeting passed
feeling resolutions beseeching hlni to sacriflce his own sense of
duty to aid his party, and expressing unbounded confldence
in the integrity of his purposes. The Democrats of Lauder
dale county, at a public meeting, passed a long series of party
resolutions, two of which were devoted specially to Yancey.
One of the two resolved, " that while we adraire the ability,
moral worth, indomitable energy, integrity of purpose and the
sternness of principles which have hitherto guided the polit
ical course of the Hon. Williara L. Yancey, we must, at the
sarae time, in justice to ourselves, disapprove his course at
and since the adjournment of the Baltiraore Convention."
The next, made " an appeal to his better judgment, his sober
second thought, hoping that he Avill yet resume his high

THE CAMPAIGN. 225
position, a proud and distinguished champion of the Demo
cratic platform adopted by the Baltimore convention."
Mr. Yancey thought seriously of taking steps to organize
a reform party. In association with Dr. Scott, he Avrote to
Senator Dixon H. LeAvls, then at Washington, for counsel.
The Senator earnestly opposed the step. In a long private
letter. He Avas himself disappointed with tbe Baltimore Con
vention, but the party had resolved to ratify it, and there the
complaint should end. Having deterralned to accept this
advice, with reluctance and doubt, however, Yancey began to
Aveave a chain of influences, in spare hours snatched from his
desk, as a party reclaimer. He would endeavor to hold the
party up to a high moral plane. The condition of the South
presented a remarkable parallel to a previous period In
American history. Wirt, describing the time, between 17(i-3,
Avhen Patrick Henry brought up his resolutions, and the
outbreak at Boston nine years later, says : "In that period not
an hour of settled peace existed betAveen the tAvo countries.
It Is true the eruption produced by the stamp act had sub
sided with its repeal and the people had resumed their ancient
settlements and occupations ; but there was no peace of heart
and mind. The rumbling of the volcano was still audible and
the smoke of the crater ascended, mingled, not infrequently,
Avith those flames and masses of ignited matter which an
nounced a new and raore terrible explosion."
Yancey refused to enter the campaign, but the people
refused to relax their demands on hira to speak. A Cass
elector. Colonel T. B. Bethea, a lawyer and wealthy planter, a
gentleman of excellent ability, was announced to open a
debate at Camden, the capital of Wilcox county, which Avas
expected to continue more than one day, between the repre
sentatives of the two parties. Thomas H. Watts, a young
laAvyer, of Montgomery, a Taylor elector for the State at
large, was appointed to reply. Watts and Yancey were fast
personal friends and went to the meeting together. When
Bethea concluded. Watts rose but did not perform the part
assigned to him. He introduced Yancey to the audience,
promising to reply to Colonel Bethea the next day. " Yancey
took the stand (wrote an eye witness) and never have I Avit-
nessed such a display of arrogance and dictatorship. He

1.5

226 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
arraigned the Democratic party. North and South. He said
Colonel Bethea Avas not the candidate of the Democracy of
Alabama; going for Cass, we were all false to the principles
of our fathers. I do not pretend to quote his Avords, but his
speech Avas an outpohrlng of bitterness you Avould seldom
hear from a Whig, delivered In his usual vehement and brill
iant style. It Avas -all fine sport for the Whigs, and they came
doAvn in repeated and thundering applause. I do not think he
relished this, for he upbraided them and said they had no
right to Interfere In a family quarrel."
At HaynevUle, the capital of Lowndes county, an easy
drive from Montgomery, a Cass ratification meeting Avas called.
As thei court roora was well filled and the raeeting about to
proceed with its object, Mr. Lewis, a prominent citizen and
politician, announced that Mr. Yancey had just arrived at the
hotel, and moved that he be invited to appear to explain his
course at Baltimore. So strong objections Avere urged that
LcAvls reduced his Informal suggestion to the form of a reso
lution, and demanded a A^ote on It. The resolution was lost,
by five voles, and, so It appeared, the meeting Avould not heSr
Yancey. It Avas explained by some one present that no
disrespect to Mr. Yancey Avas Intended, but the meeting
had a specific purpose. In which he could not be expected to
participate, if reports of his recent conduct were to be- be
lieved. At this, a A^olce cried out to all Avho Avanted to hear
^' ancey to repair to the shade of the big oak on the square
A general rush for the door took place. Yancey Avas escorted
to the shade of the tree. When he arrived It was observed
that the court room had been vacated. The Cass ratification
ceremonies Avere over for want of an audience, and thither the
crowd, noAV in excellent humor, lead hira. The agitation of
the day exhilarated the orator's own spirits, and he deUvered
a long remembered speech.
There Is a subtle difference between the allegiance duty to
party, in a free country, and the duty due to party reform.
All men felt there Avas no mental or moral aridity In Yancey's
conclusions, although h6 now refused to deliver raore speeches,
Avhile urged by the people of both parties, as the campaign
progressed " I ara a neutral in this campaign (he wrote to
Williain H. Lucas, on July 29, declining the honor of a

TIIE CAMPAIGN. 227
barbecue tendered, hira at Mount Meigs). I felt It to be ray
duty to prevent all Democrats from endorsing General Cass.
My object was to preserve the Integrity of the party, to stand
lirmly by ray party friends, and let the Democracy of the free
States know that Avhen Ave use brave words they will be
foUowed by determined acts. * * J shall adhere to my
poUtical opinions and avUI gladly act Avith all those who, for
the time being, join rae in their advocacy. No political neces
sity shall drive me from the path of duty. I shall remain a
self-thinking citizen of Alabama, cherishing the faith I believe
to be pure, carrying It into practice, rejoicing lu Its success
and grieving at Its defeat."
Leaving the fleld of oral debate, Mr. Yancey published a
pamphlet of nearly eighty pages, called an " Address to the
People of Alabama." It was au historical account of the
origin and adoption of the Alabama Platform and of his
course at the Baltimore Convention. " Frora an ungenerous,
unjust and abusive press (the author said) frora lU-lnformed
declalraers, frora the Avretchedly contemptible effusions of
anonymous letter Avriters and from the studied misrepresenta
tions of that portion of my co-delegates to the late Baltimore
Convention who have pretended to inform the public, I appeal
to the people of Alabama." In defence of his neutrality, he
said should Southern Democrats refrain from giving counte
nance to Cass, the election of Taylor raight be the result. In
that event no principle Avould have been sacrlflced but, rather,
vindicated. No Democrat, however, Avho consented to support
Cass, could reconcile his course Avlth his avoAved devotion to
principle. Nor could Cass Deraocrats escape an ultimate con
demnation. If Democrats, refusing to do wrong, should be
charged with the success of the Whigs, they Avould only
appear in the least off'ensive line of conduct open to them.
^' I am called a disappointed politician (was the peroration), a
forsaken office seeker. I have never sought an office that I
did not receive. I twice resigned posts of high trust and
honor when It Avas conceded I was In the zenith of popularity.
It could be established, that I have repressed tbe efforts of
partial and influential friends to bring me Into positions of
even greater dignity than I have aspired to. If I am, in any
degree, a disappointed politlci-in, my disappointment Is not

228 THE LIFE OF YAyCEY.
personal but relates to the great interests of my native land.
The principles upon Avhlch I stand will survive both bold
assertion and loud, unreciprocated personal abuse. Reflection
will bring with it that sense of justice which never long de
serts a free, intelligent and virtuous people."
The election resulted in the success of the Whigs by a
plurality popular vote. Taylor and Fillmore received 1,360,-
101 ; Cass and Butler, 1,220,644 ; Van Buren and Charles F.
Adams 291,263, an increase of more than four hundred per
cent, over the Abolition vote of 1844. Taylor and FlUraore
received 163 electoral votes, Cass and Butler 127, and the Abo
lition ticket none. The Democratic vote of Alabama decreased
about 6,000 from the Presidential election of 1844, notwith
standing the large Immigration which had come Into the State
In the Interval. The falling off of the vote of the party was
attributed to the stand Individuals had taken against squatter
sovereignty. The country was amazed at the popular support
gh'en to Van Buren. He received nearly one-tenth of the
popular vote cast.
Bitter as the feeling had been at the outset of the cam
paign against Mr. Yancey, on account of his refusal to follow
his party aAvay from Its principles, the sincerity of his oi^in-
lons and the ability In which he had maintained them pleased
the people. When the Cass electors asserabled at Mont
goraery to cast the electoral vote of the State, they made
overtures to Yancey to induce him to appear in open reconcil
iation Avith his party. In this step the electors were joined
by other party leaders. Explaining In an open letter what
had taken place, Mr. Yancey said : " I suggested that a reso
lution might be passed declaring that there had been legiti
mate causes of dlft'erence among good Democrats in the late
canvass ; but that those causes were peculiar to that canvass
and had passed aAvay with It. * * I said that when the
juncture was eff'ected It would be with an acknowledgment
of the truth of my position and not before ; that I had much
to forgive but no forgiveness to ask." The "juncture" came,
on his own terms, eight years later, as will appear.
Calhoun advised the South Carolina Legislature to cast
the electoral vote of that State for Taylor, and Rhett advised
it should be cast for Cass. Cass and Butler received it.

'THE C.l.MPAIGX. 229
One of the notable Democratic campaign documents, of the
year 1S48, Avas "Sketch of the Life and Public Services of
General Lewis Cass," published at the Cougi-es.^iiojial Globe
office. In tAvo editions, one for Northern circulation, Avlth an
account, among other things, of General Cass' expressions of
sympathy Avith the French icA'olutlon of that year ; and the
other for Southern circulation, Avlth those exjjresslons omitted
and, as a substitute, a statement making it appear that Gen
eral Cass failed to support the Wilmot Proviso, Avhen that
measure Avas before the Senate, because of his disapproval,
AA-hich was not correct. The pamphlets Avere of the same
number of pages and did not differ except in the page or two
supposed to apply to the North, In one edition, and the South
In the other.*

*Cong. Globe, App. A'ol- 2U p- 435-

CHAPTER

Some Preparatory Steps.
1849.

When the delusions of the Presidential campaign had
passed away, the South realized Its peril. The Whigs had
triumphed on the issue of the Wilmot Proviso ; the Demo
crats had done battle for the issue of squatter sovereignty.
Foremost of young Democrats to discern the party superiority
of the Cass doctrine of squatter sovereignty, over the WUmot
Proviso, Avas Stephen Arnold Douglas, a Senator from Illi
nois. Neither Ghenkis Kahn or Napoleon ever contemplated
conquest so entrancing as that Avhich tempted the poAverful
civilization of the free States, westAvard to the Pacific. Wide
rivers and rich valleys, abounding gold and sliver, new sea
ports open to China stood out frora the picture. In Europe,
the French king had been dethroned, Germany was awaken
ing, Froebel had conceived his educational process for the
poor, the Prince Consort Avas busily engaged in preparing the
flrst World's Fair, destined to play so important a part In
arousing the energies of the people. Ireland Avas prostrate In
famine. The free States now rapidly lost the original Ameri
can Constitutional character. Naturalization laws and land
laAA's of Congress precipitated the process. In the year 1821
only 9,127 foreigners landed hi the United States, but In 1841
there came 80,289, and, in 1851, 379,464. An insignlflcant
proportion only, of the total Immigration, settled in the slave
States. New England forgot her interest In the protective

SOME PREPARATORY STEPS. 2:!1
tariff' Avhlle her capital sought employment In tbe land specu
lations of the West, and her merchants found fresh markets
in the ever recurring multiplication of new Western toAvns
built by European populations.
The revolution had moved forAvard in the essential facul
ties of It. The evidence was not in vague outwardness but
in the abounding likenesses of the vital type. The discerning
insight of deep men did not mistake them ; superficial leaders
only were doomed to paint them In false colors. A practical
excess of political poAver, ever accumulating from inexhaust
ible sources of supply, Avas fixed In the free States. The
slave States looked in vain for justification of their ever
augmenting humiliation. They had greatly prospered since
the final overthrow of the American System. Cotton ship
ments to Europe, which Avere a little more than a million
bales. In 1838-39, Avere m excess of tAvo and a quarter mill
ions, in 1848-49. Had the Southern people been remiss In
contributions of treasure or blood to acquire the ^Mexican
land ? With one-third of the population of the Union, the
slave States had contributed 45,640 volunteers, Avhlle the free
States, with tAvo-thirds of the population of the ITnlon, had
contributed only 23,08-1 A'olunteers to the Mexican Avar. The
slave States had contributed the two commanding (ienerals of
the war on the American side. Why should the South seek
ease frora the strife 'i
When Congress met, in December, the air of triumph
worn by the raore aggressive leaders of the North In that body,
greatly alarmed the Southern members. Ere the session had
advanced more than a few weeks the following bills Avere
Introduced : A bill to exclude slaA'ery from California and
New Mexico, by a member from Ohio ; a bill, by another
member from Ohio, to take the vote of the Inhabitants of the
District of Columbia on the question of abolishing slavery
therein, and that slaves and free negroes should vote on the
question ; a resolution. Introduced by a member from Massa
chusetts, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Mr.
Adams dying just before the Presidential campaign opened,
there Avas a practical amalgamation of his party with the
Whigs of the North, in the present session of Congress, with
Senator W. H. Seward, from New York, in the leadership.

282 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
A meeting of Senators and Representatives from the slave
States was held in the Senate chamber, in January preceding
President Taylor's inauguration. In 1849. After much deUb-
eratlon, extending over a week In dift'erent meetings, Howell
Cobb, of Georgia, Clayton, of DelaAvare, and others withdrew.
The last meeting seems to have been on January 22. An
Address to the People of the South was then put forth, Avritten
by Mr. Calhoun and signed by R. M. T. Hunter, Jaraes M.
Mason, Archibald Atkinson, Thomas M. Bayly, R. L. T. Beale,
Henry Bedlnger, Thomas S. Bocock, WUliain G. BroAvn, R. K.
Meade and R. A. Thompson, Virgiida ; J. R. J. Daniel and A.
W. Venable, North Carolina ; A. P. Butler, J. C. Calhoun,
.Vrralstead Burt, I. E. Holmes, R. B. Rhett, R. F. Simpson, D.
Wallace and J. A. WoodAvard, South Carolina; H. V. John
son, Alfred Iveison, Hugh A. Haralson, Georgia ; David L.
Yulee, Florida ; William R. King, B. Fitzpatrick, John Gayle,
F. W. Bowdon, S. W. Harris and S. W. Inge, Alabama; Jef
ferson Davis, Henry S. Foote, P. W. Tompkins, A. G. Brown,
W. S. Featherstone and Jacob Thompson, Mississippi ; S. W.
Downs, J. H. Harmanson, Emile La Sere and 1. E. Morse,
Louisiana ; T. Pilsbury and David S. Kaufman, Te.cas ; Solon
Borland, J. K. Sebastian and R. W. Johnson, Arkansas ; Hop
kins L. Turney and E. P. Stanton, Tennessee. The Address
Avas a statement of the sectional issue. It said :
" Owing (the blacks) their emancipation to them (the X(n-thern
whites) they Avould regard them as friends, guardians and patrons, aud
Centre, accordingly, all their sympathy in them. The people of the
North would not fail to reciprocate and faA'or them instead of the
whites. Under the influence of such feelings and impelled by fanati
cism and love of power, they would not stop at emancipation. Another
step woiild be taken — to raise them to a political and social equality
with their former owners, by giving them the right of voting and
holding office under the federal government. AA^e see the first step
toward it iu the bill to vest the free blacks and slaves with the right to
vote on the question of emancipation in this District. But when once
raised to an equality, they would become the fast political -associates of
the North, acting and voting with them on all questions, and, by this
political union, holding the white race at the South in complete sub-
.ieotion. The blacks and profligate whites that might unite with them
would become the jji-incipal recipients of federal offlces and patronage,
and would, in consequence, be raised above the whites of the South in
the i-olitical and social scale."

.SOME PUEPARA'TOUY STEPS. 233
California was the apple of discord. An hundred thou
sand men had suddenly collected there, and stlU they came by
ship loads and over the plains, Americans, Europeans, Asiatics
Avith no settled purpose of abode, growing rich in the mines
OAvned by the LTnited States, and in no sense prepared to erect
a Coraraonwealth in any of the traditions of America. But
California already had a government suitable to the prevailing
conditions. General Perslfer F. Smith, soldier, laAvyer and
statesman was military Governor. Commodore Jones enforced
the collection of tarlft' duties. In the total absence of federal
collectors or revenue laws. Before Congress adjourned, March
4, 1849, much had been said about erecting the customary
Territorial government there. The mines owned by the United
States were considered sufficiently valuable to comraand a
high rent and thus to repay a large part of tbe outlay Incurred
in the acquisition. Mr. Willlam Ballard Preston, from Mr-
glnla, raade a motion In the House to establish a Territorial
government over California, with or without slavery as the
people might choose, but Whigs, Democrats and Abolitionists,
from the free States, voted it down. Mr. Walker, from Wis
consin, a political friend of Mr. Calhoun, offered a resolution
in the Senate that the Constitution and laws of the United
States, Avhere applicable, be extended to California. The Leg
islature of his State proraptly called for his resignation, as a
rebuke. In every forra of ordinary expression the people of
the free States gave notice to the people of the slave States of
their debarraent from the enjoyment of any of the neAV Ter
ritory. " The President Is honest, but the most ignorant man of
public aft'airs whom I ever saAv In office," ejaculated Toombs,
as he walked away frora the Executive Mansion. In the
recess of Congress, foreseeing the bitter struggle to follow
when it re-assembled over the erection of a Territorial govern
ment in California, the President commanded General RUey,
of the army, to convene a Convention there for the purpose of
framing a State Constitution. There was no precedent for
such Executive action. Congress alone, under the Constitu
tion, had power to make " needful rules and regulations " for
the governing of all the territory Avhlch the Constitution
-contemplated, and the treaty with Mexico provided a civil

234 THE LIFE OF YAyCEY.
protectorate, by the United States, of the ceded lands, and
their population, until they should become States of the Union.
No civil population occupied California, no women, no cultiva
tors of the soil, only miners, speculators and gamblers of all
nations, with no intent to find domicile. General Riley, with
out authority of law, collected $175,000 from the shipping in
the port of San Francisco to defray the expenses of the civil
duties he was ordered to perform. He Issued orders appor
tioning delegates to prescribed territory. He sat daily through
the deliberations of the Convention. Thus was prepared an
organic law for the second largest State of the Uniou, and the
fairest of all — one hundred and eighty-eight thousand square
miles, equal to four States larger than New York, and a large
part of Its area south of the parallel 36° 30' lately recognized
by the South as a valid division of free from slave territory
by the act annexing Texas. The simple but arbitrary course
of the President had not established peace, but fomented dis
cord. When the Constitution of California, prohibiting slavery,
Avas presented by him to Congress, and the sections took sides
on the question of the admission of the State, the argument of
the South was fully matured and, from a Constitutional stand
point, Avas invincible. The humiUation of the Aveaker section,
for Avhich It was unprepared, and the final exaltation ot the
stronger section, already lustful and boastful, were of the
manifestations of the course of the President.
Returning briefly to Mr. Yancey's public history, of the
year 1849, he delivered an address of Avelcome to the ex-Pres
ident, Mr. Polk, and his faniily of wife and two nieces. Misses
Rucker and Reed, in the name of the people of Montgomery,
on the arrival there of the distinguished travelers on their
journey to their home in Tennessee, by way of the Western
livers. Few of the people, as opportunity then presented
itself, had ever seen a President. A coraraittee of the city
authorities, lead by Colonel J. J. Seibles, an officer of the Mex
ican Avar and now editor of the dally Advertiser, Avent up the
railroad to meet the expected company to arrive in the stage
coach at the terminus of the road, Opellka. Awaiting there
the return of the cars to the city, Mr. Polk stood on the
platform engaging in faraillar conversation with the farmers-

SOME PREP.l,RA'TORY S'TEPS. 235
Avho had come In large numbers to celebrate his presence.-
When the train reached the station, on the suburbs of Mont
gomery, nearly a mile from the hotels, as the fashion then
Avas, Chief Justice Collier, the President of the railroad, Mr.
PoUard, and General CarroU, marshal of the day, met the
guests with a coach drawn by six white horses. A long pro
cession with great cheering escorted them to the Montgomery
Hall, Avhere Mr. Yancey spoke for " the only sovereign known
to our institutions — the people," Avords of hearty welcome.
Alarmed by the aggressive action of the anti-slavery men,
of all parties in Congress, as Avell as by the logic and startling
prophecies of Mr. Calhoun's Address, Democrats of Alabama-
forgot their angry feeUng toward Yancey. The Whigs met in
Convention early in May, 1849, at Clayton, Barbour county,
and nominated Mr. Hilliard for re-election as Representative
in Congress. The Democrats Avere anxious to bring forward
Yancey to contest with blm. They corresponded Avlth him,.
urging their right to nominate him in a time of peril.' He
refused. Mr. Hilllard's letter of acceptance was an eloquent
appeal for justice to the South and, at the same time, a bold
defiance to those of the South who should oppose the Admin
istration of President Taylor. He said : " I declared on the
floor of the House of Representatives but a little while before-
the close of the last session of Congress, that when the
Southern States came into this Union they came in Avlth
certain rights guaranteed to them under the Constitution ;
and, speaking as a Southern man acquainted with the spirit
of the people from which I corae, I give It as my judgment,
that they avIU be unwilling to suffer any infraction of those
rights. * * Alabama can never consent to hold any other
than an equal rank as a meraber of this Confederacy, and her
people must enjoy all their rights In their fullest extent."
Proclaiming sentiments, thus far, which were the meeting'
ground of the people of the Avhole District, the letter qualified
them, as the Democrats alleged, by the following sentences :
"They (the Democrats of the Calhoun school) compass sea
and land to make proselytes to their cause Avhlch has neither
sincerity to apologize for its extravagances nor principle to
dignify its excesses. They hope to overthrow the friends
of General Taylor in this District, to carry the Ilouse of

-286 THE LIFE OF YANCJEY.
Representatives against him, to rob us of the fruits of our
late glorious victory. * * " The task of Mr. HUliard, there
fore, Avas to reconcile the Whig victory with "the right of the
South to enter upon the territory with Its property of every
description, and to reraaln there In its full enjoyment under
the protection of the Constitution," as his letter at the outset'
proclaimed. The task befoi-e the Democrats was to flnd a
candidate strong enough to meet Mr. HUliard on the stump.
So the matter between the parties stood Avhen the State
Convention, Avhlch was to nominate a candidate for Governor,
and the delegates there assembled, from the Second District,
to nominate a Democratic candidate for Congress, met at
Montgomery. If there was reason in Yancey's mind why
Reuben Chapman, of the Calhoun school, should be Governor
In 1847, the same reason was greatly conflrmed by intervening
events. Could Chapman be re-nominated, even supported by
the precedents of the party which alloAved two terms to a
Governor, and also by his extraordinary personal popularity ?
Yancey went Into the Convention Avell aAvare that Governor
Martin's friends Avere yet stubborn under the breach of party
custom, Avhlch had retired hira on one terra, at Yancey's Insti
gation. He kncAV, too, that gentlemen of high aspirations had
obtained seats In the Convention determined to rebuke Gov
ernor Chapman for appointing Willlam R. King to succeed
Bagby In the Senate, and for appointing Benjamin Fitzpatrick
to succeed Lewis, the one Senator resigned and the other dead.
It Avas argued that King and Fitzpatrick had received their
share of honors, until the iieople themselves should recall
thera ; and, most of all, that they came from counties sepa
rated only by a narrow river ; that the Governor had been
unjust in his favors bestowed. Knowing the opposition he
Avould receive, and the grounds, Yancey took his seat in the
Convention to do battle. He put Cnapman's name In nomi
nation. Several ballots followed In which Chapman received
a large majority of those present but fell a few votes below
the two-thirds necessary to nominate. Yancey explained to
the Convention, that he had positive knowledge that a num
ber of delegates from Northern Alabama, Chapraan's friends,
sufficient to give hira more than two-thirds of the Conven
tion, were delayed. The balloting Avent on, but the few

SOME PREPARA'TOUY .STEPS. 287
votes needed by the Governor to re-nominate could not be
obtained. Yancey rose to wlthdraAv Chapman. He delh^ered
one of those electrical harangues which were Avont to rouse
men to frenzy. The Convention Avas about to dishonor Itself
by stultifying the party and the will of the people. Ambitious
men were bent on revenge. Mr. Columbus Lee, of Perry,
called the orator to order. The chair held he Avas not out of
order. Mr. Lee appealed from the decision of the chair and
the Avbole Convention, except Mr. Lee, voted to sustain the
chair, raerabers crying from all parts of the hall to Yancey,
"Go on." "Go on." The Impassioned orator declared, in
conclusion, that It the Convention would command the confi
dence of the public it must select some name, having rejected
Governor Chapman, Avliich was not involved in so disreputable
an occurrence. Thus the Chief Justice, Henry W. Collier,
received the nomination.
The Democrats of the Second District, now convinced of
Yancey's refusal to accept a nomination for Congress, selected
a young lawyer, self-made, able, robust of body and ardent In
zeal, only the year before a pronounced Whig, an elector on the
defeated Taylor ticket, to oppose Mr. Hilliard — James Law
rence Pugh. The johit canvass began. Yancey, too, entered
the field. Never was there a higher display of popular feeling.
The public mind was surrendered to the agitation of the can
vass. A meeting between the candidates was appointed for
Mount Meigs. The Democrats insisted that Yancey should
attend. A correspondent gave the foUoAving report of the
scene :
" There was a crowd at Mount Meigs to enjoy the promised
sport on Thursday. The old church seemed likely to become
the theatre of a scene not exactly in line of the purpose for
which it was built. Mr. Pugh was there, smiling and confi
dent. Mr. Hilliard, too, was there. We noticed, also, the
candidates for county offlces were on hand, ready to strut
their brief hour when the grand display promised should
expire — naturally as the farce foUows the tragedy. There
was a long delay. Finally it was made known Mr. HUliard
Avould not speak unless he could close the debate. Then dis
tinct propositions came from Pugh, to be all declined. First,
Pugh proposed to debate on the usual terms, the same as had

¦238 THE LIFE OF YAyCEY.
been allowed the day before; second, to commit all arrange
ments 'to two Whigs ; third, the candidates themselves should
not speak, leaving the discussion to go on between their
friends present. To the third proposition Mr. HUliard ob
jected. Should Yancey speak, HUliard reserved the right of
reply. The fourth proposition came from Yancey. He of
fered to debate Avith Mr. HUliard, giving him the conclu
sion, provided neither speaker should refer to-Pugh — Hilliard
to ' lint ' Yancey to bis satisfaction. Yancey promised, on
these conditions, to confine himself entirely to the Southern
-^question, and to prove from Mr. HiUiard's speeches in Con
gress, and from his vote for Winthrop, for Speaker, in 1847,
and other matters of i-ecord, that he Avas too far beloAV the
requirements of the times to deserve re-election." Mr. HUl
iard replied to this that he would debate Avlth Mr. Yancey,
reserving the right to refer to Mr. Pugh. Hilllard's friends
presented a fifth proposition — that arrangement for debate be
left Avlth three supporters of each candidate. The result Avas,
no debate took place.
Hilliard defeated Pugh. The friends of the victor pre
pared a banquet In his honor. Whig joy was pledged over
the cup until a late hour, and many were the jests, at the ex
pense of the new "resistance" party in its flrst encounter
Avlth public opinion In Alabaraa. The following characteristic
correspondence took place : " MOXTGOJIEKY, August 10, 184il.
"//o)(. Henry W. Ililliurd —
"Sik: I understand that at a party celebration of your friends last
night, at the Exchange, in alluding to the contest just past, you spoke
-of it as assimilated to a game of cards; that ' the best trump of my ad
versaries w:is reserved for the last, and, lo! it turned up a knave.'
This flgure was applied, as I am informed, in such m-anner as to leave
the impression that I was the person referred to — one ' brought all the
way from South Carolina.'
" Is the above a correct version of your remarks, in spirit or sub
stance? If not, and if you alluded to myself in any manner, I request
that you will state the language you used."
" Your ob't s'v't, W. L. Yancey.
" MourooMKHV, August 10, 1849.
"Deak Sik: I hasten to reply to your note, which has just been
linuded to me by Colonel Elmore, aud which, I regret to see, discloses

SOME PREPARATORY STEPS. 239
some feeling in regard to a playful remark of mine, made last evening
at the Exchange Hotel. * * Our personal relations have been uni
formly kind, and I h^ve too sincere respect for those relations to em
ploy any remark in regard to you which could be construed to your
injury. * * If you had heard my speech, I am sure you Avould have
laughed at it in perfect good temper."
" Yery respectfully, your ob't serv't,
"II. AV. IIlLI.IAKD."
Hon. W. L. Yancey.
Collier AA^as elected Governor Avithout opposition. His po
litical opinions were not Avell pronounced on the questions of
the day. Bowdon, Inge, and Harris, three of the signers of
Mr. Calhoun's address, were re-elected Representatives. John
Gayle, another signer, was not a candidate for re-election, but
from his, the Mobile District, Alston, Taylor \Vhlg, defeated
Sellers, State Rights Democrat. Hubbard, extreme State
Rights Democrat, succeeded Houston, Union Democrat ; and
Cobb, Union Democrat, Avas elected in the upper counties.
Alabama, therefore, in this period of the sectional conflict,
leaned towards the State Rights determination. Hef hiAin-
clble Senators were, apparently, yet deA'oted to the address
they had signed — one of the most remarkable political prophe
cies of any tirae.
The Thirty-First Congress assembled in extremely ill tem
per. Governor Collier sent to the Legislature of Alabama, In
December, 1849, a letter just received by him, dated Wash
ington, and signed by Benjarain Fitzpatrick, the only Sena
tor present, and by six of the seven Representatives of the
State. The letter declared the federal government had be
come inoperative and was menaced with iraraediate dissolu
tion. For three weeks the Lower House of Congress had
been unable to organize. Each day the clerk called the roll,
and balloting proceeded to choose a Speaker, and day by day
the raembers harangued and adjourned in turbulence, with no
progress. There were four organized parties on the floor, but
only three had candidates for the Speakership. HoavcU Cobb,
from Gecjrgla, who had refused to sign Mr. Calhoun's Address,
Avas the candidate of the Democrats — a comproralse noralnee.
Robert C. Winthrop, from Massachusetts, Whig Speaker of
the last House, was the Whig candidate noAv. Meredith P.
Gentry, from Tennessee, Avas the candidate of a new party.

240 THE LIFE OF YAyCEY.
calling themselves Southern Whigs. The fourth Avas the
jiarty of the late .John Quincy Adams, which, without a com
petent leadei;, held Itself in readiness to throw its weight
Avherever Its Interests In the changing circumstances of the
hour might appear.
The Deraocrats, wearied and alarmed, at length dropped
Cobb for William J. Brown, from Indiana. The rules required
a raajority of all the members enrolled to elect a Speaker.
BroAvn received the necessary vote but, on UKjuiry, it was de
tected that he had bargained Avith the Adams jparty. Before
the completion of the roll call, a sufficient number of Demo
crats changed their votes to rebuke their candidate with de
feat. Brown, from Mississippi, oft'ered a resolution declaring
Cobb Speaker." It was not a Constitutional resolution. Toombs
took the floor In a scene of Avlld disorder. The Democrats, he
said, anxious to save the Republic, had become the Auctlms
of treachery In their own ranks ; the faction setting them
selves up as moralists, had been privy to the dishonorable act.
" Give me the security (cried the Impassioned Georgian) that
the power of the organization you seek will not be used to the
injury of my constituents, and you shall have my co-opera
tion, but not until then." At the end of a month of disgrace
ful scenes on the floor, the Democrats and Winthrop Whigs
appointed a committee of conference. Without the least
authority in law, the committee reported, dispensing with a
rule of the House for a mere resolution, to accomplish an
election. The Instant their report was read Toombs sprang to
his feet to repudiate it. The Constitution required the House
to establish and observe rules, and the rules of the last Con
gress were the rules of the present, until repealed. No organ
ization had been effected by law, and no legislation was
possible. Therefore, all motions to suspend or Infract upon
the rules Avere Illegal. " Order : " " Order," was shouted from
every quarter. The Clerk interposed : " Will the gentleman
from Georgia allow me to put the question upon the motion to
rescind the rule ? " " No. I have the floor," Avas ^Toomb's
reply. Vehement shouts, " Sit down ; " " SUence," and cahs
for the yeas and nays rang through the hall. "Y'ou may cry
'order,' gentlemen (continued the orator) until the heavens-
fall, you cannot take the floor from me. * * I shall-

SOME PREPARA'TORY S'TEPs. 241
continue to debate this question Avhether you call the roll or
not. * * Y'ou must first be sworn to obey the Constitution
before you can bind me or yourselves by your acts. You re
fuse to hear either the Constitution or the statute (cries of
'order'). * * The law is plain, clear and conclusive. Y'ou
cannot answer It. Finding this Illegal resolution inadeciuate
to secure so vile an end, you resort to brutish yells ana cries
to stifle the Avords of those Avhoin such deraonstrations of
your wrath cannot Intimidate." The resolution Avas carried ;
Cobb Avas declared iSpeaker, but there was no law to make the
declaration valid. Thus Avas enacted the flrst In order of
those "compromises" bu- which the Thirty-First Congress
became notable, and Avhlch hurried the country forward to
irreparable disaster.
The Legislature entered with alacrity into the spirit of the
letter of the Congressmen, transmitted by the Governor.
Resolutions were passed publishing " to the Congress of the
United States, to the States of this Union, and to the world
the ground which self-respect, honor and Constitutional equal
ity demand that this State shall occupy." Alabama would
" never submit to any act of the government of the United
States Avhich excludes the South from a fair and just enjoy
ment of the territory acquired from Mexico, and Avhlch Is the
property of the States of this Union ; " in the event of the
passage of the Wilmot Proviso, or any similar act, " we call
upon the people of the slave States to raeet in Convention for
taking such action as the defense of our comnion rights may
demand." Senator John A. Winston moved to amend the
resolutions with the following, which passed unanimously :
" That in the event of the passage by Congress of any act
contemplated by the foregoing resolutions, the raembers of
Congress from this State should no longer participate in the
action of a body so regardless of our Constitutional rights."
There was neither Whig nor Democrat to raise a voice
against this official response of Alabama to the united warn
ing of the State representation In both Houses of Congress,
save one. Before any other State had acted on the issue
of the day, now for the second time, within two years, Ala
bama had spoken. The Legislature had vindicated the Demo
cratic Convention of 1848. As that Convention had lead the

16

242 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Democratic opinion of the day, expressed directly by the peo
ple, so the organized government of the people now sustained
it. Alabama was in the lead. Yancey had triumphed.
The angered sections stood with bated breath. If deliver
ance was hoped for, the deliverer must be found at once. Mr.
Clay was appealed to by old friends and old foes. He was
long past three score and ten, but his bearing was gallant
still, and his mental faculties acute. He consented to leave
the retirement of his farm to prepare a last " compromise."
He was he.ird to say, he hoped It would endure for thirty
years.

CHAPTER 11.

The Last "Compromise." 18^0.

The long delay m organizing the LoAver House, of the
Thirty-First Congress, was endured by the Senate in silence.
Mr. Clay was in his seat, while the country waited in acute
tension the great task assigned to him. California, Avlth a fully
organized State Governraent in operation, was conscious of the
mastery in herself of the situation. The State had more to
give to the Union than the Union had to bestow on the State.
What would be done by the federal government to stay the
progress of revolution"? Mr. Clay rose to speak, on January
29. From States near and remote, thousands had come to
hear him, so that fi'om early raorning the space In the Capitol,
allowed to the audience, and the space beyond earshot was
crowded AA-lth an anxious throng. He spoke on tAvo success
ive days with the flre of his prime. The Clayton " compro
mise " was before him, numerous resolutions offered on the
exciting subject in both branches of Congress, also. At the
conclusion of his remarks on the second day he read a series
of resolutions prepared by himself. " They were more equita
ble than the revolutionists would accept. There was a flxed
purpose 'to prolong debate and foment discord. Mr. Bell,
from Tennessee, introduced resolutions. Day by day, through
weeks and months the angry tide of revolution flowed higher,
absorbing the entire care of both Houses of Congress. All
questions save the anti-slavery Constitution of California,

244 'I'TtE LIFE OF YANCEY.
were dismissed by common consent. Ceaseless were threats of
the people in both sections to settle for themselves the dispute
of the sections on the floors of Congress. Mr. Foote, from
Mississippi, in vain urged the Senate to refer the resolutions
of Messrs. Clay and Bell to a select Committee. A petition
frora Abolitionists of Pennsylvania, and another from Aboli
tionists of Delaware prayed Congress to appoint a committee
to draft terms of a dissolution of the Union. February 27th,
a raember frora the West introduced in the House a resolution
to admit California. The- motion was promptly submitted to
the Committee of the Whole House and the storm of passion,
which had raged already three months, received fresh impulse.
Mr. Toombs, from his place, said :
"We had our institutions when you, gentlemen of the North,
sought our alliance. We were content with them. We have not sought
to interfere with yours nor to thrust ours upon you. If you believe
what you say, that yours are so much the best to promote the happi
ness and good government of society, Avhy do you fear our equal compe
tition with you in the Territories ? We only ask that our common
government shall protect us both, equally, until the Territories shall be
ready to be admitted as States of the Union, and then to leave their
citizens free to adopt any domestic policy, in reference to this subject,
which in their judgment may best promote their interest and their
happiness. Grant it, and you place your prosperity and ours on a solid
foundation; you perpetuate the Union, so necessary to your prosperity;
you solve the true problem of Kepublican government; you vindicate
the power of Constitutional guarartees. * '*" In this emergency our
duty is clear — it is to stand by the Constitution and laws; to observe
in good faith all its requirements, until the Avrong is consummated;
until the act of exclusion is put upon the statute book. It will theu be
demonstrated that the Constitution is powerless for our protection; it
will be then not only the right but the duty ot the slaveholding States
to resume the powers which they have conferred upon this government
and to seek new safeguards for their future security.'
March 4th, Mr. Calhoun rose from his bed of death to
appear In the Senate with the manuscript of a speech which
he Avas unable to deliver. Senator Mason, from Virginia, read
It to the body, while the animated countenance of the emaci
ated flgure at his side interpreted each- recurring sentence.
The desperate condition of the country was not the work of
tirae, in its norraal action, the statesman declared. He had
'protested. In 1835, against giving Congress jurisdiction of

THE LAST ''COMPROMISE." 245
petitions to abolish slavery. He was overruled and the result
Avas, an oppressive partiality had marked the course of the
government. At last the Executive had taken sides. ThroAV-
ing out the intimation that the Mexican law prohibited South
ern men to enter California Avith their i^roperty, the utmost
encouragement of our common government had been given
to Northern men to carry their property thither. The next
step in the program Avas the sending to Congress, by the Exec-
uthe, of a paper purporting to be a State Constitution. It was
a A'ery grave crisis in the history of the Araerican people when
they were called on to tolerate the action of the Executive.
It was a A^ery grave assumption of authority in the Executive
to pronounce CaUfornia a " State." Could the Senate account
for such a State? Had any authority gone forth for its crea
tion '? Whence came the legal or Constitutional existence of
such a political community ? He knew of no sufficient ground
ou which it could claim appearance before the Senate. Texas,
a fully organized Republic, had been annexed by treaty that
all understood. Ohio and other fully organized States, under
processes knoAvn to the Constitution, and authorized by Con
gress, had been admitted. But, in the case before the Senate,
the operation of the Constitution had had nothing to do. The
Executive had undertaken to enlarge the Union of his own
AvlU, or to establish a State, to stand away to Itself, made out
of the common estate of the LTnion. " The State, before it is
adraltted, (said the speech) is actually a State and does not
become so by act of admission, as would be the case with
California, should you admit her contrary to the Constitu
tional provisions and established usage heretofore." It was
high time to endeavor to stay the progress toward disunion
which such measures were calculated to effect. Of the raany
and various chords that held the people of the sections to-
gather, nearly all were overstrained. Except the Catholic
Church, the religious bodies were organized In smaller and
greater assemblies on the same general principle of the polit
ical government. When it was remembered that the great
Methodist Episcopal denomination had been rent by sectional
questions, the Baptists, also, with the Presbyterians about to
follow, evidence Avas found to prove the Union Avas already
destroyed to the extent that these disruptured organizations

246 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
represented public opinion in both sections. Washington was
born and reared under a political union that he served with
distinguished fldellty, but his devotion was rational and, there
fore, under circumstances of a just nature, he abandoned it to
serve another Union.
Mr. Webster spoke for the Union, March 7th, with great
effect. March 11th, Mr. Seward replied to Mr. Calhoun's
speech. He repudiated the postulate, that a governraent could
be founded on compromise. Mr. Calhoun had demanded an
amendment of the Constitution providing for a Northern
and a Southern Executive. The theory that there could be
an operative compact between co-ordinate powers of govern
ment was incompatible with progress. " But it is Insisted
(he said) that the admission of California shall be attended by
a compromise of questions which have arisen out of slavery.
I am opposed to any such compromise In any and all forms
in which it has been proposed. * * But there is a higher
lav} than the Constitution ¦which regulates our authority over
the domain and devotes it to the same noble ¦purpose?''
Mr. Calhoun returned to the Senate the day after his
speech was read. He arrived late and found Mr. Foote had
severely criticised the speech, denouncing him as a disunionist.
He repelled, with animation, the Impeachment. It was dis
union to destroy the character of the govei-nment, even if the
integrity of the empire be raaintalned. He appeared no more.
The resolutions of Messrs. Clay and Bell, Avlth many other
resolutions and bills on the same general subject, thirty-nine
in all, were referred to a special Committee of Thirteen, com
posed of Messrs. Clay, Cass, Webster, Bell, WUUam R. King,
John M. Mason, Phelps, frora Vermont, Daniel S. Dickinson,
from New Y'ork, Cooper, from Pennsylvania, Mangum, from
North Carolina, and Bright, frcmi Indiana. They reported
the Omnibus bill on May 8th. There Avas a provision allowing
the people of the " new " Territories to determine the question
of slavery for theniselves. Mr. Douglas, speaking In ultimate
defense of squatter sovereignty, objected to the word "new."
A long debate followed, the report was recomraltted and the
objectionable word eliniinated. Mr. Jeff'erson Davis said he
would be content with nothing less than the extension of the
Missouri " compromise " line to the Pacific.

THE LAST ''COMPROMISE." 247
The debate continued in both Houses and the unrest of the
people in their homes grew apace. A county raeeting In
Mississippi, following the example of the Legislature of Ala
bama, called on the slave States to meet In Convention, at
Nashville. Many of the ablest men of tbe South met there In
response to the call, Jtine 3, 1850. Chief Justice Sharkey, of
Mississippi, a LTnion Whig, Avas chosen to preside. John A.
Campbell, of Alabama, wrote the resolutions and Robert
Barnwell Rhett wrote the Address to the People. The reso
lutions declared the willingness of the South to accept thfe
extension of the Missouri " comproralse," or the line 36° 30',
north latitude, to the Pacific, as the boundary, north of which
slavery should not go and south of which the people of the
Territories might, when they came to form States, tolerate or
prohibit the institution at will. They deprecated any decish^e
movement of the Southern people at that time. The Address
was far raore emphatic In recommending an active poUcy.
The ConA'entlon adjourned, to meet again after the adjourn
ment of Congress, should that body fall to act favorably
toAvard the South, In the opinion of the presiding offlcer.
The motion of Senator .Tefferson Davis to extend the
Missouri " compromise" line to the Pacific had been rejected,
June 17th; Mr. Soule's amendment to the Omnibus bill, that
Avhen a Territorial goA'ernment should be organized thereafter.
It should be with the proviso that the State which might be
formed, from the area, should come " Into the Union Avlth or
without slaA'ery as their Constitution may prescribe at the
time of admission," had been adopted, 88 to 12, Mr. Seward,
although near by, failing to vote. These facts being known, a
meeting of the citizens of the city and county of Ylontgomery
was called to hear a report frora Honorable George Gold
thwaite, delegate to the Nashville Convention. Watts, Majes,
Noble, Seibles, Bagby, Seraple, Belser, Y'ancey, Whigs and
Deraocrats, with a throng of planters and merchants asserabled
at the court room on Saturday morning, July 18. Two pre
siding offlcers were chosen, John A. Elmore, Democrat, and
Thomas WiUiams, .Jr., Whig, also tAvo Secretaries of opposite
parties — Adam Felder and Jefferson N,oble. The forenoon
was given to the speech of Judge GoldthAvaite. He was
pleased with the action of the NashvUle Convention. He had

248 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
met raany erainent raen there and no teraper of submission.
He had been a Union man, he was not now a disunionist,
"but If the assertion of just rights brings disunion, let It
come ! " The meeting received In the afternoon the majority
report of ex-Governor Bagby, frora the Coraraittee on Resolu
tions, and a minority report frora the sarae Committee, marie
by Judge Mayes'. The ladles Avere now In attendance In con
siderable numbers. Bagby, Watts, Seraple, and Ware had
spoken, some for the non-committal majority report, some for
the more positive minority report. "All eyes were now turned
toward Mr. Y^ancey, raany of the audience knowing pretty
well .what to expect from him. He rose in his seat and began,
but he was called upon to take the stand. He ascended the
stand. But hoAV shall his speech be described? To what
shall be compared the exhlleratlng, spirit moving eloquence
that fell from his lips ? There were those (he said) who con
tinually cried out for ' unanlralty ! ' He was, himself for
unanimity upon an honorable line of conduct. He was not
for unanimity of submission to premeditated wrong. The
South Avas approaching. If not already arrived at, a unani
mous determination to uphold her Constitutional rights. He
Impeached no man's motives but this was a time to dispense
with party claims." Mr. Watts replied with rauch feeling to
Mr. Yancey. He would oppose the separate action of any
State of the South In the prevailing crisis. He would await
the contingencies provided for by the resolutions of the Nash
ville Convention. When the time for action came, he would
trust the whole South to take the steps proper and expedient.
Mr. Yancey brought up some resolutions of his own which,
with Judge Mayes' consent, he offered as a substitute for the
minority report. He said he regretted to discover a disin
genuous effort In the majority report to separate the resolu
tions, adopted at Nashville, from the Address that Convention
had sent out to the people. He preferred the Address to the
resolutions. He objected to the minority report because it
proposed to the South to revenge itself qn the North by
certain commercial resorts, non-Intercourse, for example. He
objected, farther, to^that report because it suggested certain
contingencies lu the future which raight justify the Governor
of Alabaraa In calling a secession Convention. He AA'ould not

TIIE L.I.ST "COMPROMISE." '249
deceive the people, but inform them ; he Avould not fritter
aAvay public spirit but fortify it to consider the truth in aU its
perilous meaning. He Avas especially anxious that the South
ern States should pledge themselves to assist Texas in any
attempt of that State to resist the partition of her territory
by the federal government, a measure now threatened.
Mr. Noble presented a series of resolutions In Avhlch the
sense and many of the expressions of Mr. Y'ancey's resolutions
together Avith certain parts of both reports, Avere skillfully
combined. Mr. Yancey cheerfully accepted Mr. Noble's reso
lutions on the one condition, that one of his resolutions be
incorporated Intact, and they were adopted. Colonel Seible's
resolution that the people of the State of Alabama be invited
to attend a ba-rbecue, in Montgomery county, to consider the
situation, Avas unanimously adopted. It being now after
candle light, 3Ir. Y'ancey moved a resolution of thanks to the
ladies for their attendance and patience. They Avere always
on the side of union, he said, " but only a union of equal
rights, mutual fidelity and reciprocated love." " The meet
ing adjourned in excellent humor," after appointing Messrs.
Y'ancey and Moss as additional delegates to the NashvUle
Convention, should that body be re-convened.
The " comjiromlse " had been exhaustively discussed In the
Senate. Mr. King, from Alabama, moved to make 85° 80',
north latitude, the Southern boundary of the new State, be
cause the lay of the mountains favored that line. The vote
was taken and the raotion rejected. Mr. Davis, frora Missis
sippi, moved that the same rule apply to California that had
applied to Texas, to- wit : that the line 36° 30' should divide
free from slave territory, and the vote being taken stood, 32
against to 28 in favor. Mr. Douglas raoved that the South
ern boundary of the new State should be the 38th parallel of
north latitude, and the motion was voted down, 37 to 26. Mr.
Foote moved that " the State of California shall never claim
as within her boundaries any territory south of 36° 30'," and
the motion was voted down. Mr. Turney, from Tennessee,
moved, that " the southern limits of California shall be re
stricted to the Missouri Compromise line," and the motion Avas
rejected, 30 to 20. Mr. Davis, from Mississippi, moved that,
in the Territories of Utah and New Mexico, the old Mexican

250 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
law "forbidding slavery should be considered revoked, and the
motion was lost. On all these motions there was earnest
debate. Finally, the bill to admit California, with her Con
stitution, passed, August 13, and the day following Jeff'erson
Davis, with many other Senators of the slave States filed then-
protest against the legislation. The bill went to the House
and, after protracted and bitter debate, passed that body.
The " compromise " of 1850 consisted of five different acts,
passed at long intei'vals. Neither the resolutions of Mr. Clay
or Mr. Bell, or the report of the Committee of Thirteen con
tained the measure. As approved by the President, the acts
stood in the following order :
(1) The act to admit California, a free State more than four times
the area ot the State of N"ew York, a large part of Avhich lay south of
the Missouri " Compromise " line; passed the Senate, August 13. >
(2) The act proposing to the slave State of Texas, in consideration
of the sum of $10,000,000 to be paid to her by the United States, to
relinquish certain territory claimed by her to the north and west, and
the incorporation of a part of the same in !N"ew Mexico, provided, that
provision of the act annexing Texas which recognized the Missouri
"compromise" should not be qualified or impaired, except as to that
part of said Texas territory incorporated in New Mexico; together with
a pi-ovision organizing a territorial government for the Territory of
New Mexico, an area almost twice as great as the State of New
York, guaranteeing " that said Territory, or any part thereof, shall be
received into the Union with or without slavery as their Constitution
may prescribe," but ignoring the old Mexican law prohibiting slavery in
all the same area, while in a Territorial condition ; adopted, September li.
(3) The act to establish a Territorial government for Utah, an area
nearly three fold as great as the State of New York, on the same condi
tions as to slavery and the old Mexican law as the New Mexico act;
adopted, September 9.
(4) The act to amend the act of 1708, providing for the execution
of the provision of the Constitution as to the rendition of fugitive
slaves; adopted, September 16.
(.o) The act to suppress the trade in slaves in the District of
Columbia. An analysis of the " compromise " shows, that it applied
the WUmot Proviso to Calitornla ; that, constructively, it re
tained in authority the old Mexican law prohibiting slavery in
the Territories of New Mexico and Utah, In their Territorial
condition, by neglecting to repeal it ; that, a provision of the
federal Constitution, adopted unanimously and without which

TIIE LAST "COMPROMISE." 251
the Union could not have been formed, Avas required to be exe
cuted ; that the raost valuable species of property In half the
States of the Union was condemned to cumulative Insult by
closing the market to it in the common estate of the States,
the District of Columbia, the penalty of disobedience of the
law being, instantaneous conflscation of the property off'ered
for sale.
Mr. Clay took a very active part in the passage of the
several acts that composed the " compromise " and, probably,
without his interference the remedy would not have been
found for the " flve bloody wounds of the Republic " he de
clared had been so healed.
Speaking to the measure, as a whole, in the Senate, he
said :' " Sir, really, these little posthumous debates, after one
has become exhausted by the main battle of the day are very
unpleasant. I ask the Senator what right is sacrlflced by the
North in this measure ? I do not want general, broadcast
declamation but speciflcatlons. Let us meet them like men,
point upon point, argument upon argument. Let him tell me
if the North does not get everything and the South nothing
but her honor. Show us the power to which the Northern
sacrifice is made ! " Mr. Webster, speaking, also, on the sarae
raeasure, in the Senate, said : "As to the territorial acquisi
tions, I ara bound to say, taking Maryland for example, that
Maryland will gain Avhat Massachusetts loses, and that is
nothing at all." Horace Greeley, through the columns of his
paper, the organ of the Abolitionists, proclaimed a " great
triumph for freedom "'in the passage of the "compromise."
No regular session of the Alabama Legislature was due
immediately after the passage of the "compromise," and Gov
ernor Collier did not deem it wise to summon an extra session.
A meeting was called at the State capital to ratify the raeas
ure and was largely attended by Whigs from the rich slaA^e
counties of the vicinage. Senator William R. King approved
the object of the meeting. Marengo was next, after Montgom
ery, the most populous slave county, and on the first day ot
the fall term of the Circuit Court a very large meeting of the
planters assembled at the Court House to consider what to do.
A hot debate began in the morning and proceeded without in
termission until long after nightfall when, on a division of the

252 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
house, a resolution, off'ered by John W. Henley, a Whig, lawyer
and planter, to "acquiesce," prevailed. The action at Mont
gomery and at Linden seemed to deter the Secessionists from
any Iraniediate attempts to Induce the Governor to act, but,
under the lead of Mr. Y'ancey, Southern Rights Associations
Avere organized. The Whigs met this movement with Union
Clubs. The Legislature of South Carolina called a sovereign
Convention, with the expectation that it would withdraw the
State from the Union. The Legislature of Mississippi sub
mitted to the people, with apparent reluctance, a proposition
to call a sovereign Convention for the sarae purpose.
The Georgia sovereign Convention met In December. The
Unionists were In large raajority. The Ordinances and Reso
lutions of the body becarae the supreme law of the land, and,
therefore, were of great importance to all the slave States.
The Georgia Platform Avas ordained by the Convention and
published. It was based on the general theory that the slave
States were In Imminent peril of their liberties from the
aggressions of the free States ; and cited the following appre
hended acts Avhich, if perpetrated by Congress, would justify
the secession of the State from the Union :
The Integrity of the empire, the United States, would not
be weighed against the security of the liberty of the people of
Georgia, and, therefore, while the State would accept the com
promise In a spirit of concession. If Congress at any future
time should —
Abolish slavery In the ^District' of Columbia, without the
consent and petition of the slaveholders thereof ;
Or aboUsh slavery on the reservations of the government,
such as arsenals, forts, etc., within the limits of the slavehold
ing States ;
Or suppress the slave trade between the slaveholding
States ;
Or refuse to admit a State into the Union because of Its
Constitution tolerating slavery ;
Or repeal or modify the laws then in force for the recovery
of fugitive slaves ;
" Then the State of Georgia, In the judgraent of this Con
vention, will and ought to resist, even (as a last resort) to a
disruption of every tie which binds her to the Union."

THE LAST "COMPROMISE." 253
The parenthetical qualification of the obvious intent of the
Platform — " (as a last resort) " — was an ingenious negation
which had no other effect than to prove the deep purpose of
the authors. It was true, hoAvever, that when Congress had
virtually accomplished all the acts, severally proscribed by
the Platform, those who concelA^ed and perpetrated the paren
thesis claimed the benefit of It.
South Carolina and Mississippi, In eff'ect, accepted the
Georgia Platform.
When Congress re-assembled in December, after a short
recess, the Southern promoters of the " compromise," who
were yet merabers, in alarm at the earnestness of the people,
organized a ncAv party and called it the Union Party. No
declarations of principle were published, save the sanctity of
the " compromise." The founders published an address signed
by Democrats and Whigs — Howell Cobb, Henry Clay, Henry
S. Foote, Henry W. Hilliard, Toombs, Stephens, forty-five in
all. The I'nion Party, yet not under that style and name,
carried the next Presidential election, and perished forever.
The ill-fated " compromises " had enfeebled political ethics,
bUnded the public appreciation and practically usurped the
prerogative of amendments of the organic law, specially pro
vided for the great exigencies through Avhlch the country was
destined to pass.

CHAPTER 12.

Secession Defeated.

18^1.

President Taylor died in the midst of the undetermined
debate on the " compromise." In his letter to Mr. Allison he
had taken the Whig, or consolidation view of the veto power,
and the opponents of the measure before Congress had no
hope of Its ultimate defeat by the Executive interposition in
the use of that prerogative. High ran the hopes of the Aboli
tionists when Mr. FlUraore, whose syrapathies had once been
pledged to their measures, succeeded to the Chief Executive
offlce. But deep was their chagrin when they discovered that
he stood firmly on the comraittals of the head of his party
against the exercise of the veto power upon bills of the class
of the " coraproraise." The measures composing it, one by
one, received the Executive sanction, and no sooner had the
fugitive slave law passed that ordeal, than the Abolitionists of
Boston met to denounce the President. Mr. Charles Sumner,
their favorite orator, spoke to thera at FaneuU Hall. He said :
"Into the immortal catalogue of national crimes this has now
passed ; drawing with it, by an inexorable necessity, its
authors also ; and chiefly him, who, as President of the United
States, set his name to the bill and breathed into it that flnal
breath without which it would have no life. Other Presidents
may be forgotten, but the name signed to the fugitive slave
bill can never be forgotten. There are depths of infamy as
there are heights of fame. I regret to say what I must, but

SECESSIOy DEFEATED. 255
truth compels me. Better far for him had. he ne\'er been
born ; better for his memory and the good name of his
children had he never been President." Two other remark
able evidences of the turbulent temper of the people of Bos
ton, excited by the passage of the "compromise," appeared.
A gallant officer ftom Massachusetts, Lincoln, had fallen on
the field of Buena Vista. His remains were now brought
home for interment, but Boston denied thera the customary
civic honors, because, as the report was spread abroad on the
prevailing winds of fanaticism, the soldier had given his life
for the extension of slavery. Mr. Webster, having been
elevated to the head of Mr. Fillmore's cabinet, repaired to
Boston to speak at FaneuU Hall in vindication of the " coin-
promise," but the doors were closed against him, Avhile the
Legislature, in rebuke of him, chose as his successor In
the Senate, the candidate of the Anti-Slavery Society, Avho
had just spoken at Faneuil Hall, Charles Sumner, the first
In order, of AboUtion Senators. In every assembly of the
Anti-Slavery Society invocations of divine wrath Avere pro
nounced against the President, who had deserted his prin
ciples. " The fugitive slave of the United States is among the
heroes of the ages (declared their orators), we will protect
him by force." Mr. Webster, repulsed, as Calhoun had
warned him, twenty years before, he would be. In his OAvn
horae, went to Buff'alo, Ncav Y''ork, to address the neighbors
of the President, to allay the hostility against him there.
lie said ; " I am a Northern man. I Avas born at the North,
educated at the North, have lived all ray days at the North.
I know five hundred Northern men to one Southern man.
My sympathies, all my sympathies, my love of liberty for all
mankind of every color are the same as yours." He denied
that the Constitution carried slavery into the Territories, and
declared the South had gained no right under the "compro
mise " that would be of the least advantage to her. He
would " never consent that there should be one foot of slave
territory, beyond what the old thirteen slave States had at the
formation of the Union. Never, never." The Anti-Slavery
Society rushed into the arena of fresh disturbance with quick
ened zeal. The press, the rostrum, the stump, the pulpit were
called into its work. Rev. Theodore Parker was invited to

256 THE LIFE OF YAyCEY.
deliver a special sermon on the " great iniquity." The hall
selected was Insufficient to seat the excited crowd that came
to hear him. " Let us disquiet and bring up (he said) the
awful shadows of empires buried long ago and learn a lesson
from the torab. Corae, old Assyria, with the Ninevahn dove
upon thy emerald crown. What laid thee low? '¦1 fell by
my own injustice, and therefore Ninevah and Babylon came
Avith me to the ground.' Oh, queenly Persia, fiame of the
nations, wherefore art thou so fallow ? ' Because I trod the
people under me, and bridged the Hellespont with ships and
poured my temple-wasting millions on the Western world, I
fell by my own misdeeds.' * * Oh, manly and majestic
Rome, rallUons of bondsmen Avet the soil with tears and blood.
Do you not hear it crying yet to God? Wicked raen are cab
inet counselors, flatterers breathe poison In our ears. So, here
have I my recompense ! Go back and tell the new born chUd,
who sitteth on the Alleghanies, laying his either hand upon a
tributary sea, a croAvn of thirty stars upon his youthful brow,
tell him, that there are human rights which States must keep
or they shall suff'er wrongs ! Tell him there is a God who
keeps the black raan and the white, and hurls to earth the
loftiest realm that breaks His just, eternal law ! "
Indignation meetings of Abolitionists convened in many
places. At Syracuse one assembled, at which Lewis Tappan
oft'ered a long series of resolutions declaring no peace should
come " until the higher law has the ascendency In the councUs
of the nation." Wymouth, Massachusetts, in its "official
action," adopted the following resolution :
"That all slaves owe it as a sacred duty to themselves, their pos
terity, and their God, to escape from slavery by running away, or hij
such other means as in their opinion are right and best adapted to secure
to themselves and their children their inherent and inalienable right to
liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
A public raeeting at Springfleld, Massachusetts, declared
that, "law or no law. Constitution or no Constitution, Union
or no Union, no fugitive slave shall be raolested on the soU of
Massachusetts." By Greeley's invitation the New England
Anti-Slavery Society raet at New Y'ork, to celebrate the anni
versary of its birth. Thoraas H. Benton was invited to pre
side, but the duty -fell upon Garrison flrst and next a negro.

SECESSION DEFEATED. 257
The chairman called the meeting to order and announced the
subject for discussion, as previously agreed upon, to be :
" That the one grand vital issue to be made with the slave
power is, the dissolution of the existing American LTnion."
On the second day, Mrs. Lucretia Mott censured the practice
of opening the meetings of the Society with prayer — " It Is a
plagiarism from christian societies," she said ; Mr. Wendell
Phillips said, " the society clings to the appellation of Infldel ;"
Mrs. Abbe Kelly Foster, while denouncing the Bible Society,
accepted Mr. PhUUps' appellation, for she proudly claimed the
title of " infidel ; " Mr. Garrison frankly confessed he " believed
in nothing but the slave"; Hon. Edmund Quincy protested
that " the Constitution displayed the ingenuity of the very
devil"; Mr. Henry C. Wright "thanked God that he was
a traitor to the Constitution, and he Avould Uke to see the
President hung. I have no reA'crence for the religion of this
country. I have no reverence for its God; for He is the
God of slavery, and the God of slavery is my devil. Whether
in heaven or on earth. He is my devil." Infidelity i-an riot In
the ever expanding ranks of the Society. " I do not take
the church for my master, nor the Bible for my master,"
exclaimed Rev. Theodore Parker. Theodore Tilton, one of
the most active and briUiant of the party lecturers, de
clared from the rostrum : " The marriage law of the New
Testament is an impalrraent of the rights of human na
ture." " Give us an anti-slavery Bible, and an anti-slavery
God," cried Anson Burlingame, a Representative in Congress
from Massachusetts. Margaret Fuller, Countess OrsoU, the
most " strong minded " of the female public characters of
the Abolition party, declared : " As Abraham called for a
Moses, a Moses for a David, David for a Christ, so Is another
ideal now needed. We want a life more complete and various
than Christ." Spiritualism, free-loveism, iVlillerism, Mormon
ism, taught by Abolitionists, and by the adherents of the
Abolition party only, were propagated by both sexes, from the
pulpit, from the rostrum, by tracts, by illustrated newspapers-
and every other resource of man's ingenuity.
Many and various were the evidences that the " compro
mise" had not pacifled the Abolitionists. In a fcAV weeks
after its enactment a gentleman of Winchester, Virginia,

17

258 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
repaired to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, claiming the beneflts of
the new law in the recovery of two fugitives, his property.
Legal irapediraents were thrown in his way, two months were
consumed before the courts, and an expense of $1,450 incurred
when success, at last, crowned the eft'ort. In the city of New
York, the fugitive. Long, was found by his master. Under
numerous actions, bonds amounting to $50,000 were required
of the claimant to pursue his property under the new law.
The President was duly Impressed with the open acts of re
bellion against the fugitive slave laAv in many free States, and
In his flrst annual message, delivered in December after the
September in Avhlch the " compromise " passed, he warned the
people of his resolution to enforce the law. Meantime, George
'J'fiompson, the lecturer, had been brought over, by the Anti-
Slavery Society, frora Exeter Hall, to arouse the people to
resistance. Defiant of all legal warning, the Society, and
unorganized enterprise as well, continued to pour upon the
records of both branches of the national Legislature petitions
for the repeal of the fugitive slave law. January 8, 1851,
forty-tAvo citizens of Pennsylvania prayed Congress to abolish
slavery, or to legislate to the end that the people of that State
should no longer be " morally responsible " for the perpetua
tion of the Institution. On the same day forty-eight citizens
of Wisconsin prayed Congress to repeal the fugitive slave law.
The utter raisconceptlon of the principles of the federal Con
stitution, exposed in the phraseology of all the petitions, and
the evidences they bear of religious fervor. In pursuit of
revolution. Impart to the documents an extraordinary his
torical value. The petition frora Wisconsin deraanded the
repeal of the fugitive slave law, " because it suspends the writ
of habeas corpus^'' ignoring the fact that habeas corpus and the
right to reclaim fugitive slaves were provided by the same or
ganic law ; because, " it is contrary to the Constitutional right
of the people to be exempt from unreasonable search and seiz
ure," Ignoring the fact that negro slaves were not citizens of
the United States ; because, " by this law, if one person
should see another seize a third person in the street, and he
should assist the third person to make his escape, he subjects
himself to a flue of one thousand dollars and six months
imprisonment ; and that, by this law, the commands of Christ

SECESSIO.X DEFEATED. 259
are, in some cases, made void, as tbe person who may feed,
clothe and take in the stranger subjects himself to one thou
sand dollars fine and six months imprisonment. Therefore, if
you, gentlemen of Congress, love your country and delight In
her institutions, if you believe in the principles ot the Decla
ration of Independence, if you believe in Christ, as recorded
in His gospel, repeal this law. But If you will not hear the
voice of reason, justice and humanity, we appeal unto God,
the common Father." On January 6, 1851, fifteen private
petitions Avere offered in the Senate, all save one from East
Tennessee to build a railroad, from the free States, praying
the interposition of Congress to abolish slavery, for the repeal
of the fugitive slaA-e law, for the establishment of a tribunal
to settle national disputes, for cheap postage, for special appro
priations, etc. Three days later, fifteen other petitions of
like character, were presented, all from States north of the
Ohio and Potomac. The examples cited are sufficient to
show the unrest of society In the free States and the disposi
tion of the people Inhabiting those States to rely upon arbi
trary authority In Congress, whereas, the people of the South,
contented and prosperous In their local environments, appealed
rather to their popular conventions and their State Legisla
tures for redress of the wrongs they raight appear to suffer.
The slavery agitation was re-opened in the government by
the patriotic first message of. Mr. Fillmore. The customary
motions came up in the House to refer the various topics dis
cussed by the document to appropriate committees, Avhen Mr.
Joshua R. Giddings, from Ohio, rose to speak upon the decla
ration of the Executive, that the laws embracing the "com
promise " should be enforced. Mr. Giddings said :
" Let no man tell me there is no higher law than this fugitive bill.
We feel that there is a law of right and of justice, of freedom
implanted in the bosom of every intelligent human being that bids him
look with scorn upon this libel upon all that is called law. Sir, I was
about to make some comparisons but, perhaps, tliey may be regarded
as indelicate. During last summer two distinguished gentlemen (one
being Professor Webster) of the same name, occupied rauch of the
public attention. One was said to have committed murder and the
other to have procured the passage of thi.'* law. One was hanged for
his crime, the other, to reward his efforts, was taken inta the Executive
cabinet. One destroyed the life of an individual, the other contributed

260 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
his efforts for the passage of this law, which must consign hundreds,-
perhaps thousands to premature graves. Sir, I cannot speak for others,
but tor myself, I would rather meet my final Judge with the guilt of
him who has gone to his final account than of him who sits in yonder
cabinet! ¦'' ,* Let the President speak of the powers vested in him;
let him use the bayonet, the sword and cannon; let him make himself
another Haman; let him drench our land of freedom in blood; but lie
¦will never make ws obey that law. The first cannon that belches forth
on Northern freemen tells the death knell of this Republic! I say what
before God and man I feel — the moment your army or navy confronts
the freemen of the North, that moment will bring this Republic to its
eternal sleep."
Hardly had the debate over the President's message closed
when news of mob violence resulting from the execution of
the law at Boston reached the Congress. The court room had
been invaded by a mob of negroes, lead by whites, where a
captured fugitive slave. Crafts, guarded by the federal mar
shal, was rescued and set at liberty In open day. Immedi
ately, February 17, 1851, Mr. Clay, from Kentucky, offered a
resolution in the Senate calling upon the President for infor
mation of the rescue. He followed the resolution with a long
speech. He said, in the midst of a population of 150,000 the
sanctuary of justice had been invaded, the officers of the law
at their posts overcome, and the prisoner in their custody
borne off to liberty amidst the exultations of triumphs from
the multitude. The court room was a part of, or wa.s very
near to, the cradle of liberty, Faneuil Hall. The President
promptly responded In a proclamation, warning good citizens
to observe the law and promising to enforce it by the use of
the army and navy. If necessary. The Abolitionists, in Con
gress, and without, were extremely bitter in their denuncia
tions of the President's course. And thus the patriotic
message and proclamation of the President and the dutiful
resolution and speech of Mr. Clay restored the debate on the
slavery question to Congress, in less than six months after the
passage of the " compromise," and three years before Mr.
Douglas' famous infiammatory measure, which will, presently,
be explained. Mr. Douglas, in addressing the Senate on the
President's proclamation, said he had reason to know that
great numbers of negroes in various free States had heen
armed by the Abolitionists with dirks and pistols with in
structions to resist the arrests of fugitive slaves, by the federal

SECESSH)y DEFEATED. 261
officers. He had himself, at imralnent risk of his life, risen to
-queU a mob of two thousand men, at Chicago, Infuriated by
the passage of the fugitive slave laAv.
Before the enactment of the " compromise " tuirteen or
fourteen Southern States had taken steps menacing to the
Union. The campaign of 1851, for State officers and Repre
sentatives in Congress, opened with the free States In a condi
tion approaching revolution. The question in Alabama was :
ShaU the " coraproraise " be trusted or shall the slave States
re-organlze their federal relations in self-defense? By com
mon consent, the Democrats accepted the custom of the party
and Governor CoUier was made their candidate for re-election.
In a letter to Mr. John I. Burke, of YVUcox county, the Gov
ernor took a firm stand for the " comproralse." The Secession
party, in South Carolina, was yet hopeful and very aggressive.
The flnal action of the State had not been taken. Mr. B. G.
Shields, of Marengo, addressed an open letter to the Governor,
pledging his support on condition, that the Governor would
commit himself to obedience to a presumptive call by the
President for the Alabaraa militia to suppress South Carolina.
Governor Collier replied from his home at Tuskaloosa. He
considered Mr. Shield's interrogatory impertinent. He would
not so far forfeit public respect as to pledge the Executive of
Alabama to a brutum .fnlmen ; he could flnd no justlflcatlon
for a threat issuing frora the GoA'crnor of Alabaraa to assist in
subduing a sister State guilty of no offence. Thereupon, Mr.
Shields pronounced Governor Collier not sufflciently loyal to
the Union to justify his re-election and, taking the stump for
iis own candidature for the office, delivered Union speeches.
Mr. Y'ancey remained consistent with his settled purpose, on
resigning from Congress, to accept no poUtical office. The
Southern Rights Association of Dallas county, speaking for
¦others as well as its own members, in vain, solicited him to
stand for Governor. It became evident there would be no
contest between the Secessionists and the Unionists, on the
direct issue of accepting the " compromise," save in the Second
and Fifth Districts, for Representative. The Unionists were
neither unconscious or timid. The demand of the hour was
one merely of intellectual appreciation — a mere question of
Judgment upon evidence. The apothegm of Rufus Choate

262 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
expressed, practically, the general view of the LFnion party In*
Alabaraa: " The danger In our Union Is that a status quo (or)
a State, in its sovereign capacity shall declare war and take-
the fleld. Whenever a status quo (or) a State shall come out
against the national government, we can't do anything ; for-
that which ordinarily would be treason Is, as it were, saved
from being so by the flag of the State ; certainly, at least, so-
far as to save the point of honor. Herein lurks the great
danger of our system of government." The Secessionists
were thus reduced to the task of proving, that " the real
danger of our system of government " was In the tendency of
existing things to extinguish the States, or to enfeeble their
autonomy below the point of self-preservation. Mr. Madison,
in urging the acceptance of the Constitution by the States, ,
declared the federal authority would never be powerful enough
to menace them, but now President Fillmore had increased
the military forces near Charleston, for the evident purpose of
forestalling the action of South Carolina.
Well did the Unionists appreciate the deep perturbation of"
the public mind. Fortunate is the cause of freedom when a
healthful consciousness of power remains with the people, to
induce them to ponder upon an expediency of present or
future action. Mr. Hilliard understood his people thoroughly;
he was thoroughly conscientious. Possibly he came Into view
of some disturbance of his influence which, while in no degree-
reducing the public confidence in him or the public admiration
of him, was, nevertheless, a disturbance in a season of general
uncertainty of men and measures. Be the cause what it may,
in the acuteness of his sensibilities he resolved to Invite his
constituents to cast about for the best way. He had voted for-
Wlnthrop, when Winthrop's election aroused a profound un
easiness in the minds of a majority of the people of Alabama;
he sympathized with Winthrop's second candidature for the
Speakership. In this period of sectional agitation, he deliv
ered at Boston a literary address, which received the just
encomiums of the leading opponents of Southern Rights there.-
Mr. Hilliard declined a nomination now for Representative
and Jaraes Abercrorabie accepted the honor in his stead.
Abercrombie was a rich planter, of a family noted for its-
culture — "a massive man in mind and body." He had voted

.SECESSlOy DEFEATED. 263
in the Legislature to make Dixon H. Lewis Senator. Lately
he had authorized it to be declared, he " would wage no unnec
essary or vindictive war against South Carolina."
Would Mr. Yancey yield to the earnest desire of the
Southern Rights Associations and make, in the Second Dis
trict, a campaign which would secure to Alabama the honor of
leadership In the reform politics of the South ? He was con
sulted, and even urged, up to the tirae fixed for the raeeting
of the District Convention, but remained iraniovable In his
purpose to decline office. In the last days of April the Con
vention raet at Clayton, and, as by one impulse moved, nomi
nated him for Representative. A letter was prepared on the
spot, to which each delegate attached his signature, confessing
knowledge of his desire to avoid the honor conferred, yet
appealing, in impassioned words, for a reconsideration of his
purpose. After three Aveeks an answer was written. The
nomination was declined. His sense of duty forbid accept
ance. The letter was long and full.
/ " If we cannot live (it said) in peace in the Union with the
Northern States, it is preferable to go out of It — and when
we are beyond the reach of their legislation Ave may, perhaps,
be able to live at peace with them out of the Union. Then, I
think, the good sense of the masses will perceive there can be
but one issue made, to- wit : secession or submission. If you
submit, behave like submisslonists. Be quiet and peaceable,
subservient to the will of your masters. If you resist at all,
resist effectually and manfully, use swords, not pins, cannon
and Iron balls, not paper pellets. * * I do not know that
holding to this remedy (secession) avc shall have a majority of
the State with us, at the next election. But It Is better to
have an organized, honest minority, based on a true remedy,
than to aid in putting in a majority that will give us no rem
edy, but whose course will entitle us to the appellation of
public israwlers. Besides, I do not think that honest men are
looking merely for what will carry the State. If they are, I
can answer, that remaining true to old party issues the Demo
cratic party can carry the State. What would that avail ?
The question is, for what purpose would you have a raajority ?
Horace Greeley has already said, that the slaves will be
crowded into the rice, cotton and sugar growing territory, and

264 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
that, without insurrection or convulsion, the first sun that
rises upon the twentieth century will not behold a slave on
the whole expanse of the Araerican continent."
The Southern Rights Associations finally nominated Mr.
John Cochran, of Eufaula, an able lawyer, now a bold Seces
sionist, who had been a Cass elector, to contest the election
with Mr. Abercrombie. The candidates were fairly raatched
in oratorical powers. While Cochran and Abercrombie de
bated in the lower counties, Hilliard and Yancey joined In
the fiercest of their confiicts in the region of the plantations.
In consenting to meet the engagements on the stump, made
for him by his party, Mr. HUliard, in an open letter, declined
joint discussion. He said : "I am not a candidate. I prefer
to confer quietly Avlth my old constituents upon the moment
ous issues Involved in the present controversy, without Inter
ruption, and In the absence of all that excitement which
attends angry debate." When Mr. Hilliard reached Union
Springs, Mr. Y'ancey appeared. The people, in great numbers,
from three counties, were anxiously awaiting the battle of the
giants. It was agreed that the joint discussion should open
there, leaving the closing speech, as was customary under the
circumstances, to Mr. HUliard. The next day, at Euon,
twenty-flve miles distant, by wagon road, the croAvd had
grown larger, and here Yancey's friends demanded that he
should have the closing speech. This privilege, however, was
not granted, and the debate proceeded on the terms of the
day before. The Constitution did not give any State the right
to secede, argued Mr. Hilliard, but every free people have
a natural right to rise and demand redress when the charter
of their liberties is invaded. If their just demand be refused,
they should overthrow the government. Should a State at
tempt to resume the powers it had delegated to the Constitu
tion the Constitution would be violated. He hoped the uni
versal^ woe and desolation which Avould follow a dissolution of
the Union would not be permitted. Should Alabama be
called to assist in the reduction of South Carolina he, for one,
would remember he had a double duty to perform — a duty to
his State and a duty to the Union. Mr. Yancey, while keep
ing in view his belief in the abstract right of a State to resume
the powers it had delegated to the Union, does not seem, at

SECESSIOy DEFEATED. 265
any time n his career, to have given much attention to that
division of his argument. The history of the century was
replete, he said, with evidences of the preparations of the free
States to consolidate the powers of government and to destroy
the social system of the slave States. The hope, if any were
so blind as to indulge hope, that the revolution, already set In,
would turn back in its course, was not founded upon events
which had distinguished Its rise or marked its progress.
Indeed, the Union orator, rich in fancy, had presented a pa
thetic picture of the dread approach of revolution, from the
South, Avhich he asked the people to believe was unnecessary ;
the secession orator asked the people to hear the evidence
proving that revolution coming from the North was already
predominant. Men yet living relate with lingering delight
the scenes of this extraordinary debate. Wit rebounded
against Avit, sarcasm foiled sarcasm ; metaphor, illustration,
syllogism, on wings of eloquence that never tired, Avrought to
frenzy the partisans, now of this orator and then of the other.
On the third day the debate Avas joined at Glenville. The
crowd was greater and the scene more animating than ever
before. Eufaula stood next on the list of Mr. Hilllard's ap
pointments, and there the fourth day's encounter was ex
pected. All the afternoon, before the promised event, the
people A\-ere seen gathering in the town, some from Georgia,
some from remote neighborhoods near the Florida line. After
night the committees met to arrange plans. But, news came
from Mr. HiUiard that having resolved to adhere to his origi
nal purpose to avoid debate, he had turned his face homeward.
Never Avas audience doomed to greater disappointment.
The next week the elections were held. The Unionists tri
umphed. But an analysis of the result encouraged the South
ern Rights men, justly, as will ^ppear. Shields, a strong
raan, in his candidature for Governor presented the issue
of unconditional Union against the Georgia Platforra, rep
resented by Governor Collier. Shields' support did not exceed
one-seventh of Collier's vote. In the First District, Bragg,
Democrat, holding to the Georgia Platform without the paren
thetical qualiflcation, defeated Langdon, unconditional Union
Whig; in the Second, Abercrombie succeeded only in estab
lishing the Georgia Platform as against iraraediate secession ;

266 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
S. W. Harrisj Southern Rights Democrat, was re-elected In
the Third ; a contest In the Fourth, between Sydenham
Moore, Southern Rights Democrat, Stephen F. Hale, Georgia
Platform Whig, and WUUam R. Smith, unconditional Unionist,
resulted in the election of the last naraed by a small majority.
In the Fifth, the contest was second in animation only to that
which prevailed in the Second District. Alexander White,
Georgia Platform Whig, and Samuel F. Rice, Secessionist,
were the rival candidates. White was elected by a few hun
dred majority. The most northern Districts, were, as usual,
carried by Union Democrats. Yancey received a compliment
ary vote of 414 for GoA'ernor.
Mr. Y^ancey did not conflne his oratorical labors to the
debate with Mr. Hilliard in the campaign. Earlier than that
occurrence, he spoke at HaynevUle and at other county capi
tals where the courts he attended met. Generally he alone
spoke on such occasions. The HaynevUle Chronicle used the
following expressions describing his oratory at that place :
" We have never seen such- intense interest. There was
none of that Ught hearted enthusiasm usually to be seen in
mere party contests. There was a solemnity, a deep, intense
earnestness of feeling pervading the entire assembly, which
Ave have never witnessed before. Of the speech, we know not
how to speak. We never heard such an effort from the lips of
any man, upon the question or any other. We heard men of
mature age, not ultra, and of admitted talents, declare it Avas
unanswerable, and so we believe. We are certain no such
speech, for ability and telling eff'ect, was ever before delivered
in Lowndes county."

CHAPTER 13.

The Delusive Success.

i8^:

Mr. Yancey retired from general political discussion with
the result of the campaign of 1851, consecrating himself to his
profession and to the study of science and literature. He
waited four or flve years on public events, and they arrived,
to justify his rejected counsels, even raore suddenly and deci
sively than he had anticipated.
The time had returned for organizing the quadrennial
party contest for the Presidency. On June 1, 1852, the Dem
ocrats met in National Convention, at Baltimore, and nomi
nated Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, for the Presidency
and William R. King for the vice-Presidency. On the 16th
of the same month the Whigs met, at the same place, and
nominated General Scott for the Presidency and William A.
Graham, of North Carolina, for the vice-Presidency. Scott
was forced on the slave States, as Harrison had been twelve
years before. In flfty ballots taken the slave States voted
steadily against him. Mr. Seward, supported by Mr. Greeley,
held the free States to him. The slave States preferred Fill
more or Webster. Mr. Webster expected the nomination. A
day or two before the assembling of the Convention, Webster
and Choate submitted to A. H. Stephens, in his apartments at
Washington, a draft of resolutions prepared by the Northern
friends of Mr. Webster upon which he was willing to stand as
a candidate. Stephens proposed an amendment, declaring the

268 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
acts of 1850 to be "In substance and in principle" a settle
ment of the sectional dispute. The amendment was accepted
hy the persons present. Seward's influence, however, was
potential in the platform as well as In the choice of the nom
inee. The force of the agreement in Stephens' apartments
was broken by the failure of the platform to acknowledge the
legislation of 1850 as a compromise, and, therefore, binding.
It was denominated a " series of acts," the phrase construc
tively implying ordinary legislation, and it was farther ex
plained, in the same paragraph, that these acts should be
enforced "until time and experience shall demonstrate the
necessity of further legislation."
There were two other Conventions and two other candi
dates, remarkable inasmuch as they were the nucleuses of
future controlling parties. As early as March the Southern
Rights Association of Alabama raet In Convention at Mont
gomery ; a hundred persons, representing half dozen of tbe
rich counties, to consider the nomination of a candidate for
the Presidency. Resolutions were adopted, predicated on the
declaration that, " our civilization is worth preserving and is
in danger," one of which announced :
" That, believing both the old national parties are sensitive to the
majority sentiment and, therefore, in effect, antagonistic to our sec
tional interests, we will preserve our separate organization and coalesce
with neither, but shall leave ourselves free to oppose both or co-operate
with either as, from time to time, their respective doctrines may coin
cide more or less with our own."
A resolution to nominate a candidate was voted down, but,
in September, the Convention was recalled to consider the
neglect of General Pierce to reply to the letter of Inquiry of
its chairman touching his views, in detail, on the sectional
question; and to consider the reply received from General
Scott, of a non-committal character. At the September meet
ing, George M. Troup, noted as a defender of the rights of
Georgia in her confiict with the Administration of John Quincy
Adams, and John A. Quitman, late a Secession Governor, of
Mississippi, were nominated for President and vice-President.
On August 11, the Abolitionists, in Convention, at Pitts
burgh, nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and
George W. Julian, of Indiana, for President and vice-Presi
dent. Resolutions were adopted, predicated on the declaration

THE DELUSIVE SUC<JESS. 269"
that there should be " no more slave States, no more slave
territory, no nationalized slavery, no national legislation for
the extradition of slaves," one of Avhlch announced :
" That the Free Democratic party is not organized to aid either the
Whig or the Democratic Aving of the great slave, compromise party of
the Nation, but to defeat them both; and that, repudiating and re
nouncing both as hopelessly corrupt and utterly unworthy of confi
dence, the purpose of the Free Democracy is to take possession of the
federal government and administer it for the better protection of the
rights and interests of the Avhole people."
The student of the temper of revolutions wUl not fall to
find in the first resolution cited the motive of self-defense, as
he finds in the other the resolve of conquest.
It is significant. In evidence of the fickleness of the public
mind, that while the National Deraocratic platforra endorsed
the "compromise," the first provision of which, relating to
CaUfornia, was a flagrant abuse of State autonomy, it re
affirmed the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798-99;
and whUe the Whigs shrank from an endorsement of the
"compromise," because one of its provisions demanded the
execution of an express clause of the federal Constitution,
they declared " the Union should be revered and watched over
as the palladium of our liberty." It will appear that the
result of the election, ostensibly for the Kentucky and Vir
ginia resolutions and the " compromise," by a great majority,
was destined to be speedily lost In a majority, against the
"compromise."
V Mr. Yancey did not approve of the nomination of candi
dates for President and vice-President by the Southern Rights
Associations of Alabama. He gave no attention to the cam
paign, and was in attendance on the Circuit Court, In Autauga
county, when he received a letter frora Mr. G. W. Gayle, in
forming him, in an excited style, that the Southern Rights
party had become alarmed at his silence, and as he had been
" its soul and spirit for several years past " besought him to
speak out. It had been rumored, even, that he would vote for
Pierce ! Turning to his desk, while the court proceeded with
business, he wrote a hasty reply. " If my vote were at all
necessary (he said) to give the vote of this State and to elect
General Pierce, in order to prevent the election of General

270 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Scott, I should feel It to be my duty to vote for General
Pierce. As matters now stand, however, I conceive no such
necessity exists, and I shall cheerfully give ray vote to that
ticket which, in every respect, represents my views, namely,
Troup and Quitman. * * Voting for that ticket, then, I
conceive to be merely an effort to organize and keep together
the Southern Rights party, with a view to ulterior usefulness.
If my views can have any influence with those who take an
active part in the canvass, my advice Avould be, to aA'^oid all
eft'orts to Irritate the feelings and excite the opposition of two
great national parties in the South. These ure the ranks from
which we e.rpecf to draiv recruit.-^, hereafter, to the standard of
the South, when occasion shall arise for rearing it."
Mr. Yancey in defeat, therefore, pursued a policy ; and in
good temper bided his time.
The result of the campaign was the choice of Pierce and
King, by an overwhelraing majority. The free States alone
cast electoral votes for him enough to elect. Scott and
Grahara received only the electoral votes of four States —
Massachusetts and Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee. The
popular vote for Van Buren, the Abolition candidate of four
years before, had been 291,363, but for Hale it fell to 156,149.
Mr. Yancey was absent from horae on election day, and did
not vote.
It is imraaterlal what national significance should be at
tached to the election of the " compromise " candidates, so
far as Mr. Yancey's political history may be concerned. He
had nothing, in any manner, to do with the speedy repudia
tion of the " compromise," which followed the election, by the
people of the North. The speculations of history will reach
the conclusion, that tbe Abolitionists held the balance of
power in the free States and that the " compromise " was of
the leanness of Barebones, to appease their zeal.
It had become evident that in the growth of the Union
some of Its practical principles, as understood by its founders,
had been reversed. Mr. Madison, in the early time, believed
the political honors, for example, which the States could con
fer would be raore sought after than those the Union would
have to oft'er. Therefore, it would not be possible to destroy
the States by consolidating thera. And, moreover, the United

THE DELUSIVE SUCCESS. 271
States would never be able to raise and support an array suffi
cient to cope with the State mlUtia. Mr. Yancey believed the
force of this early reasoning had paled before the progress of
the Abolition party.
The President, observing the pledges of his party to peace,
organized his cabinet and dispensed the Executive patronage
on the general principle of oblivion of the past political divis
ions. W. L. Marcy, of New Y'ork, was put at the head of the
cabinet, whereas, the State Rights men preferred Daniel S.
Dickinson, of that State. Jeft'erson Davis, Secessionist, was
made Secretary of War, but Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts,
now a Democrat, aforetime a Whig, Avas raade Attorney-Gen
eral. The federal offices due to New Y^ork, were bestowed
nearly evenly between the rebeUing Van Buren raen, of 1848,
and the Cass raen.
A source of discord, least expected, sprung up — a yellow
back novel. Concurrent opinion In both sections has long-
assigned to this work of flction — "Uncle Tom's Cabin "  a
decisive influence In turning the tide of events against the
" compromise," and giving to radicalism a focus of irresistible
potency. No narrative of the times would be justified in
omitting some account of the origin and circulation of the
wonderful book. It appeared in first form, as a serial, in a
small seml-religlous newspaper, of Washington City, pub
lished to promote the work of the memorialists for the aboli
tion of slavery and to encourage the general disturbers of the
slavery question in Congress. The flction was conceived In
deliberation and jirepared with skill as a campaign document,
to excite feeling in the free States against the execution of
the fugitive slave provision of the " comproralse." Its author,
Mrs. Harriett Beecher Stowe, was one of the most aggressive
of the female laborers for the New England Anti-Slavery
Society, and was the wife of one of the most active political
clergymen of that section, devoted to the designs of the
Society. As raeraorialists of Congress, few were so diligent
as this raan and his wife. In response, therefore, to the call
of the Society for literature to propagate Its scheme, the tale,
so modest in its birth, came into its marvelous power. By
the sumraer of 1853, while the second of World Fairs was
open at New Y'ork, the chapters were bound for cheap sale

272 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
and the volurae entered upon a career unexampled in partisan
literature. " Thanks for the fugitive slave act," wrote the
poet Whittier in a letter of acknowledgment to the author of
her fearful work. Under the guise of an attempt to educate
public opinion against the fugitive slave provision of the
" compromise," the author discussed the practices of slavery
and their results on the master class. Its assumptions of
facts were exaggerations, not more applicable to slavery, as
It was, than to the relations of free wage labor to capital, and
the abuses of those relations, the world over ; its main con
clusions were Irreconcilable with its premises of the degra
dation of slaves In the South, inasmuch as the conclusions
proved, that, under the plantation system, the African had
advanced in the South to social enjoyments which Africans
no where else were blessed with. But, learned men read and
wept aloud, as If In a trance, over the weird commingling of
sensational eloquence and fateful humanitarianlsm. The me
chanic took the book of pathetic rhetoric and morbid state
craft in his pocket to read on his way and as he paused for
his noon day rest. Kings and nobles devoured its pages. A
child's edition was printed. The languages of the world were
exhausted to spread Its teachings. Translations were made
in German, Polish, Italian, Bohemian, Dutch, Flemish, Danish,
Hungarian, French, Spanish, Welsh, Russian, Armenian, and
in dift'erent dialects for the use of dift'erent classes. Every
where, and in every language, whence came immigrants to
America the flction was distributed, to prepare the fresh influx
of population in lessons of hatred for the South and the
Southern people.

CHAPTER 14.

The Nebraska-Kansas Bill.
18^4.

So complete was the reconciliation, in Alabama, between
parties that the Secessionist, John Anthony Winston, was
chosen Governor, in 1853, without appreciable opposition.
Clay, first and Webster soon after, followed Calhoun to
the grave.
There was not a Secessionist in the Senate Chamber, from
the South.
A bill was reported in the first session by the Thirty-
Third Congress, in February, 1853, to organize the Territory
of Nebraska, an area as great as all the States North of the
Ohio and Potomac, where only three white men were known
to reside, but where some flfty thousand Indians yet held
lands, the titles to which rested in thera. The bill was the
initial of a Territorial Policy, supposd to be demanded by the
changed American conditions — the organization of civil govern
ment over wild regions, to superinduce their settlement. In
the case of Nebraska, it was found that the land lay across the
overland route to California and it was argued that settle
ments planted there would promote the safety of immigrants
to the Paciflc, on their journey. The bill passed the House by
more than two-thirds majority and, upon the announcement
of the vote, Mr. Giddings " thanked God for one piece of legis
lation free from the slavery agitation." The bill reached the
Senate, late in the short • session, and was referred to the

18

274 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Committee on Territories, of which Mr. Douglas was chairman.
It was reported back and taken up for discussion. Those who
objected to it questioned the right or duty of Congress to
Interfere with the Indians and the policy of creating a civil
governraent in advance of Avhite population. Senator Atchi
son, frora Missouri, spoke at some length and his remarks
covered a wide ground. A paragraph frora his speech will
indicate the surprise the country was destined to receive in
the early subsequent course of the Coraraittee on Territories
reporting, with amendment of its own, the same bill.
Mr. Atchison said :
"I had two objections to the bill. One was, that the Indian title had
not been extinguished in that Territory, or, at least a very small por
tion of it had been. Another was the Missouri Compromise, or, as it is
commonly called, the slavery restriction. It was my opinion, aud I am
not now very clear on that point, that the law of Congress, excluding
slavery from the Louisiana Territory, North of 36° 30', would be enforced
iu that Territory, unless it was especially rescinded, and whether that
law was in accordance Avith the Constitution or not, it would do its
work, and that work would be to exclude slave holders from going into
that Territory. Now, sir, I am free to adtnit, that at this moment, at
this hour, and for all time to come, I should oppose the organization and
settlement of that Territory, unless my constituents and the constitu
ents of the whole South — of the slave States of this Union — could go
into it upon the same footing and with equal rights and equal privileges,
carrying that species of property with them, as other people of this
Union. Yes, sir, I acknowledge that that would have governed me,
but I have no hope that the restriction will ever be repealed.
"I have always been of opinion, that the flrst great error committed
in the political history of this country was, the Ordinance of 1787. The
next error Avas the Missouri Compromise, but they are both irremedi
able. There is no remedy for them. We must submit to them. I am
prepared to do so. It is evident the Missouri Compromise cannot be
repealed. So far as that question is concerned, we might as well agree
to the organization of this Territory now, as next year, or five or ten
years hence."
The session expired, by law, before the Senate reached a
vote on the pending measure. Mr. Douglas had reported a
bill to organize a Territory, without an expressed or implied
provision repealing the Missouri "compromise" of 1820. It
Is singularly Interesting that the expiration of the legal Senate,
In 1846, alone prevented Senator Cass from casting his vote
for the WUmot Proviso, and cutting off thus, by his OAvn act.

THE XEBUASKA-KAXSAs BILL. 275
all probabilities of his noraination for the Presidency ; and that
the same occurrence, in 1853, doubtless changed the bright
prospects of Mr. Douglas, for the nomination to the same office
two years later, to discoraflture.
When Congress re-convened, Deceraber, 1853, Mr. Dodge
from Iowa, brought up In the Senate, a bill to organize the
Territory of Nebraska, Avhich was found to be identical with
the House bill for the same purpose, of the preceding session.
Mr. Dodge's bill was duly referred to the Coraraittee on Terri
tories; and January, 4, 1854, the Committee reported It back.
The report referred to the difference of opinion among the
people, touching the constitutionality of the slavery restric
tion of 1820, but proceeded to declare, "your Committee do
not feel themselves called upon to enter into discussion of
the controverted question. It involves the same grave issues
which produced the agitation, the sectional strife and the fear
ful struggle of 1850." Leaving undisturbed the restriction
of 1820, therefore, the bill of the Committee reaffirmed the
principle incorporated in the Utah and New Mexico bills, a
part of the last " compromise," allowing the people to deter
mine the question of slavery for themselves, "subject only to
the Constitution of the United States." It was apparent that
the restriction of 1820, forbidding slavery "forever" in Ne
braska, was irreconcilable with the principle of the LTtah and
New Mexico bUls, which allowed the people of the Territory,
when they were ready to form a State, to reject or tolerate the
institution at will. January 12, Mr. Sumner raoved to amend
the bill by reasserting the Missouri " compromise," and on 16
of the same month, Mr. Dixon, from Kentucky, moved to
amend the bill by a repeal of the Missouri "compromise."
The amendments proposed were referred to the committee,
which took the blU again for consideration. .January 23, the
bill was returned the second time to the Senate, enlarged from
twenty-one to forty sections and, in the alterations, made
more acceptable to the Southern Senators. The amendraent of
Mr. Dixon, was practically incorporated in the sections, declar
ing the parallel 36° 30' as a geographical division of free from
slave territory, "was superseded by the principles of the
legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures,
and is, therefore, declared void and inoperative." Another

276 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
important enlargement was, the cutting off' of the lower part
of Nebraska to form the Territory of Kansas, and the signi
ficance of the measure consisted in the confession that while
the laws of nature would undoubtedly forbid the introduc
tion of slavery in the upper part, Kansas, as formed, Avas
less subject to those prohibitory natural laAvs, and the people
should be permitted to consult their own interests. It A\'as
supposed that a balance of the free and slave States in the
Senate would be so provided for the better security of the
Union. Mr. Douglas advanced boldly to the management of the
bill. He had been greatly alarmed by the evident failure of
the "compromise" to pacify the Abolitionists. He would now
unite the West with the South to defeat them.
Immediately, as with the suddenness of the wind, the
North, regardless of old party lines, was swept by a tempest
of passion. Messrs. Chase, Sumner, Seward, and the other
Abolition Senators, joined by the Abolitionists of the House,
Issued " An Independent Democratic Appeal," in pamphlet
form, devoted to the most acrimonious abuse of Mr. Douglas ;
In the East and the West, town meetings burned him In effigy,
and transraltted to hira their vindictive resolutions ; the clergy
of Chicago met In council, denounced him, and sent forward
their letter of denunciation to him, which he laid before the
Senate. Mi-. Chase introduced in the Senate a resolution
declaring all Avho voted for the bill to be "traitors to their
country, to humanity, and to God." The New Y^ork 'Tribune
published Horace Greeley's appeal for the defeat of the bill.
"Better that confusion should ensue (he said) — better that
discord should, reign in tbe national councils — better that
Congress should break up in wild disorder — nay, better that
the capltol Itself should blaze by the torch of the incendiary,
or fall and bury all its inmates beneath Its crumbling ruins —
than that this perfidy and wrong should be perpetrated."
But all other deraonstrations against the bill were mild In
comparison with the outbreak in New England. Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe headed a woman's petition to Congress ; more
than three-fourths of the entire Protestant clergy of the
six New England States, the signers numbering more than
three thousand, sent forward their petitions " in the name of

TIIE NEBRASKA-KANSAS BILL. '211
Almighty God, and in His presence," presented by Mr. Everett,
Senator from Massachusetts. Besides, Mr. Sumner presented
one hundred and twenty-flve separate remonstrances from
clergymen of different States in New England, as Avell as
others from New Y'ork and the West. Mr. Mason objected to
their reception because " these men dare to lay aside the char
acter of American citizens, and come here profaning the name
of the Almighty, for the purpose of political alliances ; they
are unworthy of their associates In the church. Sir, (he
continued) it is the flrst time in the history of this country
that a church of any denomination has asserted a right to be
heard, as a church, upon the floors of legislation ; and if the
Senator represents that body correctly, they have profaned
their office, and I predict now a total separation between the
church North and the church South."
The debate continued, week following week, with the
utmost acrimony, Mr. Douglas leading for the bill, and prov
ing, dally, his right to the sobriquet, " little giant," bestoAved
on him to denote the power of his faculties and the dlminu-
tlveness of his stature. He reminded the Senate, that when
the territorial question was revived, in the new acquisition, he
had proposed to extend the Missouri compromise to the
Pacific, but his motion had been denied ; that after defeat he
had for six years espoused the doctrine, which the bill then
under consideration deraanded, of popular sovereignty ; and
throughout all the debates and motions of the long session of
1850, he had consistently maintained it. Particularly, Avhen
Mr. Clay's Committee of Thirteen brought in the omnibus biU,
with a provision forbidding the Legislature of a Territory to
act upon slavery, it was on his persistent opposition that the
Senate rejected the provision, leaving, instead, the feature of
the " compromise " expressed In the Utah and New Mexico
bills — popular sovereignty. The President had been chosen,
and the Congress then in session had been chosen on the uni
versal acceptance, save by the Abolitionists, of the " compro
mise " as a final disposition of the slavery question, but how
could it be said, that so important a feature of that measure,
as the principle laid down in the Utah and New Mexico bills,
should be eliminated from the bill before the Senate, whUe
California remained a State, or the Texas boundary remained

278 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
intact, or the fugitive slave law remained in force, or the
slavery trade remained forbidden in the District of Columbia ?
Turning to the other side of the chamber, he turned upon the
Abolitionists a flood of invective :
"You have succeeded, (he said) in directing upon the heads of
others, a torrent of insult and calumny, from which even you shrink
with horror, when the fact is exposed, that you have become tbe con
duits for conveying it into this hall. In your State, sir, (Mr. Chase's)
I am burnt in effigy in your Abolition towns. * I must be permit
ted to tell the Senator from Ohio, that I did not obtain ray seat in this
body either by a corrupt bargain or a dishonorable coalition! I must be
permitted to remind the Senator from Massachusetts, (Mr. Sumner) that
I did not enter into any combinations, or arrangements, by which my
character, my principles and my honor were set at public auction or pri
vate sale, in order to procure a seat in the Senate of the United States!
* * Everybody knows that he, (Mr. Sumner) came here by a coalition
or combination between political parties holding opposite and hostile
opinions. But it is not my purpose to go into the morality of the mat
ters iuvolved in his election. The public know the history of that
notorious coalition, and have formed judgment upon it. It will not do
for the Senator to say that he was not a party to it, for he thereby
betrays a consciousness of the immorality of the transaction, without
acquitting himself of the responsibilities which justly attach to him.
As well might the receiver of stolen goods deny any responsibility for
the larceny, while luxuriating in the proceeds of the crime, as the Sen
ator to avoid the consequences resulting from the mode of his election,
while he clings to the office. I raust be permitted to remind him of
what he certainly can never forget, that when he arrived here to take
his seat, for the flrst time, so firmly Avere Senators convinced that he
had been elected by dishonorable and corrupt means, there were very
few, who, for a long time, could deem it consistent with personal honor
to hold private intercourse with him. So general was that impression,
that, for a long time, he Avas avoided and shunned, as a person
unworthy of the association of gentlemen. Gradually these injurious
impressions were worn aAvay by his bland manners and amiable deport
ment." Senator Weller, from California, long a member of the
House, from Ohio, joined Mr. Douglas in denouncing the
Abolition Senators, in " the violation of all the rules of cour
tesy and propriety," and introduced evidence of the crooked
paths which led to their seats on the floor.
The eff'ect of Mr. Douglas' sarcasm was both evident and
satisfactory to his friends frora the South and from the North,
on the floor. The supporters of the bill from the South had

THE XEBRASKA-KANSAS BILL. 279
become painfully conscious, that the Democratic Senators
from the North Avere following Mr. Douglas' lead with the
gravest apprehensions and with a measure of reluctance which
might develop at any moment Into revolt. They Avere en
couraged to see their leader attack the Abolitionists Avlth
a vehemence which made the latter's cause obnoxious. It
seemed Impossible that a Northern Democratic Senator could
espouse a cause so broad, while the Southern Senators Avere
overjoyed In their Northern champion. But, Mr. Bell, frora
Tennessee, had resolved to vote against the bill. He was
attacked at home, attacked In the House by one of his col
leagues, put up for the purpose, and attacked by every South
ern Whig In the Senate. In reply to Toombs, Mr. Bell said :
" If the honorable Senator means to say that I have become an
ally of the Abolitionists in sympathy, feeling or any con
certed arrangement, then I have to state that he said what
he knew to be false. If it Avas his object In making his state
ment to let it go forth to the country, for ett'ect, that he had
boldly said to my face, in the Senate, that I had become an
ally of the Abolitionists, then I have to say to him that it
was an ad captandun argument, worthy only of the lowest and
shalloAvest demagogue."
Mr. Toombs replied to Mr. Bell the next day. The repar
tee of the Georgia and Tennessee Senators "caused great
excitement on the floor." Mr. Toombs found it necessary to
say to Mr. Bell, that the introduction of personalities in the
Senate was wholly unnecessary, " as we both Ua-c here." The
presiding office, after vain efforts to restore order, called on
the Sergeant-at-Arms to do his duty. -Mr. Bell apologized.
The subject of dispute was, whether Mr. Bell, In a caucus of
Southern Whigs, over which Toombs presided, had concurred
in a resolution passed unanimously to declare to the Avorld'
that the National Intelligencer, of Washing-ton, hitherto the
confessed organ of the Whig party of the United States, In
taking sides with the Abolitionists against the repeal of the
Missouri "compromise" of 1820, no longer spoke for the
Southern Whigs. Mr. Toombs traced the vacillations of Mr.
Bell, frora a vote for the repeal of the " coraproraise," in the
early stages of the bUl to flnal hostility to the measure, to
" clamors from the North, which, having no terrors for the

280 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
gallant raeii of the North who support this act of justice, have
turned aside the Senator from Tennessee, who seems to quail
before thera."
Mr. Sumner was little turned from his course by the attack
of Mr. Douglas. It was a well defined sectional strife and
soon or late Northern raen, hoAvever divided at the outset,
must meet Southern men, but be used Mr. Douglas' provoca
tion Avith consuraraate adroitness to assail Southern Senators
and Southern institutions :
" I am unwilling, at this time to be betrayed into any thing (he said)
that shall seem like a defense of the clergy. They need no such things
as my hands. There are men in this Senate justly eminent in eloquence,
learning and ability; but there is no man here competent except in his
own conceit, to sit in judgraent on the clergy of New England. Honor
able Senators who have been so swift with criticism and sarcasm, might
profit by their exmple. Perhaps the Senator from South Carolina (Mr.
Butler) who is not insensible to scholarship, might learn from them
something of its graces. Perhaps the Senator from Virginia (Mr.
Mason), who finds no sanotioil under the Constitution for any remon
strance from clergymen, might learn from them something of the
privileges of an American citizen. And perhaps the Senator from Illinois,
who precipitated this odious measure upon the country, might learn
from them something of political wisdom. Sir, from the first settle
ment of these shores, from those early days of struggle and privations
— through the trials of the Eevolution — the clergy have been associa
ted, not only with the piety and the learning, but with the liberties of
the country. For a long time New England was governed by their
prayers more than by any acts of the Legislature ; and at a later day,
their voices aided even the Declaration of Independence. The clergy
of our time may speak, then, not only from their own virtues but from
the echoes which yet live in the pulpits of their fathers. * * Sir, it
is the best bill on which Congress ever acted; for it prepares the way
for that ' All hail hereafter,' when slavery must disappear. It annuls
all past compromises with slavery and makes all future compromises
impossible. That it puts freedom and slavery face to face, and bids
them grapple, who can doubt the result? It opens Avide the door of the
future when, at last, there will really be a North and the slave power
will be broken; when this wretched despotism will cease to dominate
over our government, no longer impressing itself upon all that it does,
at home and abroad; when the National Government shall be divorced
iu every way from slavery, and, according to the true intention of our
fathers, freedom shall be established by Congress everywhere, at least
beyond the local limits of the States. Slavery will then be driven from
its usurped foot hold here in the District of Columbia; in the National
Territories and elsewhere beneath the National flag; the fugitive slave
bill, as odious as it is unconstitutional, will become a dead lettter; and

'THE NEBRA.SKA-KANSAS BILL. 281
the domestic slare trade, so. far as it can be reached, but especially on the
high seas, will be blasted by Congressional prohibitions. Everywhere
within the sphere of Congress, the great Northern Hammer will descend
to smite the wrong; and the irresistible cry will break forth: ' No more
slave States.' "
The biU passed the Senate, amidst deep prevailing solem
nity, after midnight, March 3, 1854. The Southern Senators,
Whigs and Democrats, voted yea on the roll call — all save
John Bell, from Tennessee and Sam Houston, from Texas.
TAveh'e Northern Senators A'oted nay, but It was ascertained
that. If they represented the will of the people in their own
States, they spoke for raore than half the people of the free
States, so populous were their constituencies.
In the House the debate was prolonged for months with
great bitterness. Few were the Representatives who failed to
deUver elaborate Constitutional arguments and historical dis
courses on the bill.
Most ardent Avere the encomiums bestowed on the " little
giant " throughout the South ; and great Indeed, was the
sacriflce he had made at the North to win his Southern plaud
its. Day after day, petitions upon petitions continued to flow
into both Houses of Congress, all frora the North, to repeal
the fugitive slave law. Mr. Suraner's zeal took on renewed
impulse, his eloquence became raore embittered toward the
Southern Senators. On June 26, he presented the petition of
tAventy-nlne hundred citizens, of Massachusetts only.
The substitution of the principle of the " compromise" of
1850, that the people of a Territory should determine the
question of slavery, and that Congress should admit States
with or without slavery, as their Constitutions prescribed, for
the arbitrary power of Congress over the institution, estab
lished the hopes of many men of the South in lines of enter
prise far removed from the Territories of the West. Soon
after the acquisition of Louisiana was made safe, Mr. Jeff'erson
wrote : " I candidly confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba
as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to
our system of States. The control which, with Florida Point,
this Island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the
countries and isthmus bordering it, would flU up the measure
of our political well being." To the southward many young

282 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
men of the slave States turned to contemplate enterprise and
adventure. Slavery existed there and seeraed impregnable,
could it receive the support of the slave States. Texas had
been by their fathers and brothers, restored tp the Union.
Recently they had tried their endurance on the plains of
Mexico with great success. The free States raust. In course of
nature, possess the territory then belonging to the Union.
The newly proclaimed doctrine of the Nebraska-Kansas bill
would equalize the physical forces of the Union, and Insure Its
integrity, if applied to the southward, where their ambition
turned. In 1850, a Spaniard, Garcia, or Rey, as he was dift'er-
ently known, was accused by the Spanish governraent of Cuba
of treasonable utterances. He was seized in New Orleans and
hurried away to that Island. The circumstances of the seiz
ure incensed the young men of New Orleans, and excited no
Uttle sympathy in other parts of the Gulf States. Attention
in the same localities was arrested by a reported willingness
of the Creole population of Cuba to revolt against unendurable
oppressions. The Ijopez expedition was organized In the
Southern States for Cuban relief, and the invasion of the
Island undertaken, but in an exceedingly inadequate conduct.
Crittenden and his men, after landing, found the Creoles not
ripe for revolt, threw away their own arms, took open boats to
return to the United States, were run down by Spanish vessels
on the high seas, captured, returned in chains to the Cuban
authorities, and cruelly executed. Meantime, the President,
Mr. FlUraore, sore beset by the Abolitionists, Issued a very
harsh proclamation, denouncing citizens of the United States
who should repeat in Cuba what LaFayette, DeKalb and
others had done in the Union, and what thousands of citizens
of the several States had done in Texas — assist the oppressed.
The gallant conduct of Crittenden at the flnal scene, who,
when commanded to kneel to receive the fatal fire aimed at l^is
heart, folded his arms and exclaimed in refusal : " I kneel to
my God alone," added to the popular feeling enlisted In his ex
pedition. The belief grew, that he and his followers had been
sacrificed to the anxiety of the President to check, with vigor,
the expansion of the Union to the southward. Certainly,
Spanish insolence knew little bounds. Ship after ship of the
American merchant marine was run down in the Southern

THE NEBRASKA-KAXSAS BILL. 283
latitudes, searched, and even flred into. The Spanish gov
ernor issued an order forbidding Cubans to educate their
chUdren in the United States. The government under Mr.
Fillmore pursued the fiUlbusters. At Round Island a consid
erable number of American citizens, suspecteel of a purpose to
invade Cuba, were captured by a rcA'cnue cutter, and landed
on the Mississippi coast, penniless and in distress, to shift for
themselves. The federal court took cognizance of suspicions
connecting the Governor of blississippi, John A. Quitman,
with the filUbustering. He resigned, went before that tribunal,
at New Orleans, and deraanded a trial, which Avas not granted.
At the very tirae the Nebraska- Kansas bill was pending- in
the Senate it was reported, at Washington, and even raen
tioned in the proceedings of the House, that Mr. Gadsden had
gone to Mexico with the authority of the Democratic Admin
istration " to buy a broadside of Mexico sufficient for tive or
six States," including the Isthmus of Tehauntepec for a
railroad line, for $50,000,000, and that Mr. Soule had authority
to pledge to Spain $250,000,000 for the purchase of Cuba.
Desperate were the conditions which had Impelled Mr.
Douglas to attempt to make, what he sincerely believed to be,
a last eft'ort to create a national party devoted to the Union of
States, and grievous was his disappointment at the North and
at the South. He had hoped to please the alien settlers and
those citizens who had the right to settle In the Territories,
by securing to them the right of self-government ; to please
the whole Northern people Avlth a political device Avhich aa^ouW,
without friction, bring all new States, save, possibly, Kansas,
to the door of Congress, Avlth free Institutions ; and to please
the Southern people Avith a possible acquisition of Kansas to
the tier of slave States, and the repeal of the obnoxious enact
ment of a geographical bar, Avherever the power of the Union
might extend, to their Constitutional rights. He was repulsed
at the North by the disastrous defeat of his party in every
State, at the next elections. Every free State elected a State
government in opposition to the principles of the Nebraska-
Kansas bill. Those who had voted for Pierce and the same
principles, in the " compromise," were no exceptions to the gen
eral condemnation of Douglas and his measure. Ohio, which
had a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives

284 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
when the bill jDassed, returned not one Democrat to that
body In the next Congress. He was disappointed most in the
divided construction which met the main sections of his bill
in the cotton States.
The inquiry of politics was, did the Nebraska-Kansas bill
I)rovide for the relinquishment of the sovereignty of Congress
over the Territory of Kansas ? Did the bill establish popular
or squatter sovereignty, as Mr. Douglas propounded the doc
trine? A government of three departments was created by
tbe bill, but one of its provisions expressly declared that Con
gress reserved the right to extinguish the Territorial bounds,
and, therefore, to destroy the civil organization at discretion.
Nor was this reservation of power, and the exercise of It,
new. The goA'ernment of the Territory of Orleans, set up
by Congress, had been overthrown by Congress, and the
entire civil authority vested in three individuals of its own
selection. The government of Kansas Territory was pre
scribed by the bill, but the Governor was appointed by the
President, subject to his removal ; the acts of the Legislature
were Uable to be vetoed by the President's appointee ; the
Judiciary was appointed by the President and conflrmed by
the Senate ; all acts of the Governor and Legislature were
required to be submitted to the President and to the Con
gress. The governraent provided by the bill was, therefore,
teraporary only. The people were endowed with no fixed
tenure of civil rights by It.
The bill, Avhile professing to apply to Kansas the principle
of the Utah and New Mexico bills, did In fact reverse, in an
important particular, the principle of those bills. The
Mexican laws, forbidding slavery In Utah and New Mexico,
were left unprotested by the " Comproralse " measure, but the
Spanish laws, protecting slavery in Kansas, were, by name,
repealed in the Nebraska-Kansas act. It was evident that
foreign laws, unfriendly to slavery, were preserved and foreign
laws, friendly to slavery, were revoked by that present legis
lation assuming to establish the principle of non-intervention
by Congress in the federal acquisition of territory. The
subject of slavery was Included In the powers granted to
both the Judiciary and the Legislature of the Territory. The
Courts were authorized to take jurisdiction in certain bounds

THE NEBRASKA-KANSAS BILL. 285
and over certain muttevf^, j^rovided that their authority should
"not apply to or aft'ect" the fugitive slave law of 1793, as
amended by the act of 1850. The Legislature was warned
that it was " the true intent and meaning of this act not to
legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it
therefrom, but to leave the people thereof, perfectly free to
.form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own loay
subject only to the Constitution of the United States."
It had been the habit of ^Southern statesmen for many
years to declare the enactment of the line 36° 30' unconstitu
tional. Mr. Y'ancey took this position in one of his speeches
in Congress. The repeal of the enactment was a double
promise of peace in their sight, because of the restoration of
the Constitution and because, in restoring it to the respect of
the people, there was reason to hope the impulse which the
unauthorized act of Congress had given to radical and raorbld
legislation, on the negro race, by the free States, suddenly
reversing their long established customs and traditions, would
pass away. The Nebraska-Kansas bill, however, contained
provisions which Avere not equally acceptable to those by AA'hose
votes it passed either branch of Congress. Mr. Chase, its
leading opponent, moved to amend the provision conferring
legislative poAver over slavery, by limiting its exercise to the
exclusion of the Institution, confessing he would not accept an
amendment limiting the legislative power to the toleration of
the institution. His motion was voted down. The Southern
Whigs of the Senate Avere disposed to favor Mr. Douglas' vIcav,
that the bill had delegated to the Territorial governraent all
the power Congress Itself possessed over the particular subject
of slavery, but the Southern Deraocrats of the Senate did not
assent to that conclusion ; and in this episode in the conflict of
the sections, is a single intimation of the tendency of the
Whigs of the South to draAV near to the Democrats of the
North as the Democrats of the North drew away from the
Democrats of the South. Senator Badger, Whig from North
Carolina, said : " I think with the honorable Senator from
Indiana (Mr. Petit) that Congress has plenary power of
government to legislate over these Territories. But with
regard to that question we have agreed — some of us, because
we thought it the only right mode and some because we think

286 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
it Is a right mode and, under existing circumstances, a prefer
able mode — to confer this power (over slavery) upon the
people of the Territories." Senator Butler, Democrat, from
South Carolina, qualifled his adherence to Mr. Douglas' view.
He spoke at length. He would not surrender the power of
Congress, the trustee of the owner of the common estate, to
Individuals, few or many, who might happen to come flrst upon
it. Suppose the fillibuster. Captain Walker, should arrive
first with a band of foreigners and, under the provisions of
the bill, set up a Legislature. Would Senators be prepared
to see them govern themselves? It was a principle of the
common-law, that he who enters upon the title of another
cannot dispute the landlord's title. He Avould not set up a
Platonic Republic on the comraon domain, with associations
capable of excluding the institutions of the government of the
United States. The people who go to the Territories must be
content to go as tenants of the United States. Spontaneous
sovereignty in the settlers of the Territories could not be
allowed in the present condition of aft'airs, as it had been
assumed by the discoverers of the Western Hemisphere. He
Avas willing to take the bill as It passed from the hands of the
chairman of the committee, Mr. Douglas, but only on the
rule of give and take, bear and forbear. He did not approve
the bill. In all its provisions. "The decision of this question
(he said), whether made one way or the other, is not likely to
raake a practical difference as to the relative strength of the
diff'erent portions of the Confederacy ; for let it be decided
either way, the North retains her ascendency. The South
wants ner heart lightened, not her power increased. * * If,
however, they mean to go on with this agitation, I give
notice, as far as I can speak for the South, that if they keep
it up they must do so at the peril of this Union."
In the stormiest moments of the debate, the Abolitionists
lost no opportunity to declare their devotion to the LTnion and
their confldence in the power of the Union to make sure the
political ends for which they contended. Up to this time,
leaders of the party had spoken doubtfully and, in later years,
some of the working members of the party continued to speak
doubtfully of the value of the Union to their cause. But in
the Senate, the raen who restrained the temper of the rank and

THE NEBRASKA-KANSAS BILL. 287
flle and regulated the energies of the press — Messrs. ScAvard,
Wade, Chase, Sumner — tolerated no suspicion of their alle
giance to the majority of the people of the free States, repre
sented by them in the government of the Union. With con
summate tact, from this time forward, they threw upon the
defenders of the Constitution the opprobrium of " disloyalty "
to the Union.

CHAPTER 15.

Civil War Begun.
i8^^.

To seize Kansas became, imraediately, the absorbing polit
ical objective of the North and of the South. The facilities of
enterprise were Incomparably with the former. A feature of
the Territorial organization created by Congress was the right
of suffrage conferred upon aliens. The imraigrant of to-day
might vote to-morrow, for members of the Legislature, quaU-
fied only by an oath declaring his Intention to become a citi
zen. The Legislature of Massachusetts chartered two Emi
grant Aid Societies to colonize Kansas, with a combined capital
of $10,000,000. The Abolition members of Congress, now a
strong band, formed a secret auxiliary Kansas Aid Society.
Eli Thayer, of Massachusetts, boasted that the independent
company of which he was manager. In the time of the need of
his party, sent sixteen thousand men to the ground of conten
tion. Men of the North and raen of the South hurried to
defend sectional doctrines on Kansas soil. Both sides went
armed. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher recommended the free
States emigrant to trust to Sharpe's rifle ; the Missouri
contingent soon acquired the sobriquet, " border ruffians,"
bestowed by their New England competitors, to denote tbe
vigor of their rivalry. Jefferson Buford, a lawyer of Eufaula,
Alabama, formed a company of tive hundred young men, his
friends and neighbors, for the most part, to settle in Kansas
for the advancement of the Southern cause there. Arrived at

CIVIL WAR B^GUN. 289
Montgomery, en route, they were received by a public wel
come. Religious services Avere held in one of the principal
churches, each emigrant was furnished with a Bible, or the
means to buy one, Y''ancey w^as made treasurer of a fund for
their benetit, Hilliard and Baker delivered eloquent addresses
of encouragement to their expedition. The Anti-Slavery Soci
ety continued to take the most deterralned steps to resist the
fugitive slave law, and fo entice fugitives frora the plantations.
Bloody riots occurred at Boston, at Syracuse, New Y''ork, and
at nuraerous places, reslsthig the federal officers. Mr. Seward
spoke in the West, aud Mr. Suranerin the East, urging the
people to resist the laAV. The pulpit and rostrura In the free
States added their share to the universal agitation. Mr.
Gorsuch, of Maryland, took out legal papers to arrest three of
his slaves who had fled to Pennsylvania. He proceeded to
Lancaster, that State, with the federal officers who were to
execute them. Arrived there, he stood on the open street. In
daylight, urging the fugitives, who were concealed in the
upper story of a building and protected by whites and blacks,
to come forth and return with hira without arrest, and with
his pledge of entire forgiveness. While raaking his appeal, he
was shot dead by a volley from the infuriated crowd, which
held the fugitives, and his person was robbed of his watch and
valuables, the federal officers being Impotent. Governor John
son, a pronounced Abolitionist, with reluctance, displayed in
unnecessary delay, ordered the arrest of the murderers, Avho,
sustained by public sentiment, had made no attempt to escape
or to deny their act. The trial of the case before the federal
court continued ten days. Five counsel appeared on either
side, among those for the defense being Thaddeus Stevens.
The charge of the judge to the jury was not favorable to the
government's case. A verdict of " not guilty " was promptly
rendered, the prisoners were discharged only to receive an
ovation from the citizens, of all colors, of the town. They
were conducted, along with the jury, to a banquet, given to
celebrate the result of the trial, and which had been prepared
before the case had been submitted to the jury. Dr. Charles
Lucas, a planter of Montgomery County, Alabama, lost a
domestic servant, a young man. After many months the
master received a letter from the fugitive, notifying him of his

19

290 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
residence at Oberlin, Ohio, accompanied by a requestfor funds
to pay the expense of his return home. The amount of
money 'desired by the applicant was sent forward to his
address. Receipt was acknowledged, with a solicitation for
an additional sum. The master resolved to go in person to
visit the fugitive, and to offer him a free passage home, or his
freedom, as he should elect ; and wrote a letter to him, advis
ing him of the day 'and hour upon which his arrival might be
expected. An accident on the railroad delayed the master, on
the way for several hours, and, at last, he came, unlooked for,
on a freight train. The town had already been warned to
expect him by the assembling of a mob of negroes and whites
at the passenger station, to receive hliu at the customary hour
of appearance of the Southern passenger train, which did not
corae. Having registered his name in full and place of abode,
at a hotel, and casually remarked upon the object of his Aaslt
to Oberlin, a gentleraan, faraillar Avlth the spirit of the town,
took him aside, and, in whispered conversation. Informed him
of the extreme peril of his life, should his presence become
generally known. The thoughtful stranger advised the unsus
picious Southern master to go into the lobbies and inquire
aloud for a vender of a pair of flne roadsters. He, himself,
would respond with an off'er to sell such a team. The horses
and vehicle, for trial, would be driven to the door, the baggage
left unnoticed, the two raen would drive oft' and raake all
speed for a railroad station ten railes away toward the South.
Thus did the master make his escape from the threatened con
sequences of his peaceful expedition to an educational centre
of the Union.
On the other side, Mr. Giddings, in a public address to his
constituents in Ohio, recounted to thera the outrages perpe
trated against the Abolitionists by the Southern members on
the floors of Congress. Mr. Giddings said he was proceeding
to address the House on the subject of slavery practices in
Georgia. He was interrupted by a member from that State,
who stood in front of his seat with an uplifted " bludgeon,"
declaring, " if you repeat that remark I avUI knock you
down." A member from Louisiana drew his boAvie knife on
the same occasion, and cocked his pistol in his pocket, " so
that all around me could hear it click." Senator FOote, from

CIVIL WAR BEGUN. 291
IVIisslsslppl, assured Senator Hale, frora New Hampshire, that
the latter could not advance ten miles into the State of the
former without being swung to a convenient limb, by sorae of
the flrst gentlemen of the Union, " and I should myself assist
in the operation," concluded the Mississippian.
The Whigs believed the time propitious for the organiza
tion of a Union party. Under the name of the American
party, they met in National Council, June 5, 1855, at PhUa
delphia, to announce a platform for the Presidential election
of November, 1856— seventeen months distant. The other
motive, not less Imperative, was to attempt to carry, on their
platform, the Southern State elections of the summer of 1855,
for RepresentatlA^es in Congress and for State officers. The
American party, in its origin, was the expression of a sincere
alarm at the rapid increase of foreign immigration, and the
enactments of Congress favorable to alien suff'rage and early
naturalization. Peril from these sources did not menace the
slave States, and hence the party took form flrst in the free
States, commending itself to the Southern Whigs only as a
promise of resistance to the State Rights party committed to
a contingent dissolution of the Union. In the elections of 1844
the new party, Avith a local aim only, achieved distinguished
success. It elected the mayor of New Y'ork and the mayor of
Philadelphia, amidst scenes of riot and arson in both cities.
Two Catholic churches were burned at Philadelphia by the
partisans of the new organization. In several of the free
States, frora 1814 to 1852, a few raerabers of the national
House of Representatives were chosen by the Americans. In
1852 the party was reorganized at the North, by the Introduc
tion of a ritual and secrecy, with a feature of hostility to
Catholics in office. On account of the oaths imposed and the
secrecy of its proceedings, individuals being required to con
ceal their membership, it was henceforward known by its
opponents as the Know Nothing party. In the South one of
the early promoters of the American party Avas Alexander H.
H. Stewart, of Virginia, a member of the Whig Administration
of 1848. Its first contest with the Democrats of the South
was joined in Virginia, in 1853, when Henry A. Wise, long a
Whig, defeated, for the Governor's office, the American candi-
-date. In Alabama the new party made some effort, before

292 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
1855, and in the local conflict at Mobile the Catholic property
near that city was burned by American partisans.
The appearance of the American party in national organi
zation, and, upon a platform presenting all the issues of the
day, compelled Mr. Yancey to abandon his retirement from
political life. In the hope of breaking the traditional hold of
the Democratic party in the slave States, the Philadelphia
council of national Americans went much farther than the
Northern majority of Its raembers conscientiously approved
in endorsing the Southern position on the questions of the
day. The flrst section opened the way. In declarations of a
political character, acknowledging the Deity, and proclaiming
the Interference of Providence " in every step by which we
have advanced to the character of an Independent nation."
The third section declared the Union to be " the paramount
political good," vindicating the proposition on " the language
of Washington," asserting it to be "the primary object of
patriotic desire." The eighth section pledged the party to
" resistance to the aggressive policy and corrupt tendencies of
the Roman Catholic Church in our country," and pledged the
party to hold fast to the proposition, that " Americans only
shall govern America." The famous Twelfth Section reviewed
the failure of the Whig and Democratic parties to establish
peace between the sections, Avhereby it had become " the
Imperative duty of the American party to interpose for the
purpose of giving peace to the country and perpetuity to the
Union ;" the party would abide by the existing laws relating
to slavery ; " Congress possesses no power, under the Consti
tution, to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the States,
where it does or may exist, or to exclude any State from
admission into the LTnion because its Constitution does or does
not recognize the institution of slavery as a part of its social
system ; and expressly pre-terinlttlng any expressions of opin
ion upon the power of Congress to establish or prohibit slavery
in any Territory, it is the sense of the National CouncU
that Congress ought not to legislate upon the subject of
slavery within the Territories of the United States, and that
any interference by Congress with slavery as it exists in the
District of Columbia, would be a violation of the spirit and
intention of the compact by which the State of Maryland

CIVIL WAR BEGUN. 293
ceded the District to the United States, and a breach of the
national faith." The concluding section abolished secrecy
from the proceedings of the order.
As a result of the councU, all the Southern States, where
elections were pending, were immediately agitated with the
collision of the new party with the Democratic organization.
In Virginia, John Minor Botts, the leading opponent of the
Democrats, declared : " If the South continues to persist in
holding on to that platform (listen to me I entreat you Avhlle I
tell you) certain and inglorious defeat awaits us. No matter
what you and I think, and no matter how right it may be, it is
not satisfactory to the majority of the party in the ITnlon." The
American ranks in Alabama were strengthened by the acces
sions of some important characters from the Democrats. At
Mobile, the Mayor, Jones M. Withers and Percy Walker, joined
them, and at Montgomery, James E. Belser, a former member of
Congress. In State council they nominated, for Governor, a
Circuit Judge, George D. Shortridge, a Whig. In the Districts,
they nominated candidates for Representative in Congress,
and in the counties, candidates for the party appeared for
all the elective offices. The Democrats nominated Governor
Winston for re-election, and brought out their best raen. The
State campaign of 1855 was long declared to have been equal
in all exciting influences to the memorable contest of 1840.
Winston and Shortridge entered upon a thorough joint can
vass of the State, passing In their private conveyances
through the counties, and often speaking In scA'-eral places In
a single county. The debates betAveen the candidates for
Representative in Congress and the Legislature, were pursued
in every precinct. The Mobile Advertiser, under Langdon,
and the MobUe Register, under .John Forsyth, the Montgomery
Mail and the Montgomery Advertiser kept alive the partisan
strife with brilliant criticisms of orators and their arguraents.
Yancey and Hilliard now resumed their long suspended
debates. The Americans put forward Thomas H. Watts, for
Representative in Congress, and the Deraocrats brought up to
meet hira James F. Dowdell, a Secessionist of 1851. Gold
thwaite, Chilton, Rice, Clanton, Taylor, Hopkins, Clemens,
Cocke, Robert Jemison, Alexander White, Prince, Posey and
Judge were orators, in all parts of the State, of a high order.

294 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
earnestly devoted to their party and most industriously
engaged in labors for its success.
Mr. Yancey's robust health had failed under the severe
labors of his profession. He was attacked by a neuralgia of
the spine, so serious as to become apparent to the observer, in
the marked stoop of the shoulders where, aforetime, his bear
ing had been erect. " Mr. Yancey used to come to my father's-
house and make it his horae when he came to the courts in the
eastern part of the State (wrote many years later, a distin
guished statesman). He suffered intensely and would \emain
in bed for days on some of his visits, when his labor was over.
I was a mere lad then and, under pretext of serving him, often
sat in his room to hear him talk. He Avas never cast down
and was ahvays ready for pleasant chat. He was so cheerful
and pleasant under all circumstances that every member of
the family loved hira. I would rub his back to relieve his-
paln, but I never heard him complain of his suft'ering. I
remember on one occasion, when he was able to sit up In his
room, a neighbor called and was invited in to see him.
Naturally, the conversation turned on politics, and Mr. Yancey
talked with extraordinary brilliancy. The Whig visitor said
at last, ' Ah, Mr. Y^ancey, you can out talk me.' ' Out talk
you, (replied Yancey). And what does that mean? Do I talk
louder or longer than you ? Do I talk faster ? I have heard
the phrase before, but never understood it. You mean, sir, to
say that you cannot answer ray argument.'"
The words of the following letter present the circum
stances of Mr. Yancey's course, at this time, and indicate the
date and occasion of his return to political life, from which he
never, for any considerable time thereafter, retired.
"MONTGOMEEY, JuNE 23, 1855.
" Wm. H. Northington, Esq. :
"Deae Sir: I ara in receipt of yours of 21st inst., inform
ing me of the rumors, also afloat in Autauga, that I belong to
the order known as ' Know Nothings ' and requesting ' an ex
position of my views relative to the principles, objects, tend
ency and ultimate designs of the new political party.'
" I had heard of such a rumor not only as existing in Au
tauga, but as pervading several other counties. Taking no
active part in poUtics, however, I have ncA^er considered the

CIVIL WAR BEGUN. 295
matter worthy of public notice, and do not now ; and I reluct
antly yield to ray personal regard for you to comply with
your wishes and to give sorae of the views I entertain as to the
order coramonly called ' Know Nothing, or Native Araerican
party.' " I have not the tirae to spare to write out the elaborate
exposition Avhlch your letter calls for. I have never been a
member of the order. Until very recently, all that was known
of this new party, outside of its own organization was, that it
was a political association whose members were unknown,
Avhose principles were kept secret, whose meetings were with
closed doors and was, thus, completely shielded frora public
opinion. If the old caucuses, whose members were known,
the time and place of whose meetings were publicly proclaimed,
and whose principles were openly discussed, were considered
objectionable, how far more objectionable raust have been these
characteristics of this new party.
"* * I must think the revival of this long repudiated
and dangerous doctrine (that in all doubtful and disputed
points of federal law the Constitution may be legally ascer
tained and expounded only by the judicial power of the LTnited
States) by so vigorous a party as is that of the Know Nothings
portends evil to the cotmtry.
"The- South had become almost united upon the Georgia
platform, after the Secessionists failed to carry immediate
secession. The only dlft'erence between the Secessionists and
Georgia Platform was, that the former took position that
enough had been done to justify immediate secession, while
the latter pledged its supporters to resist, to the last extremity,
any farther encroachments upon our rights. Falling then in
their views, the Secessionists ranged themselves upon the
Georgia Platform, and thus were the two great Southern par
ties united in a pledge not to refer future political difflculties
on the slavery issue to another equitable adjustment, or to the
Supreme Court, but to the last resort of outraged nations —
secession or arms.
" No State Rights man can subscribe to the doctrine con
tained in their third and fourth articles. His creed is far dif
ferent and may be summed up, thus— 'the maintenance of the
federal and State Constitutions in their integrity and stern

296 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
opposition to any Union to be based upon and preserved by
their Adolation.'
" The eighth article pledges the Know Nothings to exclude
from all political stations the members of the Roman Catholic
Church. My religious education has taught me to believe that
the tendency of that faith is antl- Republican. But my politi
cal education teaches me that no religious sect was ever des
troyed or even weakened by proscription. Political persecu
tion drove Huguenot, Puritan and Quaker to this country, and
laid broad and deep the- foundation stone on which has been
erected a glorious temple to religious and political equality.
" The essential element of all our liberties is freedom of
conscience — in religious and temporal affairs. With our great
ancestors this had been a practical issue. The only true
American tests on any religious issues are, the Bible, the
school house and the pulpit. To these, heretofore, have Meth
odist, Baptist, Presbyterian and Episcopalian submitted ; and
the consequence has been order and prosperity. This has
been the true and only American rule. Nothing can be raore
antl- Araerican, more European, more In accordance with king
craft and despotlsra, more analogous to the secret and fearful
tribunals of the Inquisition than this proposed political combi
nation of the merabers of the new order to proscribe citizens of
the United States who profess the Roman Catholic religion.
It will not do to say that Roman Catholics will be tolerated in
their worship of God and in the enjoyment of their faith, and
that all that Is contemplated by the order is to exclude them
from office. A Roman Catholic citizen has a right to a full
fruition of all the privileges of his citizenship. It is a privi
lege to serve the State in office. The order proposes to secure
to him the privilege of worshipping Gocl as he pleases, but
says to him, 'if you do, you must give up that other privilege
of holding office.' To conclude, I think the tendency of the
new party is eminently anti- American. It is true, they pro
claim that ' Araerica must be governed only by Americans,'
but, in the name of liberty, let it be according to American
ideas !
" Allow me to say, that there are ends and aims proposed
by the order with which I sympathize. There are others
which I cannot approve. One might consent to overlook

CIVIL WAR BEGUN. 297
minor matters, but I can give my adhesion to no party Avhich
repudiates the great State Rights creed, and undertakes to
-step between the freedom of conscience of any citizens and the
privileges wliich our Constitution guarantees alike to all."
" Very truly, your friend, " W. L. Y'ancey."
Other open correspondence 'became necessary frora this
lieginning, and the demand of the people for the orator upon
the stump became irresistible. He spoke at Columbus, Geor
gia, and thence passed on to Macon, the same State, to speak.
The audience halls were over-crowded in both places, and
the press comments on the speeches were notably different
from press notices of all other orators. The speech here given
was delivered at Columbus :
" Fellow Citizens : I appear before you this evening at the
soUcitation of many friends to address you on the great and
interesting questions which the rise and progress of Know-
Nothinglsm presents for our consideration. As is well known
to you, I have for several years stood aloof from the contests
of the old national parties which have divided the people of
the South, believing that their tendency has been in direct
antagonism to a true Southern policy. This conviction has
been strengthened, not weakened, by late events ; and I verily
believe that a like conviction had been growing up In the
minds ox the Southern people, since the passage of those meas
ures known as the coraproraise acts of 1850; that they were
beginning to realize, and to act upon the belief, that to their
union upon sorae common policy alone could they look for
ultimate protection within or safety out of the Union. It is
an undeniable fact, that, since the contest in the South, conse
quent upon the passage of the compromise bills, there has been
an unusual calmness and repose amongst our people. An
indifferent observer might have attributed it to apathy — that
apathy which often follows intense excitement. But to him
who looked deeper into the great public heart, and who was at
all familiar with the character of our patient, brave and self-
reliant people, another aspect was' presented — that of a people
whose minds were made up on the great issues of the day, who
¦were agreed upon the question of their wrongs, and upon the
manner of their redress ; and with no fears as to the result.

298 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
were calmly awaiting the hour of action. It followed, neces--
sarily, from this state of the public mind, that party ties sat
loosely upon men— that tho' the old party organizations still
existed, their merabers regarded their political opponents here
at horae with less of prejudice and hostility than had been
their wont ; that a spirit of enlarged charity, of patriotic
brotherhood animated all. We were almost in view of that
period, of the arrival of which many a patriot had gone to
his grave despairing, in which, without distinction of party,-
there would be a union of the South for the sake of the South.
" This state of things had been preceded by great dlft'er-
ences of opinion as to the proper course to be pursued. A
large part of the Southern people believed longer forbearance
would not be a virtue ; that no reasonable hope could be enter
tained that the North, with its numerical power, flushed with
triuraphs and animated with a fanatical zeal which laughed to
scorn the Bible and the Constitution, would respect that com
promise, or cease its assaults upon us ; and thus believing
urged upon the Southern States an iraraediate secession from
the Union. They argued that the federal government had
ceased to be a protection to Southern Rights —that it had
become a powerful machinery in the hands of the North to
aggrandize itself at the expense of the South. The great mass
of our fellow citizens, however, more patient and more hopeful,
determined against the immediate secession policy. They
resolved that they would acquiesce in the compromise meas
ures as a flnal adjustment of the slavery issues, and would
resist, to the last extremity, any further aggression upon the
South. In one State— the State of Georgia — this resolve was
made its fundamental laAv, and I believe I am fully justifled In
saying that the majority of every other Southern State, or, at
least every cotton State, acquiesced in the policy indicated by
Georgia. The minority, consisting of the immediate Secession
ists, were forced to yield, and, driven by this popular decision
from their more advanced positions, naturally found their next
resistance ground on the Georgia Platform. After that decis
ion, there was no further disagreement in th6 South. All
parties stood in alignment upon that position, animated by one
resolve, aye, and with one faith in the future. Far different
was the condition of things at the North. That section Avas

CIVIL WAR BEGUN. 299-
in strong contrast with the repose of the South. Tho' no right
of their's Avas even questioned, the public mind, like a great
cauldron, seethed with all the elements of Abolition fanati
cism. Whatever their differences of opinion In local matters,
there was, for all practical purposes, unity of sentiment and
unity of action on the slavery issue. They are united in pro
nouncing slavery a political and social evil. They are united
in the sentiment that it would be a great political evil that the
institution should spread itself over the Territories, and that
new slave States should thus be formed. They are united in
the belief that it is incumbent upon them to do all in their
power to oppose the increase of slavery. Thus far, all parties
at the North, practically, are in unison. Their disagreements
commence with a policy and constitutional obligations. They
agree that Congress has the power to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia ; they disagree only as to the policy of
such an act. An immense majority of them agree that Con
gress has the power to exclude slave immigration to the Terri
tories ; they disagree only as to the propriety of such Congres
sional action, south of the Missouri compromise line. They
agree that slaveholders can be constitutionally excluded from
settling in the Territories, while in a condition of Territorial
pupilage; they disagree as to the proper mode of effecting our
exclusion. One faction contends that it is the duty of Con
gress to exclude us by law ; another contends that the squat
ters have the right to exclude us by a law of their own
making. Another holds (and this is the doctrine of General
Cass) that we cannot hold slaves in a Territory, without the
law of the Territorial Legislature legalizing sla\'ery, while the
largest and most active portion contend that neither Congress
nor the Territorial Legislature, nor the ; Convention called
to frame a Constitution for the new State can authorize the
existence of slavery in a Territoiy or in a new State.
" Thus, you perceive, our assailants are united in all the
essentials of antagonism to slavery ; they only disagree as to
some of the modes necessary to exclude it from the Territories.
An immense majority agree that there is power to exclude us
from settlement in the Territories, and, as a consequence, from
having any voice in framing the Constitutions of new States.-

300 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
" Amidst all this free soil agitation there exists but one
party that, either in spirit or sentiment, manifests any dispo
sition to stand by the South and the Constitution, and that is
the Democratic party. The old National Whig party has
been completely absorbed by free-soilism and its very name
abandoned. Tho' the Democracy has not fallen to this estate,
it is evident that but little more than a remnant remains of its
once mighty majorities. Year by year and election succeeding
election, show that the members and leaders of that party de
crease ; until now, there remains, I believe, about one dozen of
its members in the two Houses of Congress — Including Gen
eral Cass and his followers.
" The controlling element in all Northern elections, at this
time, is, opposition to slavery and at every election, the ranks
of Abolitionism are swelled by new accessions, and those of
the Democracy reduced by defeat or defection. The result
is, the raajority of anti-slavery men, found in the House of
Representatives, while the Senate but bides its tirae until the
same power shall fill Its seats with fit compeers of Holland,
Wilson and Seward. Is no lesson to be draAvn from a review
of these facts ? Is the ralnd of the South to be seduced with
the hope that at another election a re-action will take place
and the tide of fanaticism will be rolled back by reason and
a regard for the Constitutional right of the institutions of
the slave States? Or does not wisdom cry aloud to us to
take care of ourselves ? If the North comes to its senses,
well. But, at all events, let us prepare for the contingency
that this state of things is likely to go on and will soon be
hrought to bear practically upon the question of our equal
ity in the Union,-Vlt is folly to blind our eyes to our true
"condltiom We are in the midst of a mighty sectional contest ;
and in the recognition of that fact, we will find the solution of
this united North against the South, and the South against the
North. The laws of nature in their majesty stand out from
the issue more imperative than the obligations due to national
parties, or even to Constitutions. The checks and balances of
our noble Constitution, it is true, were designed to keep down
and to control all those sectional elements that have, arisen In
the States of the Union. The just observance of the State
Rights creed, in the conduct of the general government, would

CIVIL WAE BEGUN. SOI
eff'ectually keep the sectional elements in control and. Indeed,
leave no opportunity for their display. But the spirit of con
solidation, over-riding the genius of our system and usurping
the rights of States and dominating in concerns outside of the
federal jurisdiction, brings to the surface those sectional antag
onisms which naturally underlie great interests, built upon
varied industrial conditions, founded on soil and climate.
" The Creator has beautifled the face of this Union with
sectional features. Absorbing all minor sub-divisions. He has
made the North and the South ; the one the region of frost,
ribbed in with ice and granite ; the other baring its generous
bosom to the sun and ever smiling under its influence. The
climate, soil and productions of these two grand divisions of
the land, have made the character of their inhabitants.
Those who occupy the one are cool, calculating, enterprising,
selflsh and grasping ; the inhabitants of the other, are ardent
brave and magnanimous, more disposed to give than to accum
ulate, to enjoy ease rather than to labor.
" The Institution of slavery, tho' recognized by the federal
Constitution, in the representative and tax paying features of
the government is, nevertheless, essentially sectional. It exists
for the beneflt of the South and is its chief source of wealth
and power ; and now in the hour of its peril, assailed by the
great Northern antagonistic force. It raust look to the South
alone for protection.
" I have been somewhat diffuse and elaborate in presenting
the present attitude of the North and the South toward each
other, but it has been necessary to my argument. I have
shown that a contest rages between the sections on account of
a sectional institution prevailing here. I have shown that our
assailants occupy the vantage ground in the conflict ; that their
numerical majority Is cemented by a gradual increase of their
victories at the polls, covering a series of years ; that their
opponents in the South have given way before them. It Is a
simple question of time, when the North will have gained con
trol of each and every department of the government — execu
tive, legislative and judicial.
" The question, then, naturally arises, what protection have
we against the arbitrary course of this Northern majority?
Considering the question as a Constitutional one, the answer

302 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
is clear — our protection consists in the recognition of the great
State Rights doctrine, which compels majorities to respect the
rightsof minorities^ By that doctrine the States are co-equal
in Interest in the Territories and Congress is but their agent to
govern for the beneflt of all. Neither squatters or settlers
in the Territories carry any inherent right to make laws there.
Laws can only be made there by the act of Congress organiz
ing the Territorial government, and the inhabitants, of course,
can only acquire from Congress such rights of legislation as
Congress may itself possess. As Congress can make no law
excluding slavery frora the Territory, it follows, that It cannot
delegate any such law making authority. An agent cannot be
clothed with greater power than his principal. But, as Con
gress is bound to pi-otect every citizen in his rights of
property wherever Congress has jurisdiction. It follows that
Congress is bound to protect the slaveholder, who settles in
the Territories with his slaves, in the full enjoyment of that
species of property. The slaveholder justly claims protection
in the Territories by reason of the fact that his State is a co
equal sovereign in the ownership ; and as long as the domain
remains In a Territorial condition the settler has the right to
demand that the laws be raade to protect his property, and that
none be enacted to impair or destroy his right. Under this
view, each section has a fair and equal chance In the settle
ment of the public domain ; and when the time arrives for the
settlers to frame a State Constitution and to assume the man
tle of State sovereignty, each section will have had a fair and
equal opportunity of being heard in the settlement of the
question whether or not the institution of slavery shall be
incorporated into the State Constitution.
" The question may be asked, however, if this sectional
majority does not respect this State Rights doctrine, but rather
overrules it, and acts upon the reverse principle, what can you
•do ? The answer is, that as the government wUl then have
become centralized and no longer subserves the end for which
it was created, withdraw frora it ! In its original formation,
Two kinds~of rights were considered of by the States : First, the
rights they granted the government; second, the rights they
reserved. Hence, there has been inserted in the Constitution
an amendment, declaring that the powers which have not been

CIVIL WAE BEGUN. 303
'delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the States,
are reserved by the States respectively or to the people. Upon
the doctrines of the State Rights school, there has been very
little diversity of opinion at the South. They are the only
doctrines that can check a licentious majority from the exer
cise of all its selflsh ends; the only doctrines upon which' a
sectional minority can maintain its rights in the Union.
" Such, then, was the relation of the North and South to
each other when a ncAV party arose with the full proportions
of maturity and strength, and proclaimed its ability to settle
this vexed question, and to save the Union. This party had
been known as a Northern party for the past year. It had
distinguished itself by a career of victories in Northern cities
and Northern States, and its garments were dyed red with the
blood of those Northern men who had manifested sympathy
with the South. Politicians and judges, and a certain class of
citizen soldiery fell victiras to its vengeance. In the wide
sweep of its aims it proposed to regulate both the political and
religious conscience of the people of the Union. Its origin or
its history certainly failed to recommeiid it to the people of
the South. Nevertheless it crept into a powerful position in
our midst and by the number and character of its Southern
adherence is entitled to a calm consideration at our hands.
Its aims and principles have received an authoritative exposi
tion from its National Council, recently convened at Phil
adelphia. The Council was composed, apparently, of very
discordant materials — Southern slave holders and Northern
Abolitionists, men of ability, too, jealous of their positions, and
yet desirous of framing a platform upon which North and
South could stand. It raay be taken for granted, therefore,
that all its articles were framed with great care, before being
even submitted formally to a committee ; that they were, in
committee, carefully analyzed, and that they received, in con
vention, equal consideration in the principles they announced
and in the phraseology employed. If a word is wanting in
that platform which would somewhat qualify its expression,
so as to make it more palatable to Southern men. It must be
taken tp have been carefully excluded. If a word is there
which is not altogether such as some of its supporters like, it
must be taken to have been designedly placed there. The

304 • THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
idea cannot be, for a moment, entertained that words were-
used carelessly in the remarkable composition of that platform ;
and that any other meaning is to be attached to Its words
than such as the language itself palpably conveys to a candid
mind. A careful study and analysis of its policy and its
principles, in connection with the oath the ritual of the party
exacts, convinces every one that the chief aim of the new
party is the preservation of the Union ; and the chief princi
ples upon which It is founded are, the exclusion of foreigners
and Roman Catholics from the privileges of holding office. It
will strike every unprejudiced Southern mind that the slavery
Issue was considered by the platform only as Incidental ; that
the Council gave expression only to views on this subject
which conservative Northern men entertained and, lest the
delegates and the party might become involved in the meshes
of construction. It ' pre-termitted any expression of opinion
upon the power of Congress to establish or prohibit slavery
in any Territory.'
" Upon that question the Abolition party proper, the Free
Soil party and the Cass wing of the Democracy had long since
expressed an opinion, and there seemed to be but one view of
It at tbe South. Did not the members of the Council have an
opinion on that question ? It would be doing gross injustice
to their Intellects and their patriotism to deny it ! YVhy then
was it agreed, not only not to express that opinion, but to
incorporate in their platform that the omission was by design ?
Certainly, for no other reason than the conviction, in the flrst
place, that the merabers of that body held antagonistic views
upon that question, and, in the second place, that the expres
sion of any opinion upon it Avould be the death blo\\f to the
nationality of the party.
" Know-Nothinglsm, then, sacrlflced the South to attain to
nationality. I say sacrlflced the South, for the point upon
which that party ' pre-termitted ' any expression of opinion is
the vital, practical question at issue, and is considered the
weakest and most vulnerable side of slavery. Any attack
upon slavery in the States would strike so immediately, and
directly, at the existence of the institution in its very citadel,
as it were, as to bring out its defenders in force. But to-
assall it in the Territories, where, perhaps, but few slave-

CIVIL WAR BEGUX. 305
holders, with slaves, are to be found, Avould excite less atten
tion, and raight even pass as an abstraction t * * I ara not
aAvare that any such Abolitionists as Wilson, Gardner and
Ford were ever admitted as members of a National Democratic
Convention. The Barnburners, of New York, were not of that
school of free-soilers. That faction had always urged that the
slavery Issue be not urged upon thera — that It was a local
matter — that it should not be made a test question. They
did not attempt to force the Democratic party to take the
ground that Congress had the poAver to legislate against
slavery, but they desired that the Democracy should do pre
cisely AN'hat the Know Nothings have done — ' pre-termit any
expression of opinion on the subject.'
" I will now turn to a consideration of the principles set
forth In the Philadelphia platform, fundamental, and evidently
designed to govern the party under any and all contingencies
Avhich may arise. First in order of announcement, and chief
in the esteem of the new party, is the declaration, to which it
swears its members, that ' the raaintenance of the Union is the
paramount political good.' These words are significant and
suggestive. The L'nion has been threatened because of the
violation of the Constitutional rights of the South. It has
been threatened because of Its failure to protect Southern
property in free States. In has become a serious qpestlon. In
the South, for many years, Avhether the Union was a Constitu
tional Union, and Avhether some of the States should not
resume their sovereignty. None knew of these facts better
than the merabers of the Know Nothing Council, for in that
body were Secessionists and Unionists on old issues. What
Union is, then, contemplated by that clause? There can be
but one answer, and that answer cannot be given in words
more concise or significant than the Council itself employed.
It is 'the Union,' without qualification ; ' the Union,' without
reference to any opinions as to its Constitutionality or other
wise ; ' the Union,' de facto, a palpable, plain, never-to-be-
misapprehended realization, unfettered by the entanglements
of right ; ' the Union,' a fact ! It will not do for a Know
Nothing to assert that the platform contemplates only a Con
stitutional Union, for it no where says so. Knowing that the
questions of State Rights and Constitutional Union have been

20

;J06 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
raised. It ignores them. If the Council had designed to main
tain a Constitutional Union, it would have sworn its members
accordingly ; If It had so designed. It would have placed the
rights of the States and the Constitution of the United States
on the same high footing to Avhich It has elevated the Union,
and would never have declared the raaintenance of the Union
paramount to the terms on which it was entered upon. All
State Rights men know the rights of the States are of equal
dignity with the authority granted to the general government,
and all must plainly see that Avhenever the latter Is to be held
as raore sacred — paramount — that a LTnion on such princi
ples is not a Constitutional Union. That this construction of
the clause Is correct. Is not only manifest In the third degree
oath required of KnoAV Nothings, but by other clauses which
foUoAv It In the platform ; and which raay be considered as
the means by which Know-Nothinglsm proposes to maintain
the Union and to crush secession, or aUy resistance of any
kind to usurpation of power by the LTnion.
"The Philadelphia Platform proposes that all political
differences which threaten the LTnion, shall be settled, If pos
sible, by equitable adjustraent, that is, by compromise. What
are ' equitable adjustments ' it Avould trouble KnoAv-Nothlng-
ism to define. They are one thing In Abolition, New England,
and another In slave holding Alabama. The definition given
by a Massachusetts Federalist would be Avidely at variance with
that given by a South Carolina NulUfier. The clause. In fact,
provides that the differences shall be taken beyond the con
fines of the Constitution for equitable adjustment. And who
are to be the arbiters ? There can be none other than the
merabers of Congress, where Abolition prevails, by a majority
Avhich has produced the Avrong, to be referred back for settle
ment on principles of equity ! In other words, the South,
finding itself worsted in its struggle with the North for Con
stitutional rights. Is to yield, begging the North not to push
us to extremity, but to reconsider, and not to take from us
any more than Its convenience avIU allow It to take.
" The Georgia Platforra announced that the next aggres
sion would not be referred to compromise, but should be
resisted to the last extremity ; and the whole South responded
to the noble-spirited decision. Know-Nothlngism, however.

CIVIL WAR BEGUN. 307
comes in with another doctrine — another spirit — and teaches
us to beg the victor himself, to determine hoAv much. In all
conscience, he will leave us ! Under which teaching is a race
of freemen to be reared ?
" But, in justice to each platforn. It raust be said, the raeans
proposed by each, Avell subserves the ends aimed at by each.
The KnoAv Nothing platforra. If its policy be observed, will
maintain the ' Union,' tho' it crush the rights of the South ;
the Georgia Platform will save the South, even at the expense
of the LTnion.
" Suppose, howcA-er, that the two sections are unable to
.agree upon an eqtutable adjustment, Avhat does Know-Nothlng
ism propose In lieu of that resistance pledged by the Georgia
Platform? It urges the submission of the difficulty to the
Supreme Court of the United States, as the only legal ex
pounder of the Constitution. This monstrous doctrine Is sim
ply a revival of the federalism of John Adams' day. It was
assailed by Jeft'erson, In the revolution of 1798, successfully
put down, and has never found a party at the SoutU to urge it,
until It was taken up by the Know Nothings. The old line
Southern Whigs have always repudiated It. The national
Democracy has ever denounced It. There Is no warrant for it
in the Constitution. The very proposition is an absurdity In
itself. The Constitution is an aggregation of powers granted
by the States, and in the Instrument It is guardedly and care
fully asserted t'nat the grant Is not to be taken to prejudice
rights reserved in the States. In the Constitution, a judiciary
Is provided for to determine questions of property arising
under the granted poAvers. Yet, Know-Nothinglsm proposes
to refer to the Supreme Court questions involving the reserved
jlghts of the States ; proposes to place the question of existence
or non-existence of State sovereignty In the opinion of that
Court ! When or where. In what clause of the Constitution,
-did the sovereign States, who framed this governraent, propose
that any other but their own j udgraent should determine whether
their reserved rights had been invaded and the mode and man
ner of redress for the grievance ? Let us look forward a few
years and consider of the time when the North in its increase of
numerical power, shall control both the legislative and execu
tive departments of the government, and the Know Nothings

308 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
shall be in power. The President will then have been sworn
by his party. In advance, to displace from offlce every man not
in favor of ' the Union ' and to appoint to offlce only such as
may be In favor of 'the LTnion.' The Judiciary, too, wUl be
composed of men sworn under the third degree, to ' maintain
the Union as the paramount political good.' Imagine the
great question of the right of a State to secede to be brought
before such a court for adjudication, and the rendering of a
decision adverse to the right. What then ? Would the right
be destroyed? Or, if not heeding the decision, the State of
Geoi'gla, acting on Its own fundamental proposition to resist
the next aggression upon her rights, should arm her people
to seek that protection which ' the Union ' had failed to pro
vide, what position would the Know Nothing party then take
In reference to the issue thus tendered? Even 'that contin
gency has been provided for and not left an open question by
the Philadelphia platform. One of its clauses inculcates 'a
habit of reverential obedience to the laws, whether national.
State or municipal,' until repealed or declared unconstitutional,
by the proper tribunal, the Supreme Court, and pledges aU the
authority of the party, to an uncompromising antagonism to
every attempt to subvert or endanger 'the Union,' come
from whatever quarter It may ; and not only so. It swears Its
raerabers to the support of that authority assumed by the
party. "No matter what the law passed, no matter what sovereign
ty or reservation of right may be involved, ' the maintenance of
the Union ' is held by Know-Nothinglsm to be ' the paramount
political good ' ; and no matter, though the State, In exercise of
Its sovereign right, should secede frora the Union or. In exer
cise of that natural right common to the very worm that Is
crushed beneath your heel, should rebel against such tyranny
and usurpation, Know-Nothingisra is pledged to ally itself with
' the Union ' and exert Its Iramense organic powers to sustain
that tyranny and to hurable the South. Can the Southern
people be prepared to submit their destiny to such a party ?
Are they ready to embrace doctrines so monstrous in their direct
tendencies, so destructive of our rights, and so galling to the
spirit of free men? Even if the construction- I have given
to the Philadelphia platform is not as plain as the light of

CIVIL WAR BEGUN. 309
noon-day, yet if it admits of a doubt, are Ave prepared to sur
render the simple, spirited, clear propositions of the Georgia
Platform and throw ourselves once more into the region of
snares and pitfalls of former days, to seek out there our rights
and to find the best mode of asserting them ? I cannot believe
the people are so disposed. I cannot believe that the struggles
of the last twenty years on this Issue have been In vain, and
that the South loves ' the Union ' more than she loves her
rights. I cannot believe, indeed, that the large body of
Southern raen to be found in the Know Nothing lodges are so
totally bereft of spirit and Intelligence and patriotism, as to
cling to a party which teaches to them that ' the Union ' is
more valuable than the rights which it was framed to protect.
I must think that they were induced to enter this order upon
other considerations than the Southern question and that, when
they find whither they are drifting, they will come out of it
and range themselves with their brethren who have resolved
to bury old party dissensions and to await, as one body, the
weight of the foes bearing down upon thera ; and when that
time comes :
' Then welcome be Cumberland's steed to the shock.' "
The orator discussed at some length the inopportune
attack of the new party upon foreigners, so far as the interests
of the South were concerned. Recently a fugitive slave,
Simms, had been captured at Boston. An Irish Roman Catholic
company was called out to disperse the native American mob
that collected to dispossess the federal officers of their prisoner,
and an Irish Roman Catholic constable, in endeavoring to
enforce the law, fell dead, stabbed by a native protestant. The
Judge of a Massachusetts court, who had ruled to execute the
fugitive slave law of Congress, was put upon impeachment
trial, condemned and disralssed frora office while the foreign
born artUlery company, Avhlch had assisted to enforce the
decree of the court, was disbanded by American law and the
commissions of Its officers vacated. The South had received
only kind offices from foreigners who lived here and under
stood her institutions. DeKalb, Pulaski and LaFayette had
fought for them. " Will refusal to naturalize foreigners (he
said) or to glA^e them office check the alleged evil of their

310 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
presence at the North? Assuredly not. The federal Contltu-
tlon bases representation on the whole number of free persons
of a State, together with three-fifths of all other persons,
Indians, not taxed, excluded. Whether naturalized or not,
foreigners add to the political power of that section. If Immi
gration is a political evil to the South, Know-Nothingism
should propose a remedy for it."
Taking up the complaint of the new party against the
Catholic religion, the orator said, until that party appeared the
Southern people had left the question of religious affinities to
the pulpit. The Know Nothings now affected to believe the
pontifical power, temporal and spiritual, was about to be trans
ferred to the LTnited States, and, to relieve the country of that
peril, they would disqualify the Catholics from office ! What a
hiatus between the gravity of the offence and the measure of
punishment. "But I must close (he said). I feel, fellow citizens, that I
have drawn largely upon your patience, and I thank you for the
attention with which you have honored my remarks. I submit
them to your calra and candid consideration, as coming from
one Avho has no interest in these great issues, save the inter
est that is yours, as one who asks nothing of you, save a
truthful decision upon those issues ; one whose only aim In
mingling in the strife of politics is to persuade his countrymen
not to permit their minds to be distracted at this juncture in
public aft'airs, by any other iesues, but that great and con
trolling and paramount one of the equality of the South in the
Union, or her Independence out of it. To espouse this princi
ple successfully, you must rely upon but one party and that
must be the raen of the South for the sake of the South. If
this party shall save ' the Union,' whether by appeal to the
conservatisra, the avarice, or the tiraldlty of the North, well 1
If It will not save ' the Union ' but will save our own, our
native South, who araong us that Is not ready to cry out. It is
well ! "
It was not unusual to flnd editorial corament of news
papers on Mr. Y^ancey's speeches connected Avith the expres
sion of the conscious inability of the editor to describe the
oratory. The following extract from a Columbus paper,
remarking upon his speech there, will convey sorae idea of

CIVIL WAU BEGUX. 3U
similar articles, which, frora time to time, appeared In various
States. After announcing that the hall Avas packed to Its
utmost capacity and that the audience was one of the largest
ever seen in the town, the editor said : " We are rather at a
loss to characterize the speech, for we have seen nothing In
public speaking with which to compare it. There Avas no
attempt at oratory, no mere declamation, no tropes, no wan
dering about for flowers, no feeling around for prejudices to
awaken, or passions to arouse. There Avas directness and
straight-forwardness in his manner and his language, Avhich
argued forgetfulness of all save the Importance of his subject
and the interest of his hearers. The speaker seemed to stand
before his audience in all the guilelessness and simplicity of a
child, pleading- In childhood's earnestness and aft'ection, yet
with manhood's strength and power, for the cause of truth
and his country."
A few days before the election, in August, Y'ancey and
Hilliard debated at Montgomery. The Advertiser declared
both had been heard to make better speeches. " Yancey, to be
conciliatory of those who differed Avlth him, flled his spirit
down ; HUliard, desirous of conciliating those with whom he
agreed, forced his spirit up." The debate made a profound
impression, as the evidence stands.
General Harney was ordered to Kansas to quell the civil
war then raging there. Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston was
ordered to Utah to subdue the Mormons. The draAvn sword
of the federal power was put upon a career against local social
institutions. President Pierce continued the policy which he
adopted at the outset of his adminstration, striving to har
monize the sections by distributing the federal patronage
between thera. In apparent zeal to pacify the free States,
outraged In the repeal of the Missouri " comproralse," by
Avhlch Kansas promised to become a slave State, he chose a
Governor for it, from the free States, who favored Mr. Doug
las' view of the Nebraska-Kansas bill. ,
The elections in Alabama resulted in favor of Winston for
Governor, but Shortridge received a larger vote than any
opposition candidate for the office had ever received. The
vote against Winston was sensibly affected by the question of
State aid to internal improvements, Shortridge representing

312 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
" State aid." The prosperity of industry demanded a larger
currency, and a raore varied enterprise than the plantation
aft'orded. Winston opposed the interference - of the State.
Percy Walker, American, was elected to Congress frora the.
P''lrst, or Mobile District ; E. S. Shorter, Secessionist, succeeded
Abercrorabie, Whig, In the Second ; WUliara R. Smith was
re-elected in the Fourth, on his own preAious platform, " the
Union," by the Araerican vote. The Deraocrats carried the
remaining Districts. The State Rights men were content.
The elections of the summer and fall, in the free States,
turned upon the ratiflcation of the Philadelphia platform, and
although the American party was successful, the platform was
repudiated in those States. The State councils of the party
repudiated the platform in the North, while the State councils
in the South, everywhere, endorsed it. The PhUadelphia
National Council, of June, 1855, had adjourned to meet, for
the purpose of nominating candidates for President and vlce-
Presldent, on February 22, following — Washington's birth
day. The Alabama council, in alarm over the deraonstrations
of hostility to the platform In the free States, raet in extra
session, at Montgoraery, in November. The raerabers were in
despair. They passed a long series of resolutions utterly
irreconcilable with equally eraphatlc expressions of the party
In the free States, where the strength of the party lay. The
Alabaraa council abolished all cereraonials, secrets and pass-
Avords, declared for a " strict construction " of the Constitution
and "a Union, under the Constitution as above construed."
The Twelfth Section, so lately renounced on all sides at the
North, was reaffirmed by the Alabaraa council In special ses
sion. The naturalization laAvs were required to be so amended
as " to affect all foreigners and to prevent the transportation
and linralgratlon of paupers and criminals." " Entire reUgious
liberty," was demanded for all raen. As the time approached
for the reassembling of the National Council, the Alabama
State council met, February 14, at Montgomery, to select
delegates. Daniel Pratt, A. F. Hopkins, B. M. Woolsey, B.
S. Bibb, Lewis E. Parsons, Clanton, Belser, Hooper, Langdon
and many others, of the flrst rank in commercial pursuits, in
the learned professions, and in the editorial conduct of news-
l-)apers, took their seats as delegates. Resolutions were passed.

(IVIL WAR BEGUX. ^ 313
reported by ^iT. Langdon, taking. In unequivocal language, the
raost advanced Southern position on the rights of the South
in the Territories. The second resolution declared, " that the
power to exclude slavery frora, or to establish It In a Terri
tory, resides exclusively in a convention of the people of said
Territory, legally assembled, under the Constitution of the
United States, to form a State Constitution, preparatory to
admission into the Union." The fourth resolution repeated the
pledge of the Alabama Platform, of 1848, committing the raem
bers to the country and to each other, " to affiliate with no party
nor support any man for office, Avho does not publicly and une
quivocally avow the principles of these resolutions without
change or abateraent." Had Mr. Y ancey himself drawn the
resolutions they could not more boldly have expressed his
position. They were adopted unanimously. Messrs. H. W.
Hilliard and Jere Clemens AA-ere appointed electors for the
State at large. Messrs. B. M. Woolsey, of Dallas, J. G. Gil
christ, of Lowndes, W. P. Chilton, of Macon, J. N. Carpenter,
of Greene. Luke Pryor, of Limestone, E. R. Wallace, of Mad
ison, and Lewis E. Parsons, of Talladega, were appointed
District electors. Messrs. Hopkins, Shortridge, and others of
-equal prominence, were appointed delegates to the national
nominating council, and a resolution was passed requesting
Messrs. Walker and Smith, American party Representatives
in Congress, to attend the same council. Mr. Hilliard spoke,
hoping Fillmore would be nominated for President.
A raoveraent had been successfuly carried out, in the free
States, to convene a special council at Philadelphia, two days
before the raeeting of the nominating council, for the purpose
of rescinding the June platform and adopting one consistent
Avith the declarations of the State councils in those States.
The special council, for this purpose, assembled at Sansora
Street Hall, February 18. The South Avas sparsely repre
sented. On the second day, about one hundred and flfty
delegates were present. An aniraated debate was opened on
the question of admitting or excluding reporters of the politi
cal newspapers. A voice cried out, " it would be as well to
admit the Pope of Rome." Mr. Bartlette, of Kentucky, was
placed in the chair and, " all outsiders were requested to leave
and the marshals were directed to turn out all Avho had not

314 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
been invited to remain." The President directed the sentinels
to do their duty.
Two delegations appeared, from Louisiana, and among the-
raerabers of one It was ascertained there were Cathollc-s. The
question of admitting either delegation was hotly debated.
Mr. Brewster, of Boston, precipitated the question of the day,
by oft'ering a resolution to revoke the Twelfth Section of the
June platform, and declared his purpose to force the vote, " for
If the vote Is not taken, the North will not go another Inch
with the Council." Governor Ford, of Ohio, spoke. " He Avould
tell the gentlemen of the South that the North and West had
come to the Council for the purpose of repudiating the obnox
ious Twelfth Section ; and he would tell the South that be Avas
not here as a dough-face to excuse dough-faces. They Avere
here to determine that there should be no more slave States
and no raore slave Territories." " Great applause." JMr.
Boteler, of Virginia, said he " had little to say, but hadn't much
faith In Americanism In the North. It was very fast verging
Into Abolitionism. The men of the North knew not Avhat
they were doing. The effect of the conduct of the North was
endangering the lives and property of the men of the South.
When the time carae, as corae It must, the North would flnd the-
South standing with unbroken front." The Council sat in
great confusion. " Parson " BroAvnlow, of Tennessee, decbn-ed
he could " take flve men of his delegation and lick the Ohio
delegation out of the hall." Mr. Denenhower, of Illinois,
oft'ered a resolution to rescind the whole of the June platform
and adopt one that had been prepared at Washington. A dele
gate from Massachusetts, proposed that the council adopt the
Bible and the Constitution for a platform and proceed to nomi
nate candidates. The CouncU wrangled until three o'clock In
the morning, and adjourned to meet at ten o'clock. " Merabers
ran about the hall as if they were mad and roared like bulls."
The platform prepared at Washington, was adopted in Ueu of
the June platform. It omitted all raention of the question of
slavery. Because of the faUure of the platform to denounce
slavery there was a large secession of Eastern delegates. Ala
bama did not vote on the adoption of the ucav platform. Call,,
of Florida, ZoUlcott'er, of Tennessee, and a few other Southern
men voted for it. Fillmore, George Law, Bell, Houston and

(IVIL WAR BEt^UN. 315
others, received votes for tlie noraination but, on the flrst
ballot, FlUraore received one vote more than all the others
combined. When this result Avas raade knoAvn, many South
ern raerabers, who had seceded when the platforra was
adopted, returned. General Call, a seceder, returned to be
embraced by Parson BrownloAv, who had remained, and Mr.
Percy Walker, a seceder, returned, declaring " he wanted no
better company than the descendants of the men who had
flrst set foot on Plymouth Rock." On the second ballot, Mr.
FlUraore received more than two-thirds of the votes cast, and
was declared nominated for President. Call, of Florida, Ray
nor, of North Carolina, Bartlette, of Kentucky, and Donelson,
of Tennessee, were placed in nomination for vice-President.
On the flrst ballot, Donelson received the noraination. Par
son Brownlow rose to announce that he would now depart for
home and throughout the campaign he Avould " jurap higher
and roar louder than any other raan in the State of Ten
nessee." The Eastern seceders raet in New Y'ork and nominated N.
P. Banks, of Massachusetts, for President. The Alabama State-
comicll met to consider the action of the Philadelphia National
Council. The national platform of the party was repudiated
but the candidates nominated on it were accepted. Mr. Fill-
more had never been a member of the order, nor had he ever
renounced his early declaration of enmity to slavery. Messrs.
White and Shortridge, two of the Alabaraa council delegates
to Philadelphia, in an open letter, refused to support the plat
form or the nominees. Mr. Percy Walker resigned his seat in
the House, at once began a canvass for re-election, on the
Democratic platform, and succeeded. Colonel Withers re
signed the mayoralty of Mobile, renounced the American
party, stood for re-election, as a Deraocrat, and succeeded.

CHAPTER 16.

Forcing the Issue.
18^6.

Co-teraporary with its repudiation of all those guarantees
of Southern rights, to which the Araei-lcan party had coramlt-
ted itself, by the June platform, of 1855, and with the irrepa
rable sectional breach in the party, yet another new party
was brought upon the fleld, more remarkable In the hetero
geneous elements which entered It, and in the rapidity of
their cohesion than any political organization known to Amer
ican history. This second new party Avas, indeed, un-Amer
ican in all of its avowed objects. The promoters of it neither
expected or desired to apply the principles of Constitutional
government to the conditions of the country. Rather was
It their boast that the interests of the free States should
dominate the government, to the abrogation of the original
and still powerful interests of the slave States. At the outset,
the leaders declared for the subordination of right to might ;
the reversion of the age of Washington to rhe age of the
king. One hundred and sixty-one delegates, araong them
men of fortune and raen of fame, representing every free
State, and cA^ery faction and Ism evolved thus far In the
free States, convened at Pittsburgh, as If In traA'esty, on
Washington's birthday, February 22, 1856. Horace Greeley,
Whig, Francis P. Blair, Deraocrat, Joshua R. Giddings, Abo
Utionist, E. Rockford Hoar, Araerican, A. Oakey Hall, type of
exiaert politician, Jaraes G. Blaine, representative young leader.

FORCING 'THE ISSUE. 317
Governors and Congressmen, raen who, all their lives, bad
opposed each other, were now delegates, enthused with a
common purpose of revolution. Eight slave States were
ostensibly represented, yet, Avhen the names of their dele
gates A^'ere enrolled, they A\'ere found, in every case, except
Mr. Blair, from Maryland, to be men of position so ignoble
at home as to justify the thoroughly sectional purposes of
the convention. Mr. Blair was chosen to preside. Then and
thus was organized the " Republican " party. Horace Greeley
spoke at length, urging a conciliatory course toward the
Americans of the free States, all of whom, he said, were
devoted to the cause of anti-slavery ; Mr. Blair asked for a
mild course toAvard the Whigs of the slave States, because,
in all the past, they had stood flrmly by the policies of the
free States ; Mr. Giddings declared the Abolitionists would
accept nothing less than a policy radical enough to promise a
direct war against slavery, and the speedy extinction of the
institution. The object of the convention having been accomplished
— the making of overtures to the Abolitionists, presenting
defiance to the Americans and the designation of time and
place for nominating candidates for President and vice-Presi
dent — it adjourned; the members 'in high hope and the
country unconscious of the decisive progress in revolution,
which its work had accomplished.
The more circumspect statesmen of the South were not
surprised at the practical unanimity of the North, or dis
couraged at the vehement denunciations of the institutions and
people of the slave States frora that quarter. Alaliaraa again
took the lead In meeting the Issue presented. While the Ala
bama council of Americans sat, in November, 1855, at Mont
gomery, the Legislature convened. Quickly an address was sent
out to the people, signed, first by the Governor, John A. Wins
ton, by Benjamin C. Yancey, President of the Senate, by the
Speaker of the House ; signed by seventy-one of the leading
men of the State, in all avocations and of all old parties, but
the name of Williara L. Yancey, was not there, nor did he
assist in the preparation. He yet awaited the return of his
party to the Alabaraa Platform and its summons to him. The
address appealed to the Democratic and anti- Know Nothing

318 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
voters of Alabama, to assemble In convention at the Capl
tol, on the evening of January 8, 1856. So unimportant were
the preparations of the new born Republican party held to
be, that the elaborate document omitted all mention of them,
" It Is the plain duty of the people (it said) to take warning
from the vigilance, energy and dangerous character of the
American party, and to assemble in convention to adopt meas
ures for their future security, and for the preservation of
their Individual rights ; and to deterraine how, in concert
with the conservative patriots of all sections, at Cincinnati,
in the coming spring or summer, they may best promote and
perpetuate tbe principle of State Rights and the Union handed
down to them by their fathers."
A very memorable convention, of the people Avas that
Avhich raet in the hall of the House of Representatives on
the evening of January 8. Never before had the little city
of Montgoraery been so thronged with distinguished visitors.
The Bishops, of the Southern Dioceses of the Protestant Epis
copal Church, were there; assembled to organize the most
complete University of Araerica, already with an endowment
fund exceeding $500,000 and rapidly Increasing, to which
was given a governraent and constitution of broad and splen
did foundations, unsurpassed in any land — the University
of the South. Legislators and erainent counsellors of the Su
preme Court bai-, leading politicians. Bishops and many fair
women came to the meeting. Mr. Yancey took a seat in the
throng. It may be safely said, that at no tirae in his career
was he ever found In attendance on a political meeting that
a general outcry did not arise frora it demanding a speech
frora hira. In response to such a demand now, he delivered
a thoroughly considered address, which was an example of
determining oratory, unsurpassed In any era by any orator.
As period followed period, bis countenance ablaze with that
peculiar halo which was wont to surround it In- his most
earnest eff'orts, the great audience a compact mass of en
tranced persons. Bishop Polk Avhispered, as If in soliloquy,
"magnificent!" Bishop Elliott responded, "grand!" For eight
years, he said, he had fed on the bitter herbs of party displeas
ure. None could say in truth, that he had ever given aid or
comfort, in all that season, to the enemies of his party. Party

FORCING 'THE ISSUE. 319
absolutisra, fancying Itself secure from the conscience of the
people, had proscribed him. But truth had revealed Itself at
last. The contempt of the people had trampled down the sub
terfuges of the politicians. Events had vindicated hira. In the
past he had warned the people of the things they now saw
plainly. "As for ray humble self (avus the closing sentence)
I knoAv not that the Creator has endowed me with virtue to
do light, though the be-dvens fall, but I thank God that I
have had the courage to obey the dictates of my reason and
to abide by the restraint of ray conscience, even at the sac
rifice of the favors of the Democratic party ! "
While the Convention sat, the already long and bitter
struggle. In the federal House of Representatives, to choose
a speaker proceeded. After two months of unrivalled sec
tional conflict on the floor, Nathaniel P. Banks, frora Massachu
setts, recelA'cd the office. He AA^as an aggressive Abolitionist
acting with the American party. With the organization of
the House, began the contest between the pro-slavery and
anti-slavery delegate from Kansas for the seat allowed to
the Territory. Finally a committee was sent to investigate
the rights of. the two claimants. A volume of eleven hun
dred pages was submitted, containing the report of the pro-
slavery members for Whitfield and the report of the anti-
slavery members against him. The evidence for Whitfield
was so conclusive and the alleged evidence against him so
absurd, that, even the Ilouse, dominated by Abolitionists,
yielded and he was seated, at a cost to the country of many
thousands of dollars devoted to agitation by the Republicans.
The reports of the committee sent to Kansas, exposed the
fury of the civil strife raging there; the debates in the House,
over the report, fomented the partisan conflict throughout
the country, and the entire proceeding was pre-concelved to
assist in giving impulse to the pending Prcoldentlal cam
paign. Mr. Douglas had long contemplated his OAvn candidature
for the nomination, for the Presidency, in 1856, with a sin
cere desire to unite the West and the South, and thus to save
the free States from the inevitable revolution Impending the
possible "ascendancy of the Republican party. The substance
of Mr. Y^ancey's argument, before the convention of January

320 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
8, was, that the expedient suggested by Mr. Douglas would
have no other effect than to feed the revolution. It w.is prac
tical corruption of public sentiment to teach the people to
relieve Congress of its trusteeship over the common estate
of the States, on the demand of the revolutionists. However
honest might be Mr. Douglas' intention, the resort to a tem
porizing policy was untimely. When Charles I required John
Hampden to pay twenty shillings ship money, he resisted
In every court of England, not to save the paltry sum, but
to make an Issue against usurpation by the crown. In such
vigilance alone could liberty be preserved. Mr. Y'ancey con
tended that the Issue In the United States was Imperative.
The slave States Avould not be able to protect the free States,
as Mr. Douglas hoped, from revolution, on Mr. Douglas' line
of conduct. Whether slavery should be found profitable or
not In Kansas, did not eff'ect the question whether new slave
States should be allowed or denied admission to the Union.
The question was, should the people preserve or abandon the
theory of government they had inherited. Douglas and
Buchanan were accepted candidates for the nomination, at
Cincinnati, for the Presidency. Mr. Buchanan was now min
ister at the court of St. James. He had not been involved in
the discussion over the Nebraska- Kansas bill. He had been
conspicuous as an enemy of the Abolitionists In both Houses
of Congress. He had gone out of his way to befriend the
South. Mr. Yancey lost no time, after his speech on the
evening of January 8, In preparing Alabama, under his own
leadership, to re-affirm the Alabama Platforra.
In May, the Deraocratic party of Alabaraa assembled In
convention at Montgoraery, with a general understanding
that the restoration of Mr. Y'ancey to his positioh would be
then formally consummated. The official duties before it,
were to appoint delegates to Cincinnati and to choose the
electoral ticket. Montgomery County sent Mr. Y'ancey at
the head of its delegation, and the Convention raade him
chairman of the committee on resolutions. The committee,
through him, unanimously reported the Alabama Platform,
of 1848, and the Convention unanimously adopted it, includ
ing the instructions to the delegates " to vote for no men
for President or vice-President, Avho Avill not unequivocally

FORCING THE ISSUE. ;!21
avow themselves to be opposed to either form of restricting
slavery " — the WUmot Proviso or the squatter sovereignty
doctrine. Thus the Democratic party of Alabaraa, under Mr.
Yancey's leadership, Avas united at home, and thus Alabama
took the lead on the Southern or Constitutional issue of the
day. No other State assumed the advanced position taken
by Alabama. To sustain the State In that position, Mr.
Yancey was unanimously chosen by the Convention elector
for the State at large, and his brother Avas chosen District
elector. Mr. John Forsyth was at the head of the Instructed
delegation to Cincinnati. Against his own protest, Mr. Yancey
received the honor conferred upon hira, for he Avell knew
the will of the Convention was that he should raake a thor
ough canvass of the State. His health was not restored,
his laAV practice was full, and several of his children had
arrived at an age which required their education at expen
sive schools. His profession, as yet, supplied nearly all his
Incorae. He could UI afford the loss of time.
The Republican party campaign, however, was unexpect
edly precipitated, before its nominations had been declared.
Second only in decisive results to LTncle Tom's Cabin was
the sensation seized by that party, growing out of a casti-
gatiou infiicted by Representative Brooks on Senator Sum
ner. The Anti-Slavery Society, at Boston, was unremitting
In Its urgency upon Mr. Sumner to pursue a radical course
In the Senate. Meantime, in the whole period of the early
social ostracism of that Senator, as explained in a previous
chapter, Mr. Butler, from South Carolina, had maintained
courteous personal relations AAdth him, each gentleman enjoy
ing the familiarity of the other with classic and polite litera
ture. In answer to the unsatisfied demand of his home
supporters, Mr. Sumner prepared an oration for delivery in
the Senate, assaUing, with intolerable asperity, the institu
tions of the South, and visiting upon Senator Butler, In par
ticular, much his senior in age and in public service, the
most off'ensive sarcasm. Mr. Butler was not in his seat at
the delivery. Representative Preston S. Brooks, from South
Carolina, a nephew of Mr. Butler, a young offlcer of the
Mexican war, heard of the denunciation of his venerable
and absent kinsman, and promptly resolved upon redress.

21

322 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
It was Avell knoAvn the Massachusetts Senator did not acknowl
edge the Code of Honor. As a dernier resort, Mr. Brooks
resolved to castigate hira. He did not wish to exceed the
infliction of a few painful blows, mortifying to the sensi
bilities but not dangerous. Accordingly he purchased, for
the purpose, an ordinary walking cane, of the substance
known as gutta percha, hollow and brittle. He had thought
of the cowhide as the proper Aveapon, but feared to trust
himself, under excitement, with one capable of inflicting so
severe punishment. Mr. Sumner was adjudged to be more
than a match for him In a close encounter. After the Sen
ate adjourned, Ylr. Sumner remained In his seat, attending
to his cori-espondence, when Mr. Brooks, accompanied at some
distance, by Representatives Keltt, from South Carolina, and
Edmundson, from Virginia, aiDproached blm. Informed him
Avhat he intended to do, and struck hira heavily. The Sen
ator arose ; other blows delivered on the head In quick suc
cession, felled blm to the floor ; the blood flowed freely. The
wounded raan was borne to his apartments. The party
organs took up the opportunity and bulletins were sent out
daily, or hourly, giving, in sensational detaUs, alleged reports
of his condition. The " border rufflan " warfare had been
transferred, from Kansas, to the national Capitol, it was de
clared. Amidst great deraonstrations of partisan sympathy,
the unhappy Senator Ava& "removed to Boston, where the dally
and hourly reports by telegraph, of the condition of his
Avounds, were sent forth over the country. After a season
of exhaustive surgical and medical treatment at his home,
he was sent to Paris. There the surgeons, time after time,
scarrifled the spine Avith hot irons to relieve brain trouble,
arising, as was said, from a fracture of the skull. An autopsy
however, raade, nearly a quarter of a century later, proved
there had been no fracture of the skull, and only skin deep
Avounds had been Inflicted. The House, controlled by the
revolutionary element, compelled Brooks and Keltt to resign.
Both Representatives were at once, without opposition, re
turned from their Districts by unwonted majorities. The
Legislature of South CaroUna presented to Representative
Edmundson a costly gold mounted oane, with inscriptions
comraeraorative of his appearance as a friend of one of Its

FORCING TIIE ISSUE. 323
Representatives engaged in avenging the wrongs of his State.
In the party strife which raged OA^er the resolutions of cen-
-,sure of Brooks, Representative Anson Burlingame oft'ended
the Carolinian, and a challenge to the field Avas borne for him
to the off'ender by Senator Joseph Lane, from Oregon. Bur
lingame accepted, on concUtion that the duel should take place
at the Clifton House, on the Canada side of the Niagara.
Mr. Lane construed the condition as an Intentional Impedi
ment to the meeting, and desisted frora further action. The
antl-duelllng press of the free States burst forth in plaudits
of BurUngarae's valor, which were surpassed In vehemence
only by their denunciations of Brooks' lapse from the vaunted
chivalry of his State. Brooks died in his lodgings at Wash
ington, of a throat affection, long before Sumner had been
discharged from the hands of his doctors. The lecture room,
the pulpit and the press of the Anti-Slavery Society boasted
of the avenging hand of God, miraculously interposed to stran-
^-le the slaveholder.
The Cincinnati Convention assembled, June 6. It Avas
well understood that Alabama Avould adhere to her Platforra.
Jlr. Douglas declared publicly, years later (Norfolk speech,
1860), that Alabama had laid down its ultimatum to the Con
vention — " forced it upon us." The Convention re-affirmed
the party declarations of principle of 1844, 1848 and 1852, add
ing the following :
" And that we may more distinctly meet the issue on which a sec
tional party, subsisting exclusively on slavery agitation, now relies to
test the fidelity of the people, North and South, to the Constitution and
the Union: " Besolved, (1) That, claiming fellowship with, and desiring the
•co-operation of all who regard the preservation of the Union under the
Constitution as the paramount issue, and repudiating all sectional i^ar-
ties and platforms concerning domestic slavery, which seek to embroil
the States, and excite to treason and armed resistance to law in the Ter
ritories, and whose avowed pui-pose, if consumraated, must end in civil
war and disunion, the American Democracy recognize and adopt the
principles contained in the organic laws establishing the Territories of
Nebraska and Kansas, as embodying the only sound and safe solution
of the slavery question upon which the great national idea of the people
of this country can repose in its determined conservation of the Union,
and non-interference of Congress with slavery in the Territories or in
the District of Columbia;

324 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
" (2) That this was the basis of the compromise of 1850, confirmed
both by the Democratic and AVhig parties in national conventions, rati
fied by the people in the election of 18.52, and rightly applied to the
organization of the' Territories in 1854 ;
" (3) That by the uniform application of the Democratic principle
to the organization of Territories and the admission of neAv States,
with or without domestic slavery, as they may elect, the equal riglits of
all the States will be preserved intact, the original compacts of the
Constitution maintained inviolate, and the perpetuity and expansion
of the Union insured to its utmost capacity of embracing, in peace and
harmony, every future American State, that may be constituted or
annexed with a Eepublican form of government."
Another resolution required the enforceraent of the fugi
tive slave law of the " coraproraise," " under an express pro
vision of the Constitution." " A crusade In the nineteenth
century, and In the United States of America, against Cath
olics and foreign born citizens," was ridiculed and condemned.
Foreseeing the revival of the tariff' djscussion In the poUcy of
the Republicans, a resolution declared :
" The time has come for the people of the United States to declare
themselves in favor of free seas and progressive free trade, throu.ghout
the world, and, by solemn manifestations, to place their moral influence
on the side of their successful example."
Mr. Buchanan having won the first place on the ticket
made by the Convention, Mr. Douglas' friends claimed the
right to name the candidate for the vice-Presidency. At his
Instance, John C. Breckenrldge received the noraination for
vice- President.
Messrs. John Forsyth, of Alabama, .Tohn Randolph Tucker,
of Virginia, Horatio Seymour, of New York and others, a com
mittee of the Convention, waited on Mr. Buchanan at his farm,
" Wheatland," Pennsylvania, bearing the official Information
of his nomination. The platform prepared for his endorse
ment ratified the Nebraska-Kansas act, construing it to pro
tect " the equal rights of all the States " in the Territories,
and thus providing for an " expansion of the Union." The
" non-interference of Congress with slavery in the Territo
ries," was the pledge of the party ; and " non-interference " was
accepted, by Alabama, to mean a denial to Congress of author
ity to create a Territorial Legislature vested with the right
of interference with the institution which Congress itself

FORCING THE ISSUE. 325
was declared not to possess. It was expressly reiterated,
frora the Nebraska- Kansas act, that new States ghould be
-adraltted with or without slavery, as their Constitutions might
prescribe at the time of application.
Mr. Buchanan Avrote a letter of acceptance. Rlr. Yancey
in the South and Mr. Douglas in the North became at once
the cynosures of all eyes. The unsettled dispute of the
sections divided the supporters of the Deraocratic ticket,
and the confiict bounded onward, toward an arbitrament
shorn of the delusions of party, and the misbeliefs of parti
sans. Mr. Douglas declared the doctrine of squatter sover
eignty, which had been repudiated by the Convention in his
own rejection for the nomination, Avas endorsed by the letter
of acceptance of the nominee. Mr. Yancey contended that
the meaning of the Alabama Platforra had been incorporated
in direct phrase, in the Cincinnati Platforra, and endorsed
by the letter of acceptance of the noralnee. Mr. Buchanan
wrote, under date Lancaster, June 13, 1856: "This legisla
tion (of 1850) is founded upon principles as ancient as free
governraent Itself, and In accordance Avlth them has simply
declared that the people of a Territory, like those of a State,
shall decide for themselves whether slavery shall or shall
not exist within their limits." Who were the "people" of
a Territory ? In his letter to Mr. Thadeus Sanford, of Mobile,
pending the campaign of 1848, Mr. Buchanan had taken
direct issue with General Cass, at that moraent the party
candidate, on the issue of squatter sovereignty. He then
declared the "first coraers " into the domain were not the
"people," in the American or Constitutional sense. Adven
turers who might happen to arrive on the land could not
assemble and organize a government to set aside the Insti
tutions of the citizens of the States emigrating thither. He
said :
"They (the first comers) had no power whatever over the subject
•of slavery, and they could neither interdict nor establish it, except when
asserabled to form a State Constitution. * * What an absurdity
would it be, if Avhile asserting this sovereign power in Congress — which
power from its very nature must be exclusive — I should, in the very
same breath, claim the identical power for the population of a Territory
in an unorganized condition."

326 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Mr. Y^ancey accepted the Sanford letter as a full correc
tion of his Interpretation of the older Berks County letter,
and openly reconciled the two in confessing his error. But
there were many gratifying evidences of Mr. Buchanan's
consistency In defense of the Constitutional rights of slavery,
ready for application In the campaign. He was one of two
Senators from the free States, as has been explained, who
voted for Mr. Calhoun's bill to allow the States to prohibit
the delivery from the local post offices of Incendiary litera
ture, the meaning of which was to counteract the activity of
the New England Anti-Slavery Society. In 1835 he spoke
In the Senate against the Abolitionists' petitions, contend
ing that, while the right of petition could not be refused,
their documents should be Instantly dismissed frora consid
eration. Speaking at the sarae time on the duty of Con
gress, on the question of abolishing slavery in the District
of Columbia, be said :
" AVhat is now asked by these memorialists ? That in this District
of ten miles square — a District carved out of two slaveholding States
and surrounded by them on all sides — slavery shall be abolished! What
would be the efiect of granting their request ? You would thus erect
a citadel iu the very heart of those States, upon a territory which they
have ceded to you for a very different purpose, frora which Abolitionists
and incendiaries could safely attack the peace and safety of their citi
zens. You establish a spot within the slaveholding States which
would be a city of refuge for runaway slaves. You create by law a cen
tral point, from which trains of gunpowder may be safely laid, extend
ing into the surrounding States, which may at any moment create a
fearful and destructive explosion. By passing such a law, you intro
duce the enemy into the very bosom of those States and afford him
every opportunity to produce a servile insurrection. Is there any
reasonable man who can for a raoraent suppose that Virginia and Mary
land would have ceded the District of Columbia to the United States, if
they had entertained the slightest idea that Congress Avould ever use it
for any such purpose ? They ceded it for your use, for your conven
ience, and not for their own destruction. When slavery ceases to exist
under the laws of Virginia and Maryland, then, and not till then, ought
it to be aboli.shed in the District of Columbia."
Mr. Buchanan had. In another critical juncture of sec
tional conflict, come to the support of the South. Mr. Cal
houn, speaking on the bill to authorize an issue of Treasury
notes, October 3, 1837, in the Senate, said:

FOUCINC THE ISSUE. ;;27
"I leave him in the hands of the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Buchanan) who, in an able .and Constitutional argument, com|ilctuly
demolished, in my judgment, the position assumed by the .Senator from
Massachusetts (Mr. AA'ebster). I rejoice to hear such an argument from
such a quarter. The return of the .creat State of Pennsylvania to the
doctrine of rigid construction and State Rights, sheds a ray of light cm
the thick darkness that has long surrounded us."
Mr. Douglas, despairing flnally of the measure of lSo4,
as the basis of harmonious politics between the West and
the South, viewed the return of Y'ancey, to control, with a
determination to assume the aggressive In his own section,
and to compel the South to yield to him; Y'ancey saw, in
Douglas' attitude, conclusive evidence of the correctness of
his original position. Douglas' course now passed on, with
accelerating rapidity, toward the un-American measures of
the RepubUcan party; Y'ancey's argument correspondingly
flxed itself in the mind of the South, rapidly preparing for
re-orgainlzatlon of Its federal relations.
The Republican party, following the program flxed at
Pittsburgh, In February, re-convened, June 17, at Philadel
phia, and nominated John C. Fremont, for President, and
William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, for vice-President. Except
in the spurious nomenclature adopted, there was no effort to
disguise the reA'olutionary purpose of tbe new party. Seek
ing support from the old Whigs, the Abolitionists and the
various radical social organizations with Avbich the free States
teemed, it declared for the Union. ^Vmong the resolutions
adopted were the following:
"Resolved, We deny the authority of Congress, of a Territorial Leg
islature, of any individual or association of individuals, to give local
existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States, while the
present Constitution shall be maintain(;d.
" Re.iolred, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign
powers over the Territories of the United States for their government,
and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the imper
ative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of
barbarism — polygamy and slavery.
"Resolved, That the appropriations of Congress for the improvement
of rivers and harbors, of a national character, required for the accommo
dation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the
Constitution and justified by the obligations of the government to
protect the lives and property of its citizens."

328 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The organization of parties — the American, the Demo
cratic and the Republican — was uoav complete. In Septem
ber, the " old Une " Whigs, a body of exceptlonably respectable
gentleraen, raet at Baltiraore, declared civil war had begun,
that party platforms were a delusion and snare and that the
election of Mr. Fillmore would " furnish the best. If not the
only means of restoring peace."
Many political leaders from all parts of Alabama had
heard Mr. Yancey speak, yet he was known only by fame to
the masses. Unusual preparations were made to receive him,
at his appointments, Avhlch reached every part of the State.
Two examples of the great meetings of men and women which
welcomed hira, the one in the hill country, the other in the
region of great plantations, will suffice to describe all. The
letter here given, Avas written by a raember of a widely
known cotton factorage flrm, at Mobile — Levi W. Lawler,
since eminent In public services — giving an account of what
he saw at his summer retreat :
" Talladega, Ala., Sept. 19, 1856.
" The stump is an American institution, and to be an effective stump
speaker is to be able to simplify and present great questions in all their
logical bearings to the understandings of a multitude of varying intel
ligence, moulding opinion and exciting interest, and directing action in
the minds of all. It is easy to see that an effective stump speaker must
be au orator of extraordinary power and varied attainments. A Presi
dential campaign calls iuto action hosts of orators, but the ears of the
people are cultivated in this community to trust only a few, the chief in
that number is, William L. Yancey. Yesterday was a proud day in his
career and a victorious one for the Democracy. He won new laurels
among this people.
" Mr. Clemens failed to appear according to appointment. Therefore
Mr. Yancey invited Mr. Lewis E. Parsons, the Know Nothing elector, to
fill Mr. Clemens' place in debate. Mr. P. consented aud opened the
discussion in a two hours' speech. He held a large scrap book opened
before him and was evidently thoroughly prepared. He read copiously
from Mr. Yancey's pamphlet, of 184S, attempting to prove Buchanan's
squatter sovereignty views, denouncing him as a turn-coat, destitute of
political or personal integrity, and wound up by a vain effort to show
Fillmore to be the tried and approved man of the day. Mr. Parsons
speaks fluently and argues well from his premises. He ignored the
slavery question.
" Mr. Yancey rose to reply. He Avas greeted with loud and prolonged
applause. For two hours he charmed and held spellbound the large

FORCING THE ISSUE. 329
audience of ladies and gentlemen. He was self-reliant and raost elo
quent in grappling the mighty principles involved in the contest. He
demonstrated the importance of a correct decision of those principles
to the South, he defended the Kansas bill as the only safe solution of
the vexed question, he contrasted the Philadelphia platform with the
Alabama platform, and held the former up to the public indignation, he
drew a powerful parallel between Fillmore and Buchanan, and appealed
to every fair mind to judge between them iu this perilous crisis — a
broad side of two hours. I never witnessed the like of it before. He
pierced Mr. Parsons with the spear of truth. He held him up to the
audience squirming in torture. He turned him round and round to the
gaze of the people, until they seemed ready to ory out, 'Hold! for
mercy's sake.'
'-Mr. Yancey's defense of Mr. Buchanan was entirely conclusive,
and he carried the war into Africa by exposing the record of Mr. Fill
more. Each speaker had thirty minutes in rejoinder and sur-rejoinder.
"Mr. Yancey is a remarkable man. His resemblance in method and
logical presentation of thought to the younger Pitt is striking. There
is a felicitous expression of ideas, a compact structure of sentences, a
burning energy of diction, an enthusiasm, earnestness and sincerity in
his address which is wholly his own and which is irresistible. Wit,
sarcasm, invective, eloquence all are at his comraand. Fox said of Pitt,
in twenty years in Parliament he had never found him tripping. It is
so with Yancey, and hence his opponent is bound to dodge issues. His
mind indicates the cast of severe discipline. With adroit skill he
masses points presented in the range of discussion, compresses them
into a solid, radiant mass and hurls the whole with the strength of a
giant, defying resistance and compelling- conviction.
" I only regret Mr. Yancey cannot visit some of the doubtful States
of the West."
Union ToAvn was a post office viUage at the intersection of
four great plantation counties — Perry, Dallas, Marengo and
Greene. Cane and timber had long since given way to an
endless succession of tilled fields, the rich surface preserving
the noble configuration of the mighty waves of the retiring
waters, which, upheaved by volcanic action, had passed south-
Avard to the Gulf. Plantations, joined by broad highways,
possessed, each, a name — " Waldwic," " Norwood," " Athol,"
" Faunsdale " — and were adorned each by a village of happy
blacks, at the head of which sat the abode of the master
and his faraily. In divisions of the area, were neighborhood
schools and churches, and on every plantation there was a
flxed place of worship for the blacks of that place, supplied fey
a Avhlte minister at the master's expense. In the years of

330 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Avblch this narrative uoav treats, some handsome chapels of
Gothic architecture, with stained glass windows, had been
erected and consecrated, at the expense of individual masters,
for the religious use of their negroes — for the African was
never. In the South, termed a slave. Union Town was the cen
tre of the most reflned and wealthy planting population of the
State. There unparalleled preparations were made to receive
Mr. Y'ancey, as he journeyed southward frora Talladega. A
" protracted " barbecue was ordered to continue three days,
with speaking both night and day. Orators from all parts of
the State appeared — Senator C. C. Clay, Jr., from HuntsvIUe,
W. M. Brooks, A. B. Moore, G. D. Johnston, frora Marlon,
Whelan, frora Greensboro, Lyon and McCaa, frora Deraopolls,
and raany others. The community, for miles in every 'direc
tion, was animated Avlth the spirit of the occasion. Elegant
private equipages carried the wives and daughters of the
planters to the ground in the raorning, to return in the evening
laden with visiting friends for the night, the spacious man
sions filled with company, merry with feasting, music and the
dance. Mr. Yancey appeared on the last day. The speaker's
stand Avas a wide stage, built of rough boards, erected at the
foot of a densely shaded slope, the ascent an amphitheatre
lined with rows of benches. Probably two thousand ladles
and gentlemen filled the seats, while hundreds of well-dressed
black coachmen and servants stood Intently listening on the
border — " the best audience I ever addressed," said the orator,
years afterward. The speech Is remembered to this day by
raany survivors and referred to Avith excited emotions, as like
unto no other speech from any speaker, there or elsewhere.
The orator came forward, wearing a smile, Avith no apparent
consciousness of his own importance and with that air of
good breeding Avlth which a gentleman would greet a private
company. Standing erect, he pronounced with accustomed
fluency and solemnity, distinctly heard upon the outer line of
the crowd, the few sentences of the exordium, which stated, as
usual Avlth him, the subject he Avould discuss. The speech
was more than three hours long. To attack Fillmore Avas to
attack Fremont, he said. The State councils of the American
party in the free States had renounced Mr. Fillmore and
ratifled the platform, Avhlle the State councils of the slave

FOUCINi^ THE ISSirE. :!:!1
States had repudiated the platform and accepted FlUraore.
The mind of the American party in the canvass Avas like the
mind of the immigrant Irishman, Avho set about adopting
America Avlthout renouncing Ireland. He taught his children
to sing, "Erin go, e pluribus, bragh ununi." His friend, Mr.
HUliard, was a Avell Informed statesman and well knew that
there had been a great deal of discussion among our fore
fathers concerning not only the fact of Union, but the kind of
Union the States should raake. Now, however, Mr. Hilliard
Avas for any kind of Union that Avould hold together. The
orator believed the particular kind of Union adopted was for
posterity, and he hoped posterity aa-ouM not so disgrace its
lineage as to accept less than its Inheritance. Mr. Hilllard's
embarra'sslng position, in the American party, he likened to one
of General Marion's troopers, who, riding alone up to a ford,
suddenly faced four men on the other side Avlth cocked rifles.
" What side are you on? " they cried out. " Well, gentlemen,
as you are In the majority, Avhat side are you on ? " returned
the scout. Through the hours the most Intense Interest was
arrested and, ever and anon, the Avhole audience burst forth
in long and A^ehement applause. I resided in the vlclnkge and
witnessed the scene, and, as I well remember It, the orator
stood with his right hand resting loosely on a table at his side,
without reference to his scrap book lying before him, gestur--
Ing occasionally with his left hand, and Avithout moving a
yard's space, until In the peroration as presently described.
There was a visible suppression of feeling, a curbing of force
latent in the man, there was the music of the voice, all com
bined to guide the arrows of his speech, " which took fire as
they flew." The contrast between the records of Mr. Buch
anan and Mr. Fillmore, on Southern issues, had been graphic
ally drawn ; Pennsylvania had been held up as the " color
company "of the Deraocratic coluran, advancing to the decisive
shock of the conflict. Mr. Buchanan was In the lead of
Pennsylvania, in person, like McDonald at Wagrara. The
battle fleld loomed up to view ; banners waved before men's
eyes ; bloody gaps in the advancing coluran opened and the
very notes of the martial music seeraed audible. Now, the
orator, flrm and erect, bis countenance stern, stood upon the
edge of the stage ; McDonald, seeing his line disordered by the

332 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
impetus of the charge, rushed to the front, crying out in
thunder tones : " Keep time, my men ! " " Keep time ! " A
wilder frenzy could not be conceived than the audience fell
Into. Men leaped upon their seats and threw their hats and
Avaved their canes, Avliile the ladies were overcome with excite
ment. The orator resumed his seat, his work was over, while
yet the confusion reigned supreme. There were some Inter
esting after scenes. The ladles sent a huge bouquet of fresh
and rare floAvers to the orator, and this evidence of their
feeling manifestly excited him raore than any event of the
day. His face blanched, as he received it* and listened to the
presentation speech of Mi. Whelan, so flUed with the senti
ments of the donors. Now the sun was falling low, but a
portly elder of the church, of Dallas, made his way to the steps
of the stage. Resting there, he began to unburden himself in
Avords. He had always been a Whig; he had set out from
home, forty miles away, a Fillmore man. He had been con
verted by Mr. Y^ancey's speech; he was sure many others had
honestly undergone a change of ralnd and he would Invite all
such to come forward, bravely, and gwe him their right hands.
In response, a Avealthy planter, of Marengo, once a Whig
member of the Legislature, took the stand to confess his con-
A'erslon. Mr. Yancey advanced, in excellent mood, and invited
all present, who were in favor of Buchanan, to rise. The
audience, '// masie, rose. To be just to all, he said, those in
favor of Fillmore Avere called on to rise. The lone figure of a
matron, tall and composed, stood up. " Madam, you have
courage enough to fight the Indians ! " ejaculated Y'ancey, with
graceful bow to her. " My father fought them, sir," was the
quiet reply.
The next day, Mr. Y'ancey spoke at Selraa, where a Dem
ocratic party coraraittee presented blm with a handsome silver
service. Lie spoke at different points in Georgia, during
the campaign. Writing from Atlanta, August 28, he cor
rected a misrepresentation In the report that he had avoided
a meeting with B. H. HUl, an American party elector for
Georgia. Mr. Hill had published a card explaining why he
could not meet Toombs and Stephens, in debate, at Appling.
He Avas under a previous engagement to meet Y'ancey, at
West Point. Yancey explained that hand bills had been

FOECING 'THE ISSUE. 333
posted by the American party of Georgia, and no one else,
engaging him to meet Hill, at West Point, without his knowl
edge or consent, and without any previous or after coramunica
tion with him, and in face of his long published appointments,
one of which required hira to appear at Jacksonville, Alabaraa,
that very day. By mere accident, his eye had caught. In pass
ing, on the cars, one of the hand bills. Whatever appointment
he might have been wUling to accept, for August 30, he would
be unable to meet on account of the physical prostration he
was then laboring under. He had an engagement, for Sep
tember 3, which he hoped to be able to fill. "As doubtless
there wUl be much boasting if I am not at West Point, (he
wrote to the editor) I desire to post you as to the facts."
The American party press in Alabaraa published a sensa
tional report that Yancey had "backed down" frora a joint
canvass of the northern counties Avith Colonel Jere Clemens.
Y'ancey replied, that his long list of published appointments,
for those counties. Invited debate, but he anticipated debate on
the usual terms. The Americans proposed to follow him
around with fresh speakers from point to point. To such an
arrangement he would consent, but would claim the right of
closing, everywhere. If Colonel Clemens, or any one speaker,
would debate through his list of appointments, he would
claim only the right to close the alternate days, tho' It was
customary to accede to the speaker raaking the appoint
ments the invariable right of closing.
Mr. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, set out to canvass Penn
sylvania, for Buchanan and Breckenrldge. He declared to
friends in Atlanta, on his way North, that, If P'remont was
chosen President, it would become incumbent on Georgia to
redeem the pledges of the Georgia Platform, and that he
would hasten home, in that event, to take the stump for
immediate secession. The leaders of Georgia were gener
aUy committed to the same view. In September, Mr. Her-
schel V. Johnson wrote to the Philadelphia North Ameri
can, declaring the election of Fremont would " drive the
Southern States to dissolution. * * If he redeems his
pledges to his party, and his party redeem their pledges to
the country, it will not be in the power of human wisdom
to save the Union."

334 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Buchanan and Breckeni-idge won the empty title to the
offlces to which they aspired. The combined popular vote
for Fremont and Fillmore exceeded the popular vote for
Buchanan for President, 377,629. The vote was, plainly, sec
tional. All States, South of the Potomac and Ohio, voted
for Buchanan and Breckenrldge. Eleven States, all free
States, voted for Fremont, increasing the Abolition vote of
156,149 for Hale, in 1852, to 1,341,264, in 1856. Maryland
alone cast its electoral vote for Fremont and Donelson. It
Avas a misfortune to the South that the hurrying collision
of the sections was not joined by the election of Fremont.
Lie had not the ability to consummate the conquest of one
section by the other. From the conflict that must have
ensued, a speedier termination, less disastrous to life, lib
erty and property, would, probably, have followed, than was
destined to be endured, under quick coming conditions.
Great was the rejoicing of the Republicans. The revolution
had advanced far enough to make sure of their speedy suc
cess. The ultimate leader was yet undiscovered, but never
before In the history of parties, had an organization, so
numerous and so animated by one impulse, been so quickly
prepared. Their coraraittee at Washington proraptly pub
lished an " Address to the Republicans of the United States."
The significance of the document is the more readily under
stood since there were no "Republicans," save In the free
States :
"A sudden gathering together of the people, (it proclaimed)
alarmed at the inroads of the slave power, rather than a well organized
party, with but a few months to attend to the complicated details of
party warfare * * have triumphed in eleven, if not twelve States,
pre-eminent for enterprise and general intelligence, and containing one-
lialf of the population of the whole country, and this day control the
governments of fourteen of the raost powerful States of this Union.
* AVhat then is the duty before us ? Organization, vigilance,
action; action on the rostrum, through the press, at the ballot box; in
State, county, city and town elections; everywhere, at all times; in
every election making Republicanism, or loyalty to its policies, the sole
political test."
To make Mr. Yancey President of the University of Ala
bama, to make him Senator, to demand a cabinet position
for hira, were among the outcries of many of the press of

FOECIXG THE ISSUE. 335
the State at the close of the campaign. There Avere voices
hoAvever, from the people, and from the more prudent editors
which declared: "\\e doubt If he Avould accept the Presi
dency; he Is the leader of the people; like the old War
wick, he is king-maker." The electoral college of Alabama,
meeting to cast the votes of the State, unanimously recora-
mended him for a cabinet portfolio. He promptly Interdicted
any steps toward promoting- the resolution.
The campaign of 1856 virtually closed the life of the
party founded by Jefferson, on the principles laid down In
the Kentucky resolutions. Divided America Avas hencefor
ward to be ruled by the strongest numerical division. The
Constitutional argument was to face the SAvord.

CHAPTER 17.

The Broken Party.
18^7-18^8.

Mr. Douglas had no reproach for himself. In that the slave
States had refused to accept his device for securing then-
active support In his dernier resort for saving the free States
from themselves ; Mr. Yancey was well content, in that the
campaign had been educational of the slave States up to a
unity of sentlraent and purpose to protect themselves never
before reached by thera. There was no roora for mistaking
the temper of the sections, as discovered in the practical
teaching of the only remaining party with both a Northern
and a Southern constituency. Squatter sovereignty had been
universally taught by campaign orators, in the free States, as
the genius of the Cincinnati platform, and was everywhere
condemned, in the slave States, from the letter of the same
platforra. Howell Cobb's speeches, in Pennsylvania, were
plain Interpretations of the platform, as Douglas taught It.
Had Fremont been elected, the Georgia Platform would surely
have been enforced in the slave States. Had not even a more
fateful result, than Fremont's election, taken place In the suc
cess of the divided Democracy ? The battle between Douglas
and Y^ancey was on, beyond recall, to be fought to the end
without terms. It was an Interesting incident that the Avarm
personal attachment of the men to each other reflected the
congeniality of the character of the Northern leader with the
Southern mind. All Southern men were Instinctively draAvn

THE BROKEN PAETY. 337
to hira. He was brave, honest, resourceful. Had Douglas
needed the evidence of the one and a third ralUion votes, cast
for Freraont, to convince him that the Deraocratic party, on a
platform demanded by the South, would lose the North? Did
he need the exhibition of fanaticism portrayed In the cara
paign by the leaders of the Republican party to convince him
of the extreme peril of liberty in the North, under that party,
and to urge him to one final, if desperate effort, to bring the
West and the South together to save the whole North ? The
South was content, prosperous, hopeful. The existing order of
Internal things suited the people. Would they be led by the
home leader, Y'ancey, or fly to the alienated leader, Douglas ?
The President, who had overcome Douglas In convention, was
soon to fall beneath the superior tact and ability of his rival;
the wedge driven in the party, at Cincinnati, was to be driven
to burst it asunder, long before another convention could take
up the trouble to adjust it. Of all the sacrifices of mind and
heart, swept into the maelstrom of revolution, none counted
for more, few for so rauch, as the sacrifice of Douglas. The
situation was plain. To reconcile the West and save the
whole North from revolution, whose end no man could foresee,
Mr. Douglas demanded of the South to place In the coraraon
jeopardy, its own social and political existence. Mr. Yancey
led the South to see the extravagance of the demand and,
flnally, to resist the devices laid to entrap it into acquiesence.
In less than sixty days after the Presidential election, of
1856, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered, from the bench
of the federal Supreme Court, a decree which forced the
political parties of the country, and all factions of political
parties. Into their final attitude toward a Constitutional Union.
Mr. Yancey lead public opinion at the South, In support of
the political proposition, laid down by the decree ; Mr. Douglas
was in practical unison with the Republican party revolt
against the political propositions laid down by the decree.
In this Mr. Douglas finally separated himself from the Democ
racy of the South. With truth could it be said, Mr. Douglas
realized, when the Dred Scott decree was promulgated, that
the reconcUiation of the divided Democracy, of 1856, was
hopeless and the Northern wing raust prevail in both sec
tions, or merge into the ever expanding RepubUcan party.

22

338 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Dred Scott, held in slavery in Missouri, his Avife and two
children, slaves in the same State, came into court against
their master, a citizen of New York, pleading the Ordinance
of 1787, and the Missouri "compromise" enacting the parallel
36° 30' as a geographical limitation of slavery, and claiming
their freedom under these acts. The father and mother,
many years previous to bringing action, had been carried
by their master, or masters, into the territory declared free
by the acts of Congress cited, and their children had been
born on territory so declared free. The family were, with
out Interruption, retained in the service of their master, or
masters, nevertheless, and having been finally carried, with
out compulsion, to Missouri, a slave State, and there sold
to the defendant in court, now appeared against him, claim
ing the beneflt of the federal laws as against his alleged
rights of property in their labor. The decree excited extraor
dinary interest, partly because it was in reversal of decrees
of several State courts, pronounced at various times, cover
ing a period of more than half a century. Aspasia was born
of a slave mother in the Territory of Illinois, after the pas
sage of the Ordinance of 1787. She was carried to Missouri,
and there brought suit for her freedom, pleading the Ordi
nance of 1787, in force at the place of her birth. The
Supreme Court of Missouri adjudged her free. Lydia, born
a slave in Kentucky, was carried, about the year 1802, to
Ohio, held in bondage there, sold to Todd, of Kentucky, and
taken back to that State as his property. In a suit brought
for her freedom, under the Ordinance of 1787, in force in
Ohio, where she had resided, the Supreme Court of Ken
tucky adjudged her free. The Supreme Court of Mississippi
held, in the early years of the nineteenth century (Walker's
Rep.), " slavery is condemned by reason and the law of
nature"; the Supreme Court of Louisiana held, in the same
period (Martin's Rep.), "the right of the master exists, not
by force of the law of nature or of nations, but by virtue
only of the positive law." In the same Une, the Supreme
Court of the United States held, in Prlgg vs. the Common
wealth of Pennsylvania, "the state of slavery is held to be
a municipal regulation, founded upon and limited to the
range of the territorial law." The Dred Scott decree, in a

THE BROKEN PARTY. 339
season of great political agitation following the repeal of
the Missouri " coraproraise " line, reversed all previous decrees
which recognized the validity of acts of Congress restricting
slaA'ery. The Ordinance of 1787 and the act of 1820 estab
lishing the line 86° 80', were declared null and void for
unconstitutionality. The decree set forth the history of the
African race in the United States, under federal cognizance,
showing that it was not included, nor intended to be included,
in the beneflts of the Declaration of Independence or the
Constitution. Territorial law was not necessary to make the
negro a slave, and Congress could not emancipate him nor
make him a citizen ; nor could any State give freedom to a
slave found temporarily resident in its bounds. In one of
his speeches in the Southern Commercial Convention, of which
more explicit mention will be made presently, Mr. Y''ancey
expressed the intelligence of the people of the cotton States,
at least, on the question of the Dred Scott decree. He said :
" I allude to Monroe — a name that Virginia honors, that
the whole country honors. Therefore James Monroe will suit
my purpose just as well as Thomas Jeff'erson in answering the
expression of admiring wonder that any man in Araerica
should have the hardihood to think that Virginia statesmen of
the olden day should sign a discriminating and dishonoring
law. This Virginia statesman had done that very thing. Mr.
Monroe signed the Missouri compromise act. And yet is
there from Virginia a raan who will rise in his place here and
say that that was not a law that discrlralnated against the
South, against our Constitutional rights ; took from us more
than one-half of that rich inheritance from our sires in land ;
that also put a brand of Cain upon Southern ijien as an un
equal and inferior race that should not pollute the soil, north of
the Une there flxed, by their nefarious institutions ? None will
do that. Then my friend, who, in his vehemence of passion,
permitted it to take the helm, while justice and reason slept,
has lost all the force of his argument. Thus in the same spirit
in which I did this morning, I must be allowed to allude to
great historical facts, even if Virginia is interested, without
being accused of any desire, design, or wish to disparage Vir
ginia of this day. If I am to be cut off from alluding to
the acts of Virginia statesmen, I might as well close this

340 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
argument, because I tell you, my friends of Virginia, that
the history of Virginia is the history of my country.
"What becomes, then, of those clanlcal memories of that
heroic age in which my venerable friend from Monroe county
(Mr. Scott), and my eloquent friend from" Virginia (Mr. Pres
ton), hedged themselves in their argument against what I had
urged upon this Convention? It vanishes. The gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Hunter), who addressed you last night,
whom I have not the privUege of calling friend, but I know I
may rest upon a political friend, undertook to bear down with
a tremendous moral power against my position, because no
Southern statesraan had been found bold enough to attack
these discrlralnating laws, hedged in as they were by the clan
lcal memories of Virginia statesmen. My friend from Vir
ginia, who had more passion than the calra and moderate
gentleman from Georgia, endeavored to Invoke in his name the
higher authority of the venerated statesraan of South Carolina,
who rarely, if ever, erred on a question of Northern rights —
not because that venerated statesman had raore of Intellect
and patriotism than those distinguished dead of Virginia, who
honor now that living and aged mother; but because, in the
progress of time, the developments of reason and of the
scientific world, of agriculture and commerce, in the explora-
atlons which have been raade In the boundless heavens, the
ray of light which Maury has enabled us to take far down
into the hitherto dark depths of the sea ; in the illustrations of
the mysteries of the atmosphere — because at this age in
structed with new ideas, progressing in science, agriculture,
astronomy, navigation, and political economy, far beyond the
classical and Ijerolc age of old Virginia, so well and so justly
eulogized by Its eloquent representative this raorning ; because
at this day we are a better judge of our interests now than
could have been the sagacious and patriotic dead of fifty and
sixty years ago. Is not that true ?
" Mr. Jones (of Georgia) — Every word of it.
" Mr. Y^ancey — Every word of it, the gentleraan says. And
I have no doubt the very erabodlment of Young America who
sits before me (Mr. Pryor) says that, in a large degree it is so.
-'-Mr. Pryor — I must protest that no man in Virginia of
this day arrogates to her a higher name In statesmanship than

THE BEOKEN PARTY. 341
Thomas Jefferson, or of patriotism than George Washington.
" Mr. Yancey— Now, wUl not my friend acknowledge that
Thomas Jefferson was mistaken in the political ethics he main
tained in regard to slavery ?
" Mr. Pryor — That is not the question before the con
vention. " Would he noAv say that Mr. Jeff'erson, in his political
ethics on slavery, was right ? He caniiot say so. Mr. Jeff'er
son thought it would weaken the South, and therefore he was
for the entire prohibition of the slave trade. The distin
guished, venerable, practical, and philosophical gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Ruffln), who has never essayed statesmanship in
the councils of his country, knows full well, and every gentle
man from Virginia knows, that Mr. Jefferson was wrong in his
ideas about slavery. I need not expatiate upon that subject,
because it is a matter of history, known to everybody. If that
was the fact, there was among the framers of the Constitution,
who were true to us in all the interests of the white man, a
sentiment in relation to slavery that is not entertained now.
" Mr. Pryor — That is true.
" Mr. Yancey — That is all I ask. Then I say that the old
iogles of that day entertained opinions in relation to slavery,
which we of this day are unanimously agreed were not sound.
And Mr. Monroe, in signing that Missouri compromise, which
the Supreme Court of the United States, under the infiuence of
Young America, and the ideas which have sprung up within a
iew years past, in that great decision which my friend from
Monroe county (Mr. Scott) so properly eulogized, have de
clared that those old sentiments were wrong ; that Mr. Monroe
was wrong ; and therefore when that Virginia statesman put
Ills name to that Missouri coraproraise, he put his name
to a law which that decision has said was a law which made
lis unequal in the LTnion, and therefore was unconstitutional.
Am I not right? Then do not let me hear anything more
about the fact that nobody has proposed the repeal of the laws
in relation to the slave trade until two years past.
" Old Jewishdom, the favorite people of Go6, had existed
for centuries under a law higher than our own, the direct,
palpable, personal supervision of the Almighty from Mount
Sinai, through laws written on stone and brought down by

842 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Moses to the Jewish camp, and promulgated to the religious
world of that day. It was the will of God that that dispen
sation should be the law. It was the law for centuries, and he
who disputed it was sacrificed upon the cross. There flnally
came a day, as enlightened Christendom has come to the
South, when a child was heard in one of the synagogues that
were in Jerusalem, disputing the truths of the old dispen
sation, and he announced to the world that a new dispensation
was comraencing, and the old fogies of that day, the Pharisees,
the chief priests sought out that child in order to crucify him,
which they flnally carried into execution. But before his
advent, another man came into the world. The Pharisees said
he was a raan of very immature judgment and opinion, and by
another slip of the tongue they pronounced that he was a very
verdant young man. He did not go clothed in purple and flne
linen, taking his place at the highest seat in the synagogue.
He had no name distinguished in the heroic age of Jewdom.
The simple name he bore was John ; his clothing was camel's
hair, and he was girded about the loins with a leathern girdle.
" The temple In which he worshipped was not the gorgeous
work of genius, but was simply the forest in which roamed
the beasts of the fleld that any man might hunt with Im
punity. We are told that a message passed between him and
this young Jew who appeared in the synagogues disputing
with the doctors. What was that raessage? It astonished
the chief priests — those who kept the parchraents and records
of Jewry. It was a siraple one ; but how grand in its import
and simplicity ! How high and deep its truth, which even
babes could comprehend ! The message was not addressed to
the wise men, the chief priests, the rabbles, and the cultivated
intellect of Jewdom, but to the babes and poor men of Jewry.
What was it ? ' The lame are made to walk, the blind are
made to see, the leper is cleansed, and the poor ' — not the rich
and mighty — 'have the gospel preached unto them.' It was
a new idea and broke like a thunder-clap over old fogydpm of
that time. The priests and rabbles met together, and said, here
Is a man speaking treason and blasphemy against Almighty
God ; for is it not written in our old records that there is but
one God, and thou shalt worship Him ; but this young man.

THE BROKEN PARTY. 343
who is poor and a beggar, is proclaiming that there are three
Gods." Mr. Buchanan assumed the Presidency a few weeks after
the pubUpation of the Dred Scott decree. His administra
tion began amidst the convulsions of public feeling in the
free States, moved by the pronouncement of the Court. He
determined to accept the interpretation of the tribunal, con
flicting as it was with his own consistent support of the
Missouri " comproralse." General Cass, his Secretary of State,
readily and openly surrendered his favorite doctrine of squat
ter sovereignty. Far dififerent was the feeling of Mr. Douglas
toward the memorable pronouncement of the Court. Should
he accept it, his faithful endeavor to create a party to unite
the West and the South, on the doctrine of squatter sover
eignty, must terminate suddenly and ingloriously. He saw
in the decree the opportunity of the Republican party to add
to its argument for revolution. With masterly decision he
resolved to meet it in an eff'ort to explain away the decree
with the tricks of the lawyer. The Court had decided Con
gress could not exclude slavery from a Territory, but, he said,
it had not decided a Territorial Legislature, created by Con
gress, could not regulate the institution ! Frank as had been
the acceptance of the President, of the decree, when it came
to be his duty to appoint a Governor of Kansas, whose polit
ical local influence must be great, he selected a raan of
Northern birth, friendly to the cause of Douglas. The Presi
dent's line of conduct, indeed, was not in harmony with the
spirit of the act, dividing Kansas from Nebraska, for the
purpose of preserving the balance of the sections in Con
gress; nor in acknowledgment of the choice the Cincinnati
Convention had made, between the candidates before it, at
the instance of the South. President Pierce had offended
the South by appointing Northern born, rather than South
ern born Governors over the presumptively Southern Terri
tory. President Buchanan, elected on the distinct Issue of
the Nebraska-Kansas act, founded on the principle of non
interference, began to interfere at the earliest moment, by
implication, with the political affairs of the Territory pre
paring to become a State. Robert J. Walker was the Gov
ernor chosen. An act had been passed by Congress to

344 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
authorize the Legislature of Kansas to call a Convention to
frame a State Constitution. Governor Walker wrote, in Wash
ington, the message he Intended to deliver to that Legislature,
and, by perinission, read it before the President and his Cab
inet for further instructions. The Governor's message notified
the Legislature that it would be the policy of the Adminis
tration to have the new Constitution, to be framed by the
sovereign Convention, submitted to the people for ratifica
tion. The policy was obviously against the interest of peace,
in the case of Kansas, and also in confiict with the most
ancient and best established precedents In the States. It
involved delay when expedition was imperative. The policy
indicated had not been adopted in the example of the last
State admitted, California. The federal government could
not more rightfully intervene to determine the province of
the Convention lawfully called, than it could assume to decide
upon the character of the Constitution. Congress had exer
cised Its last prerogrative in endowing the people of Kansas
with authority to frame an organic law. Governor Walker
issued his Proclamation, summoning the Constitutional Con
vention to meet at LeCompton. Without any authority in
law, the colonists of the Anti-Slavery and Emigrant Aid
Societies had established a government under "Governor"
Robinson, at Topeka, and had gone through the form, twice,
of submitting a " Constitution " to the popular suffrages. This
revolutionary element refused to recognize the President of
the United States, or to pay any respect to the Procla
mation of Governor Walker. "It has pleased the Admin
istration to regard our whole proceeding as revolutionary,"
declared a public utterance of Robinson. Colonel Sumner,
of the army, commanded a sufficient number of troops in
the Territory to preserve tolerable order while Governor
Walker proceeded with his program. Mr. Calhoun presided
over the LeCompton Convention. A Constitution was framed
tolerating slavery, and, so rauch of it as referred to that
institution, was subraitted to the vote of the people. The
vote was taken, on this provision, December 21, 1857 — the
tickets being printed " Constitution with Slavery " and " Con
stitution with no Slavery." Governor Walker declared " Con
stitution with Slavery," adopted. Everything, so far as the

THE BROKEN PARTY. 345
legal government was concerned, was conducted in good order,
and every impediment to order Avhlch the Robinson govern
ment, or the Republican party, in and out of Congress, could
invent, was intruded. A general election was ordered, by
the Constitutional government, for the first Monday in Jan
uary. The election could be valid, only as it included the
objects for which it was ordered — the choice of a mem
ber of Congress, a State Legislature, and certain other State
officers. The revolutionists, however, who had refused to
vote in December, on the ratification of the Constitution, and
had then wilfully, by neglect, submitted to the ratification, by
more than six thousand majority, now entered the contest,
and prepared for the general election, of January, with tickets
headed, "Against the LeCompton Constitution." The ballots
so headed had attached the names of individuals for the vari
ous offices, which the election had been ordered to fill. Of
these ballots 10,226 were certified by " Secretary and Acting
Governor, J. W. Denver," an officer unknown to the law, and
were sent forward by him with the '' Topeka Constitution," to
the chairman of the Senate Coraraittee on Territories, Mr.
Douglas. The President of the LeCompton Convention, Mr.
Calhoun, forwarded to the President of the United States,'
the LeCompton Constitution, with the request that it be
transmitted to Congress. It was now understood that Mr.
Douglas had boldly taken sides with the revolutionists. After
considerable delay, the President sent the LeCompton Consti
tution to Congress, on February 2, 1858, with a recommenda
tion that the State, now in full organization, be admitted to
the Union. Great excitement had prevailed throughout the
country, in the period of the President's indecision as to what
he would do with the LeCompton Constitution, and now that
the raessage and the docuraent were referred to Mr. Douglas'
committee, excitement ran higher. Debate in both houses on
the subject, in some aspect, continued in extreme bitterness
three months, in course of which Mr. Douglas made the report
of his committee, to which was attached the " Topeka Consti
tution." May 4, an act was passed to admit Kansas with the
LeCompton Constitution, on " a fundamental condition prece
dent," that, by vote of the people, the new State would consent
to certain dispositions of the public lands within its borders.

846 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
There was nothing in the LeCompton Constitution imposing
upon Congress such a "condition precedent" to the admission
of the State of Kansas. The LeCompton Convention had
passed a simple Ordinance, claiming from Congress an unusu
ally large area of public lands, for the beneflt of the new State.
California, when presenting her Constitution, had presented,
also, an Ordinance, relating to the pubUc lands, not acceptable
to Congress, but the State was admitted regardless of the land
ordinance, and the claim for lands was properly left open for
future negotiation. The pretext now was sufficient. The
friends of submission of the land proposition to the popular
vote were foes to the admission of the State under its Constitu
tion ; those who desired to have a new Constitution, demanded
this excuse to haA'C one made. The State was excluded from
the LTnion not because of any impediment in its organism, but
merely because the sectional majority in Congress had found
an opportunity to enforce, as In the original example of
Missouri, the " great national policy " of enlarging the Union,
by political comraunities. created by itself, rather than by
" States " adraltted. The Legislature of Kansas, now in full
possession of the revolutionists, called a Convention to meet
at Wyandotte, In July, 1859, to frame another Constitution.
Upon the test vote In the Senate on the party question of
accepting the LeCompton Constitution, and, impliedly, thus
the Dred Scott decree, Messrs. Douglas, Stuart, from Michi
gan, and Broderick, from California, alone of Democrats, took
sides with the Republicans. Accordingly, Mr. Douglas, so
long in trying times identified with reform legislation, as
chairman of the Senate Coraraittee on Territories, was deposed
from that position. His courage deserted him not for a
moment. With ceaseless energy he held up to the country
his resolve to unite the West and the South, to defeat the
Republican party. The free States were never served, if in
vain, by a more far seeing statesman than he. No statesman
ever undertook a more conscientious or more impossible task.

CHAPTER 18.

The People Consider.

18^8-18^9.
Mr. Yancey's public life now became very active and im
portant. The campaign of 1856 bore rich fruit in Alabaraa.
The general elections of August, 1857, were carried by the
State Rights party by increased majorities. Andrew B.
Moore, a South Carolinian by birth and in political faith, was
chosen Governor. Houston and Cobb, national Democrats,
were, as usual, elected in the upper Districts, but In the
remaining flve Districts pronounced State Rights Democrats
were chosen — Stallworth, from the First, Shorter, from the
Second, Dowdell, from the Third, Sydenham Moore, from the
Fourth, and J. L. M. Curry, frora the Fifth. The delegation to
the House was not only ardent in its Southern syrapathies, but
very capable in point of intellect. In the Montgomery District
the contest was extremely close between Mr. Dowdell and Mr.
Judge, one of the ablest of State Rights Whigs. Mr. Yancey
assisted Dowdell, but Judge came within less than twenty
votes of election. The resumption by Mr. Y^ancey of the lead
ership of the masses of his party, while apparently acquiesced
in by them, in the progress of the campaigns of 1856 and
1857, was not received by some strong men as a flnal con
dition. There was a determined effort, set on foot in 1858,
and continued, to overcome his control. Mr. John Forsyth, a
gentleman of rare accomplishments and high ability, was the
leader of the opposition. In the last year of the Pierce

348 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Administration Mr. F. S. Lyon, of Demopolis, sat next the
President at dinner at the Executive Mansion. The President
remarked to Mr. Lyon that it would please hira to appoint an
Alabamian to the Mexican mission and requested to have the
suggestion of a name from Mr. Lyon. The name of Mr.
Forsyth, then the young editor of the Mobile Register and one
of the most devoted of Yancey's followers, of 1851 and 1856,
was given. Mr. Forsyth remained at the Mexican mission a
year after Mr. Buchanan came into office. He resigned and
returned In 111 humor toward the Administration at the time
the Kansas question separated Mr. Douglas from it. Forsyth
and Douglas, congenial spirits, at once became fast friends. A
perfect confidence, beautiful to witness, prevailed between the
men. Both men turned against Y''ancey with a single pur
pose. A strong man, a leading Secessionist of 1851, joined
them. Colonel John J. Seibles. Seibles put up, or had estab
lished for his control, a dally newspaper, at Montgomery, the
Confederation, which, tho' less polished In its satire than the
Register, was not less active and vehement in its opposition.
In the season of suspense In the public mind, relating to
the course the President might pursue, in withholding or
recommending the LeCompton Constitution, the hopes of the
Southern people were revived in the promise of an outlet for
their enterprise In the countries to the southward. The just
and reasonable ground of their expectation will be discovered
in the various opinions of the offlcers of the federal govern
ment, officially presented from an early time until now. The
flrst annual message of President Fillmore, in 1850, said:
" The corapany of citizens of the United States who have acquired
from the ^tate of Nicaragua the privilege of constructing a ship canal
between the two oceans, through the territory of that State, have made
progress in their preliminary arrangements. The treaty between the
United States and Great Britain, of the 19th of April last, above re
ferred to, being now in operation, it is to be hoped that, the guarantees
which it offers will be sufficient to secure the completion of the work
with all practicable expedition. * * Citizens of the United States
have undertaken the connection of the two oceans by raeans of a rail
road, across the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, under grants of the Mexican
government to a citizen of that Republic. * * Negotiations are pend
ing for the accomplishraent of that object, and the hope is confidently
entertained," etc.

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 349
General Williara Walker, a citizen of the United States,
friendly to Southern institutions, was President of Nicaragua
Avhen Captain Hirara Paulding, of the navy of the United
States, stationed in the waters of the Gulf, sent an arraed force
on Nicaragua soil, captured Walker, after sorae fighting, de
stroyed his stores and camp equipage, and took him aboard
the American man-of-war, where some officers of the British
navy were already assembled approving the act. The pris
oner was carried by sea to New York. The United States
had no case against him, and the President, not ofl'ering to
bring hira to trial, and not even seeing him, ordered his dis
charge ; but Avithout any apology or reparation for Paulding's
illegal act. The free States applauded Paulding; the slave
States received Walker with open arms in his tour, explaining
to the people his conduct in Nicaragua as he proceeded. The
middle of January, 1858, he arrived at Montgomery. The
Legislature took a recess to receive hira and offered the use of
the Hall of the House for the purpose. Walker spoke, fol
lowed by Elmore, Y'ancey and others. Passing on to Mobile,
the distinguished soldier was received there with extraordi
nary honors. Resolutions passed a public meeting to employ
counsel to prefer charges and specifications kgainst Captain
Paulding, to supply the neglected duty of the President. The
morning after the Walker meeting at the Capitol the Confed
eration pubUshed a sarcastic criticism upon the tone of the
speeches of some of the local orators, attacking Yancey's In
pointed terras. "There is a plan to induce the Southern
people to join the Free Soilers in breaking down the Adminis
tration," the editor proclalraed; tho' the course of the Adrain
istration on the vital issue of the day was then unknown. A
few days later it declared : " Several of the speakers at the
Walker meeting the other night joined the Know Nothings In
denouncing the Administration." These editorial premonitions
were followed by a circular issued from the Confederation
office, carried about the Capitol and through the city, calling a
public meeting " to sustain the Administration." The call for
the indignation meeting, at the Capitol, was signed by some
Democrats and refused by many. It was not offered for Mr.
Yancey's endorsement, and when the names of the speakers
were announced, in the newspapers, Yancey's was omitted, but

350 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
HUliard, the head of the late FUlmore electoral ticket, was
presented as the chief orator of the occasion. The circum
stances prepared the public to expect extraordinary occur
rences at the meeting. Colonel Seibles, of gigantic person,
took a prominent seat upon the speaker's stand. Mr. Henry
D. Clayton, then a young lawyer, later President of the Uni
versity of Alabama, wrote the next day the following account
of the meeting as it passed before his eyes :
•' MoNTGOMEEY, January 28, 1858.
II * *- » * * Those who attended the Democratic meeting at
the Capitol last night will never forget it. In order to appreciate what
took place, a brief statement of facts becomes necessary. You remem
ber that not long since, General William Walker, passing through this
place to Mobile, was invited by citizens and members of the Legislature
to deliver an address. His address was merely a plain, frank, and
manly explanation of his relation to Nicaragua affairs. He spoke in a
kindly, yet feeling manner, of the conduct of our government toward
him. At about the close of the Walker meeting, Mr. Yancey was
loudly called and delivered the speech you know he is always ready
to make. Soon after this demonstration, complimentary to General
Walker, a call appeared in the Co-nfederation newspaper for a public
meeting of Democrats, ostensibly to sustain Mr. Buchanan in the Le
Compton Constitution case, tho' as yet Mr. Buchanan has not sent that
Constitution into Congress, with any recommendation at all. It was
strongly suspected, when the call appeared, that the attending circum
stances indicated the object to be, really, a movement of certain
politicians to reprove Yancey. The meeting assembled, and was duly
organized, and all incidents pointed to the completeness of the prepara
tion — it was a regularly 'cut and dried' affair with the organizers.
When the committee to draft resolutions had retired, nothing special
l)eing before the meeting, Mr. Yancey was called by one of the signers
of the circular. He rose, in his place in the audience, and said, in a
most cutting manner, he did not desire to force himself on the meeting
— he did not wish to interfere with the program evidently prepared in
advance; when the resolutions should corae in, if the meeting desired to
hear from him he would have no objections to say whether or not they
met his approval.
" After awhile, the resolutions came in, showing in their abbreviated
form, the ordeal to which the committee had subjected them. Expec
tation, which had been on tiptoe concerning them, was quieted. Then,
Mr. Hilliard, being loudly called, took the stand, and raade the graceful
speech he always does; nothing extraordinary about it, but, I repeat, a
very good speech. Mr. Hilliard spoke for three-fourths of an hour, I
presume. Then broke forth the deafening, enthusiastic cry, ' ' Yancey ! ' '
"Yanceyl" He came; came like a man, conscious of right, should
always come; came like a lion bearded in his den, conscious of his

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 351
strength, and fearing nothing. As with modesty, becoming a maiden
of sixteen, he requested to be permitted to occupy the stand. " To thb
stand!" shouted an hundred voices. He walked forth like a giant,
ready for combat. Bowing low, he began — here I must pause. I
would despise my own presumption should I undertake further descrip
tion of what followed. First, went the Confederation newspaper, once
in existence, now a dream, a shadow of things that were, gone, glim
mering, like a school boy's tale. At every blow some foe fell, broken
in every bone. For just two hours tbis work of destruction proceeded
amidst deafening shouts from the throats of what is admitted, on all
sides, to have been at least two-thirds of the crowded house, called to
put Yancey down ! I know of nothing with which to compare the ora
tor and scene. It was terrific! destructive! Never will it be possible
for any one, not a witness to conceive one-half of what took place. Mr.
Yancey's triumph was complete. His enemies, more dead than alive,
crept away, and all this day were moping aboAit the streets and hotels."
A newspaper editor, in a distant part of the State, who
heard the speech, wrote, on his return home, for his paper :
" That speech was a Balaklava charge — no, the cavalry simile does
not convey the correct idea. It was the burst of the hurricane, as we
have it sometimes in these Southern latitudes, tearing, uprooting,
demolishing, and scattering all in its path. Along its entire course was,
and is, desolation. By the by, Avhen the storm of Mr. Yancey's argu
ment and invective did sometimes lull, a tinge of humor bordered the
ferocious sarcasm, as a gleam of sunlight tints the edge of the thunder
cloud with a soft violet hue. A specimen of this was the cruel jocu
larity which assigned Mr. Hilliard to the nursery of the Democratic
family, 'a year old, still at tho breast.' "
The Secretary of the meeting, Mr. WiUiam A. Gunter,
remarking many years later upon the ventriloqulal property
of Mr. Yancey's voice, as displayed on this occasion, said, from
his seat under the orator the notes seemed to issue, not from
the lips, in the more vehement passages, but to resound
through space, coming from the general direction of the ora
tor's position. General Clayton, describing the occasion to me
thirty years later, said it rose, at that moment, to his mental
¦vision, as clearly as it did the next day after witnessing it.*
*Wlien, four years later, Yancey's political policies had triumphed, and the
President ol the Confederate States had it in his ijower to appoint Brigadier Gen
erals, it was suggested to Mr. Yancey, a Senator, to recommend Colonel Seibles, then
in the fleld, for promotion. He replied that he considered Seibles worthy of promo
tion, and that he would cheerfully endorse the application to the President, but that
it was not probable that the long personal estrangement between Seibles and himself
would ever be healed.

352 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Mr. Yancey entered with ardor into the labor of his aunt
and cousin, Mrs. and Miss Cunningham, to found the Mount
Vernon Association, and probably no raan gave so much valu
able time to the prosecution of the work of the Association as
he. He spoke at Mobile, at Huntsville, and numerous other
places, covering a period of years, urging the people. One of
the raore notable of his addresses, in this line, was delivered
at Richmond, Virginia, when he received evidences of the dis
tinguished favor in Avhich his efforts were held. Crawford's
statue of Washington was unveiled, with great pageantry, at
Richmond, Monday, February 22, 1858, under the auspices of
the Mount Vernon Association. General Scott, coramander of
the army. Governors of Northern and Southern States, with
many eminent persons frora the two sections, were partici
pants In the ceremonies. The Initial ode was read by John R.
Thompson, and the terminal ode by James Barron Hope.
Governor Wise, R. M. T. Hunter, and Robert G. Scott deliv
ered addresses. In the evening. Generals Scott, Perslfer F.
Smith, Harney, other officers of the army. Captain Magruder,
and others of the navy. Governors and merabers of Congress,
in all, a great company of eminent persons, in public and pri
vate life, sat down to a banquet prepared by the city of
Richmond, in the new Custom House. The most honored o
the company Avere Messrs. Everett and Yancey, citizens who
had voluntarily relinquished public service. The intensity of
political feeling of the times invaded the occasion. The post
prandial speeches, were, in eff'ect, a. debate between the sec
tions represented at the board. Every speech bore the impress
of the angry dispute then at its height on the floors of
Congress, over the LeCompton Constitution. The Northern
speakers waxed warm in asseveration of their devotion to the
Union. All Southern speakers, except Messrs. Mason and
Garnett, of Virginia, were with the Northern view, repeat
ing the praises of "the glorious Union." Mr. W. C. Rives
declared "the Union could be dissolved under no possible
combination of circumstances." Mr. Garnett proraptly re
plied. In an impassioned manner, denouncing all attempts to
erect a consolidated governraent, and pledging himself "only
to a Union of the Constitutional character." Governor HoUey,
of Connecticut, followed, "fairly turning to Mr. Garnett, and

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 353
lecturing him on his treason." Next, Mr. Y^ancey was intro
duced. He said :
" At the tomb of Washington are to be learned other les
sons than the declaration we have heard that this government
is not to be changed for light and transient causes. The
mightiest, the clearest, the noblest political truth written
upon the page of history emanates from the home and the
tomb of Washington, and rises above, a pillar of cloud by day,
and a pillar of flre by night, guiding and Instructing all who
live In this broad land. Aye, and it is written in the blue
vault of the heavens that cover us, ' there must be no tramp
ling down of the Constitutional rights of any section of this
Union.' * * * Virginia, thou mother of heroes and states
men, whose fame fills the world, fail not in the hour of our
country's need once more to furnish a saviour of our liberties.
Sir, if my voice could be heard — feeble, humble and weak,
but, I trust, fortified by truth — if it could be heard among
the snow capped mountain tops of New England, it would
exhoit her sons to learn at the tomb of Washington that high
sense of duty, that full recognition of the rights of others, that
broadly defined self-denial in which the father of his country
curbed his own passions and ambitions when they came in
confiict with the Interests of his country. And then, if that
voice might haAC any influence with my brethren of the South
it would be to exhort them, that if the sons of the North heed
not the virtues of the father of his country, but, rather, choose
to imitate the conduct of his foes, do you, too, as Washington
and his compeers did, with firm reliance on Divine Providence
pledge to each other your lives, fortunes and sacred honor in
imitation of their illustrious example. 'If this be treason
make the most of it.' " " (Loud and long continued applause.)"
Tuesday morning the street in front of the theatre was
crowded with people long before the doors were opened, who
had come to witness fresh honors to be bestowed upon Mr.
Everett and Mr. Yancey. On a table on the stage were placed
relics of Washington — a walking cane, habitually used by hlni
on the grounds at Mount Vernon, and the field-glass carried
by him throughout his service in the revolutionary war. On
one side of the stage sat the two orators, and on the other
General Scott and other army offlcers of high rank, in full

23

354 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
uniform, several Governors, Senators, and gentlemen of distin
guished position. Mr. Munford, the Secretary of the Common-
Avealth, addressing the orators, explained that the ladles of the
Mount Vernon Association, knowing that these two friends of
their endeavor had " made a pilgrimage from city to city, from
State to State, con amore, and devoted their minds and ener
gies to the cause, would not dare to offer thera remuneration,
save in their cordial thanks, yet desire to off'er to each a testi
monial which nilght not prove wholly unacceptable." The
speaker related that the relics before him had been threatened
with sale to the highest bidder, even when Washington had
deemed them worthy of a special enumeration in his will.
The ladles of the Association came forward and purchased
them to save them from desecration. To Mr. Everett he had
been ordered to present the cane, and to Mr. Yancey the field-
glass. Addressing to each orator appropriate words, he said
to Mr. Yancey : " Sir, as you ascend the ladder of fame and
reach to its upper round, use this glass as the great man used
it; and should you descry In the dim distance the approaches
of the sappers and miners of the Constitution, let your eloquent
voice be raised to rouse the people to a sense of the danger,
that they raay corae, as they assuredly will, and rescue this
government, the last hope of Republican liberty, from desecra
tion and annihilation." Mr. Everett received the token as
signed to him with marked emotions, speaking briefly in
recitation of historical incidents and bringing tears to many
eyes. He had delivered his Oration on Washington seventy
times for the benefit of the ladles' Association, and, if need be,
he would deliver it seven hundred and seventy times in the
same cause. Weary of public life, he had voluntarily retired
to devote himself, in part, to the pleasant task of assisting the
Association. Mr. Y^ancey gave a brief account of the different
ineff'ectual efforts to erect the national monument to Washing
ton. In 1800, Congress resolved to inter his body at Wash
ington City and to build a monument over it ; in atonement of
the neglect of Congress to act, a few citizens had organized a
Monument Association to erect a marble shaft flve hundred
feet high, which, after many years labor, had reached only one
hundred feet, and then stood with its suraralt capped with
rough boards and the workmen's tools rusting away around

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 355
its base. A beautiful thought had entered the mind of a
"daughter of Washington." It struck the popular heart.
One of the great men of the land — " great as a statesman, one
of the most refined and cultivated intellects in the world of
letters, one of the most accomplished rhetoricians and one of
the purest men in a land distinguished for Christianity " —
Edward Everett — had declared that thought should bear a
consummated endeavor. "Mount Vernon (he said) will be
come the- holy shrine, within whose hallowed precincts, even
in the event that this Union shall be shattered In the conflict
of sectional aggression, citizens of Its alienated fragments may
stUl meet and, in the shadoAV of the tomb of the mighty dead,
learn to sorrow for its destruction."*
"^ The temper of the sections toward each other had been well
tried over the honors they had come to pay to Washington,
and Mr. Yancey was more than ever persuaded that the
ultimatum of the Georgia Platform would be speedily pre
sented. The conference bill in Congress involving Kansas had
received the sanction of Southern members; the bill was a
practical abandonment of the Kansas question to the North ;
the President, chosen by Southern votes, had demanded this
concession of the South to save the party in the North. How
could the slave States be aroused and organized ? An inquiry
was put on foot concerning the reopening of the African slave
trade, involving necessarily a wide discussion of Southern
institutions and the hostile federal legislation which oppressed
them. The Constitution prescribed, " the migration or irapor-
tation " of such persons as the existing States then permitted
should not be Interfered Avlth by Congress, " prior to " a date
specified. It was well understood by the country that the
phrases " migration " and " importation " referred to two differ
ent races of people, and referred, also, to the navigating States,
in connection with the European race, whose " migration " was
to be permitted, and to the agricultural States, in connection
with the dark race of savage slaves, whose " Importation " was
not to be disturbed. In 1807 Congress passed a lawmaking
the "importation" of Africans a misdemeanor, after January,
*The lield-glass of Washington presented on this occasion to Mr. Yancey was
presented by him, three years later, to Jefferson Davis, Imraediately after his inaug
uration as Provisional President of the Confederate States. It was conflned in a
plain wooden box lined with green baize, as Washington left "•

356 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
1808, and In 1819, yielding to New England and old England,
passed a law declaring such " Importation " piracy. Meantime,
from the beginning of the government, the " migration " of
persons had been greatly encouraged by its acts. The act of
1819 even forbid citizens of the United States, under heavy
penalties, engaging In the slave trade between Guinea and the
West Indies or South America. In 1856 Fremont lacked only
the vote of Pennsylvania to elevate him to the Presidency, on
a policy of extinction of domestic slavery In the States. What
security had the social fabric of the slave States against
violence, from the free States, of the most disastrous character?
The question of reopening the African slave trade was both
attractive and Intricate. Not a handful of men in the slave
States could be found to advocate the measure, yet there was
a quickened appreciation of the significance of the augmenting
competition of the Mississippi Valley cotton States with the
Atlantic States for the employment of African labor. While
Governor Adams had not been able to prevail with the Legis
lature of South Carolina to adopt measures of encouragement
of the African slave trade, the Legislature of Louisiana, about
the same time, had utterly refused eA^en to consider the ques
tion. Of all slave States, these two might have been supposed
to be Impressed with the nature of such advice as tne advo
cates of the trade advanced. Sporadic violations of the federal
statute, prohibiting the slave trade, brought the general subject
into the halls of Congress and required the Courts to pass
upon the Constitutionality of the laws. Justice Campbell, of
the federal Supreme Court, a Southern born raan, trying such
cases in the Gulf States, was extremely pronounced in defend
ing the Constitutionality of the offended laws. The debates
in Congress proA'cd that very few members favored the trade,
if any. When a bill to appropriate $75,000 to return a cargo
of Africans to their native land, from the United States, came
up In the Ilouse, Representative James B. Clay, from Ken
tucky, said :
" I am opposed to all these laws on our statute book, in relation to
the slave trade, and I will not vote a dollar under the bill. I am espe-
pecially opposed to the 8th Article of the Treaty of Washington. I
regard it as an entangling alliance with Great Britain. I regard it as
an alliance so entangling that last year it produced all those outrages on

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 357
our flag that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, and it is producing, every
day, outrages on our flag off the coast of Africa. It is an entangling
alliance, that requires us to keep, constantly, a force of eighty guns off
the coast of Africa."
Mr. MUes, of the same branch of Congress, frora South
Carolina, said :
"I am not prepared to advocate the re-opening of the African slave
trade, but I am prepared to advocate with all my mind and strength the
sweeping away from our statute books, laws which stamp the people of
my section as pirates, and put a stigma upon their institutions."
Mr. Jefferson Davis, of the Senate, discussing the bill,
said: "If consideration of public safety or interest warranted the termi
nation of the trade, they could not justify the government in branding
as infamous the source from which the chief part of the laboring popu
lation of the South was derived. It is this feature of the law which
makes it offensive to us, and stimulates us to strive for its repeal. What,
let us ask, has been the result of this law? It has magnified the hor
rors of the middle passage; it has led to an alliance with Great Britain,
by which we are bound to keep a squadron on the deadly coast of
Africa, where American sailors are sacrificed to a false policy, under
the plea of humanity; it has destroyed a lucrative trade for ivory, oil
and gold dust, which our merchants had long conducted with the
inhabitants of the coast, and transferred it to our commercial rivals, the
British." The New York Herald, of October 11, 1860, reported forty-
one vessels fitted out in the ports of the free States to engage
in the slave trade, principally with Cuba and Brazil, and with
the connivance of Great Britain. It is believed not exceeding
five hundred Africans were landed in the Southern States in
this period of revival of the trade. It is not a little remark
able that after hostilities had begun between the Northern and
Southern Confederacies, in 1861, a Lieutenant of the United
States navy, of Southern birth and sympathies, not knowing of
the prevalence of war, seized, off the coast of Africa, a slaver,
commanded by a New Englander. 'The commander of the
slaver was brought to New York, sent thence to New England,
speedily tried, and, under the sectional excitement of the tirae,
quickly executed — the first example of the vengeance of the
law. The Lieutenant, making the capture, made his way to
the Confederate States and entered its service.

358 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
An organization, called the Southern Commercial Conven
tion, was the most important of the educational Influences
which the more advanced leaders of the slave States had now
put in raotion. "It Is true (said the report of a Coraraittee on
Coraraerce, of the Alabama Legislature, of 1851-2,) there Is
now no open war of arms against us, yet it requires no
prophet to see, in the present natural course of events, grad
uaUy growing up one, amongst the most bloody wars recorded
in the pages of history. * * We have it in our power, if Ave
will seize at once the favorable opportunity (direct trade with
Europe), of gaining a great political victory; not by the shed
ding of brothers' blood, as Washington anS his co-patriots
were compelled to do, in order to secure political liberty, but
by a commercial and manufacturing revolution which, instead
of burdening us with heavy taxes, will annually advance our
aggregate wealth by many millions." Such was the policy of
sectional retaliation and, upon the public credulity so en
tranced, the scheme of the Southern Commercial Convention
came Into life. Mr. Y''ancey, as has already been stated, did
not, for an instant, repose in confidence upon sectional retalia
tion In commercial restrictions, for the redress of Southern
wrongs or for security in the future. The Convention met at
KnoxviUe, In 1857, and appointed the city of Montgomery
and the month of May, 1858, as place and tirae for the next
raeeting. Mr. Yancey was now thoroughly restored to polit
ical lite. He looked forward to the raeeting of the Convention
with great satisfaction. He had longed for a time to express
his mind. He wrote to Mr. Rhett, soliciting his presence, and
he took other steps to arouse the leaders of the State Rights
faith to the importance of the opportunity. The city govern
ment of Montgomery, as usual on great occasions, appointed
him to welcome its guests, the delegates. He said :
" I must be allowed, at least on my own behalf, to welcome
you, too, as but the foreshadowing of that far raore important
body, important as you evidently will be, that, if injustice and
wrong shall continue to rule the hour and the councils of the
dominant section of this country, must, ere long, assemble
upon Southern soil for the purpose of devising some measures
by which not only your industrial, but lyour social and polit
ical relations shall be placed upon the basis of an independent

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 359
sovereignty, which will have within itself a unity of climate,
a unity of soil, a unity of production, and a unity of social
relations ; that unity which alone can be the basis of a success
ful and permanent government." " (Loud applause.) "
Delegates were present by hundreds and visitors by thou
sands, the best men that towns and counties from raany States
could select or produce, men of no given party, but of all
parties. It was discovered that no hall In the city could
contain them. An immense cotton warehouse — a fioorless
space, surrounded by a thick brick wall over which a roOf Avas
stretched, lighted frora a great court — was prepared. The
body was organized by the choice of Andrew Pickens Calhoun,
now returned ^ to South Carolina to live, as President, and P;
D. Page, a young Alabamian, as Secretary, with the customary
auxiliary offlcers. A young cotton planter, then residing at
Montgomery, a Whig bitterly opposed to Mr. Yancey, a mem
ber of a large family identified for generations with Whig
politics, wrote a letter to me, in the thirtieth year after the
events described, which expresses, feelingly, the general ac
counts which survived of the Convention. " Each delegation
was assigned to a certain space (said the letter), every arrange
ment was orderly, and I have never seen so large a Conven
tion, nor one which was so dignified and imposing. I am sure
I never saw so many great raen under one roof. The object of
the meeting, as was supposed, was to promote direct trade
between the ports of the cotton States and Europe. But Mr.
Yancey immediately turned it into a secession convention. I
can never forget the wonderful mastery displayed by Yancey
over that great body of men. I believe there is nothing in
history with which to compare it. Five courts were in session
at Montgomery, and he was full of practice. He was not
much In the Convention in the first day's session, as I remem
ber. He came the second day. If he did not speak two days,
with only intermission for dinner, my meraory falls me. He
opened in reply to Mr. Pryor, of Virginia. I remember noth
ing but Y'ancey for two days. He began with such a torrent
of eloquence — such a Niagara, so to speak — that I took for
granted he raust abate before he got through, but when the
evening came and a motion was made to adjourn, the house
cried out from every quarter, 'go on,' 'go on.' He continued

360 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
ten minutes, and then gracefully retiring, said : ' Gentlemen,
it is not the humble individual before you who commands your
plaudits, it is the great truths he strives to impress on your
minds.' " The correspondent. Captain O'Hara, of the Mobile
Register, a paper unfriendly to the orator, wrote that haviug
heard the great Araerican orators, who had lived since 1840,
he regarded Mr. Yancey " as decidedly the raost eloquent and
able speaker I ever listened to."
The KnoxviUe meeting had appointed a committee to
report on the policy of reopening the African slave trade. Mr.
L. W. Spratt, of Charleston, was chairraan, Yancey and Roger
A. Pryor were merabers. An exhaustive report was sub
mitted, at the opening of the Montgomery meeting, but it
seems to have been prepared by Mr. Spratt with little assist
ance from other members. Neither Pryor or Yancey knew of
its contents until it was read to the Convention. The propo
sitions elaborated were :
"(1.) Slavery is right and, being right, there can be no wrong in
the natural means to its formation. *
"(2.) It is expedient and proper that the Foreign Slave Trade shall
be reopened, and this Convention will lend its influence to any legiti
mate means to that end.
"(3.) A committee consisting of one from each slave State shall be
appointed to consider of the means consistent with the duty and obli
gations of these States for reopening the Foreign Slave Trade, and that
they report their plan to the next raeeting of this Convention."
Mr. Pryor asked for postponement of consideration of the re
port until the following day. The next day he delivered a very
Interesting argument, of two hours, in opposition to its recom
mendations. Mr. Yancey oft'ered a substitute, which his letter
to Orme, found in this Chapter, explains. The debate was
confined throughout the time of the Convention to the general
question raised by Spratt's report— Hilliard and Scott, of
Alabama, Pryor and William Ballard Preston, of Virginia, con
tending with Yancey. Others spoke, and spoke well, but the
spirit of the great debate was found in the words of these. It
was ever Yancey's pleasure to be interrogated by opponents in
course of his arguments. He sometimes even compelled inter
ruptions of himself and the asking of questions. Mr. Jones, of
Georgia, and Mr. Pryor, of Virginia, both interrupted him, and
in midst of the colloquy the chairman — Mr. Mark A. Cooper

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 361
presiding — objected to the proceeding, although nothing but
good humor prevailed. The Chair: "The chair does not
consider it in order to carry on question and answer in this
way." Mr. Yancey: " No discussion can be carried on with
out full liberty on either side to make and receive suggestions.
I am always benefitted by the suggestion of any gentleman."
The Chair : " The chair is avcU aware that it will not disturb
the gentleman frora Alabama (Mr. Y'" ancey), but it is out of
order." Mr. Hilliard deUvered an impassioned appeal for the
Union, and his speech was enjoyed not only by that very
considerable element in the Convention yet hopeful of the
integrity of the Union, but by all who appreciated chaste
eloquence and a noble patriotism. He said :
" In my judgment, the election of a Black Republican to the
Presidency would result in the subversion of the governraent.
The people of the South would not wait to see him clothed
with the insignia of office ; would not wait for an overt act.
The end will then have come."
Replying to Messrs. Preston, Pryor and Hilliard, at once,
Mr. Yancey said :
"As regards this Kansas question being a question of
division of North and South, we are told : 'Well, do you not
expect to unite the South upon it ? ' I do not ; I never expect
to see the day when speeches, such as we have heard here, will
not be delivered in a Southern convention ; when a Southern
convention, upon a mighty issue, shall be superior to that band
of patriots who, in convention, framed the Declaration of Inde
pendence. Men were there who had upon their lips the watch
word 'Wait,' men who preferred to rest upon the clemency and
justice of the British crown rather than proceed to extrem
ities. It is human nature that such men shall appear in every
body that may assemble to consider a mighty question, even
while fortune, life, and honor demand action. I am not sur
prised to find them here. I should be only surprised that, at
any future day, we should see a unanimous body of men of the
North actually preparing, by simple resolve, to create a revolu
tion. Revolution must be accomplished by strong hearted,
poAverful individualities found in a community, who choose to
lose Ufe and fortune for their country, and leave her to do
justice to their memories if they fall. I do not impute crime

362 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
or fault, in any ignoble sense, to those who say, wait a Uttle
longer. We are told in sacred Scripture of men who refused
to sell all and follow that which is right. It has always been
so, and he reads the history of the past to little purpose who
ever expects it to be different.
" There is, therefore, no hope of uniting the South on any
one measure. We are told that there are already a plenty
of Issues. Well, this (tbe African slave trade laws) Is one
more, and possibly it may be the last feather on the camel's
back which will break down this indltt'erence and submission.
This question can do no injury. I do not expect the North,
'with its raajority, will ever vote for It. Therefore, these laws
will never be repealed. Nor do I expect the wrong done us
In the manner In which California was admitted or in the
emancipation laws of the District of Columbia, will ever be
redressed. I do not expect the Northern States to do us the
justice to repeal their laws prohibiting the execution of the
fugitive slave law In their limits. I do not expect public
sentiment there to reach back and do us justice. All my aims
and objects are to cast before the people of the South as great
a mass of wrongs committed on them, injuries and insults that
have been done, as I possibly can. One thing will catch our
eye here and determine our hearts ; another thing elsewhere ;
all united, may yet produce spirit enough to lead us forward,
to call forth a Lexington, to flght a Bunker's Hill, to drive the
foe from the city of our rights.
" There is one other point. This agitation of unjust law is
called an Inferior issue. If my argument be a sound one, our
honor is at stake, and it Is not an inferior issue. If this law
be a mark of degredatlon, why does it cumber our statute
book ? Gentlemen adrait it brands us with degredatlon ; my
argument proves it. Three cents a pound tax on tea was an
inferior issue, in a certain sense. My friend, Mr. Scott, says a
great principle was involved. A great principle is here ; the
principle of equality. Can our government, by law, be per
mitted to brand our institutions as unworthy of existence? It
is not wrong to repeal even laws that are Constitutional.
This law may be Constitutional. The fugitive slave law is
different. It was passed to perfect the Constitution. This is
no inferior issue. What is the issue proposed by gentlemen ?

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 363
If I understand my distinguished friend from Virginia (Mr.
Pryor), the election of a Bl-nck Republican President would
present an issue of disunion. 1 understood my learned col
league (Mr. HUliard) to say that upon that Issue he would be
ready to dissolve the Union. My colleague (Mr. Scott) will be
ready theu — ah, but he is ready now ! I say, Avlth all defer
ence to ray colleagues here, that no raore Inferior issue could
be tendered to the South upon which to dissolve the Union
than the loss of an election ! If in the contest, of 1860, Seward
should receiA'e the necessary number of votes to elect him
President, according to the forms of the Constitution, and
laws, gentlemen say, then will have corae the time to dissolve
the Union. If that be made the cause to dissolve the Union,
I say to them, I will go with them, but I will feel that I go
in the wake of an inferior issue ; I will feel that there is a
banner over me of the kind I would not wish.
" "VVhen I am asked to raise the flag of revolution against
an election, under the forms of law and the Constitution, I am
asked to do an unconstitutional thing; I ara asked to put
myself in the position of a traitor or rebel ; in a position where,
if the government should succeed and put down the revolu
tion, I and my friends would be arraigned before the Supreme
Court of the United States which would be the creature of
Seward — as he has already given notice In the Senate — and be
hung. If I should be asked why sentence should not be
passed against me, I could not then, as I can now, upon past
issues — I could not then say to the bloody judges upon the
bench, ' My hands are guiltless of wrong against the Constitu
tion of my country, and I appeal to an enlightened posterity,
to the judgment of the world, for the vindication of ray narae
and ray memory,^ as Emraett said. Why am I to go with
you ? Because, in my judgment, the Union had already been
dissolved ; because a government is left, but not the Union
which the Constitution made ; because right is beneath the foot
of power ; because, while the form of the Constitution remains,
its spirit is long fled, and I would be wUling and justifled to
undergo the fate of rebel and traitor, if I faU; because my
countrymen would then have decreed to go, and whatever be
their fate, for weal or woe, shall be my fate. Now, then, do
not talk of other issues of that sort. My learned colleague

364 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
says wait; the gentleraan from Virginia says wait. This
everlasting waiting is the destruction of opportunity."
Mr. Yancey enjoyed the debate exceedingly. He enter
tained a company, composed of the delegates, at his residence
at dinner, while he himself occupied the floor. He resumed
the floor after dinner.
" A good dinner (wrote .Johnson J. Hooper) had brought out all the
good qualities of Mr. Yancey's nature, and he was in the best humor with
his opponents — that is, good for him! He handled Messrs. Hilliard and
Scott like Grimalkin plays with the mouse. His irony was exquisite,
and we doubt not was more torturing to Mr. Hilliard than were the
blows of his war club at the Capitol last winter."
Mr. Yancey said Mr. Hilliard spoke of somebody who had
flred the temple of Minerva to acquire notoriety, however
unenviable, but had disclaimed all reference to Y'ancey. He
did not remember to have read any account of the flring of
Minerva. He remembered an account of the flring of Ephe-
sus, with the great dome, and the motive of the Incendiary.
He could not imagine why his learned friend should have
fallen Into so strange a misquotation, until he reflected upon
the raotlve. He (Yancey) once had an ally a long time ago,
when he was a good party man. His ally was not a very
learned man, but one who had been very fortunate In the
public honors he had received — his ally of 1840.
llie Chairman (Mr. Cooper) —" Does the gentleman from
Alabama (Mr. Y'ancey) expect to make that applicable to the
question before the house ? "
Mr. Yancey — " Yes, sir ; I do, sir."
" Go on I " " Go on ! " cried the audience.
His ally of 1840 made a classical quotation which was so
ridiculous that Mr. HiUiard felt, justifled in saying his ally
Mr. Fitzpatrick) was more familiar with the ear marks of
cattle than with the dog ears of books. " Failing to elevate
that gentleman to the plane of the classic, he has himself mag
nanimously descended to the level of the rustic;" said the
orator. Mr. HUliard had quoted in the morning the haughty
speech of the Scottish earl :
" And if thou saidst I am not peer
To any lord in Scotland here,
Lowland or Highland, far or near.
Lord Angus, thou hast lied ! "

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 355
The point Yancey made. In continuing the quotation be
yond where Hilliard had left It, was upon that gentleman's
facility in taking care of hiraself in the political fleld. He
continued the recitation :
" On the earl's cheek the flush ot rage
O'er came the ashen hue of age ;
Fierce he broke forth : 'And dar'st thou then.
To beard the lion in his den.
The Douglas in his hall '?
And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go?
jSTo, by St. Bryde, of Bothwell, no !
Dp di-a-ivbridge, grooms— what, warder, ho !
Let the portcullis fall ! '
Lord Jlarmion turned ! well was his need.
And dashed his rowels in his steed.
Like arrow through the archway sprung ;
The pondrous gates behind him rung.
To pass there was such scanty room.
The bars descending grazed his plume."
The effect of the recitation on the audience was an episode.
The air was filled with shouts of laughter and applause, in
which friends and opponents joined, none more heartily than
Mr. HUliard.
The Convention adjourned with the sarae universal con
sciousness, among the delegates and the visitors, that Yancey
had been the dominating spirit, Avhich prevailed on the mem
orable night, ten years before, Avhen the Alabama Platform Avas
adopted. In this later, as in the earlier tirae, raany men of
power rose up on all sides to resist Yancey before the people.
The Virginia delegates were uneasy and even displeased.
Virginians, who had long made Alabaraa their home and had
become leaders, who until now had been personal and political
friends of Yancey, openly confessed an antagonism to him after
the Convention dissolved. He had done nothing to conciliate
"the mother of States and statesmen"; he overtopped her
best men on fair field. Especially did Virginia's spokesman,
young Mr. Pryor, bear away chagrin in his heart. He was
among the most brilUant of the young editors of the Southern
press. His newspaper, the Richmond South, had a large and
growing circulation in the cotton States, and in none was it
more appreciated than in Alabama. He had lost ground
before a Southern audience in the contest with Yancey, and in
course of the same suraraer, while Yancey was recuperating
his broken health in the hills of Georgia, a very acrimonious

366 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
controversy In the press was conducted between the men,
opened by Mr. Pryor. It was universally regretted that no
worthy reports of the debates in the Convention were pub
Ushed. Full stenographic reports were taken and written out,
and the cost of publication was paid in advance to the editors
and publishers of the Corfederation newspaper, at Montgom
ery, to whom they belonged, for the purpose of securing the
proceedings in pamphlet form. After a year's delay, on de
mand, the Confederation returned the money to the Secretary
of the Convention, without interest, but declined to produce
or account for the reports.* Daily reports, except very meagre,
were not pubUshed, because the local newspapers were unequal
to, the undertaking.
After the adjournment of the Convention, the disappoint
ment of the people in the failure of the publishers to print the
proceedings threw upon Mr. Yancey many demands for a cor
rect statement of his course in the debates. He replied to
some of the letters he received, and made, among others, a
carefully considered speech at Benton, LoAvndes county, before
setting out on his summer vacation. In the speechj which
was re-published in different States, he advised the formation
of clubs or associations similar to those formed in the colo
nies preceding the Declaration of Independence. The leagues
would be independent of existing parties, and would have for
their object the enlightenment of the people. The time had
come when the people must either be content to alienate the
right of posterity to Constitutional government, or they must
enter upon Its practical defense. Such " compromises " as had,
in the past, been permitted, were an impairment of the rights
of posterity. The foUoAvlng letter explains, generally, the arguments he
employed at this period : "MoNTGOMEET, May 22, 1858.
"jlfr. Thomas J. Orme :
" Sie : — I received your note of the 20th inst., a few mo
ments since. My opinions on matters of public interest are
always at the command of ray countrymen ; and as it is quite
uncertain when the official report of the proceedings of the

*Letter of P. D. Page, Secretary, in Montgomery Mall.

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 367
late Convention will appear, I will give you my views in brief
on the matters you propound.
"1st. I did not introduce the subject of the African slave
trade into the late Southern Convention.
"The previous Convention, held at KnoxviUe, had the sub
ject under consideration for several days, and appointed a
committee to investigate it, and to report to the late Conven
tion at Montgomery. I Avas not a member of the KnoxviUe
Convention, but was appointed by its President to be one of
that committee, without being consulted.
" When the Convention met at Montgoraery, the Chairman
of that committee, Mr. Spratt, raade an elaborate report in
favor of re-openlng the African slave trade. I had never read
it, nor known of its contents, untU it was read in the Conven
tion. The presuraption is, that all members of a committee
approve a report, unless they express dissent. As I was not
prepared to give an unqualified approval or dissent to all the
arguments and propositions of that elaborate paper, justice to
myself required that I should explain my position on the ques
tion ; and on the next morning I wrote and submitted a brief
report of such views on the subject as I had formed an opinion
upon, and upon which I was prepared to stand.
" 2d. It will be seen, by reading my report, that I neither
recommended or disapproved of the re-opening of the African
slave trade ; on which, in reality, I have not matured a fixed
opinion, but to which my mind is favorably inclined.
" What I did recommend was simply the repeal of the laws
of Congress raaking the foreign trade in slaves piracy ; on the
ground, chiefly, that those laws stood on the statute book as a
direct condemnation, by our own governraent, of the Institu
tion of slavery in its moral and social aspects, and indirectly
operated to restrict our political power.
"In raaking this recommendation, my care was not so
much for the African slave trade, but was to strip the Southern
ship of Stat^ for battle — to furl and cut away every sail that
would impede her movements — to cast loose every rope that
would be a drag upon her progress. We have now the moral
condemnation of Christendom upon us. We have, since 1819,
borne the stigma placed upon us by the laws of our own gov
ernment, making foreign trade in slaves a piracy. We have.

368 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
since 1851, had the stigma of Congressional laws placed upon
the Internal slave trade also ; a law which makes the slave free,
if a citizen of any of the Southern States should carry him to
the District of Columbia for sale.
" On this view of the subject, I had a right to expect the
cordial and united support of all pro-slavery men. That it
did not receive this support is owing to the fears party men
had, as to the effect the matter raight have on our ' Northern
allies.' " I know that In the Convention I urged several arguments
designed to show that the re-opening of that trade would be
beneflcial to the South. These were in reply to counter state
ments ; but I also expressly stated that, as to that point, I was
for leaving It to be regulated by the laws of the several States.
Repeal the laws of Congress, and the States would each pos
sess the power to allow or prohibit that trade. / am for re
pealing those Congressional laws; "and for leaving the matter to
be regulated by the States themselves.
" I expressly disclaimed any desire to make an issue upon
that matter in the South. I have no such desire. Hence, I
did not press the matter to a vote. I only, as the matter was
before the Convention, desired the Southern mind to be directed
Into the proper channel of thought, and to think and reflect
upon it as one of that series of Congressional acts which have
tended to increase the power of the North, and to cripple and
stigmatize the South. One of them has recently been exposed
in all its selflsh and corrupt deformity (the fish bounty law)
by the wise, practical statesmanship of our efficient Senator,
Mr. C. C. Clay, jr.
" Neither am I for making the issue of disunion now upon
the African slave trade, or any other question ; though individ
ually prepared for the Issue, when the South shall deem the
tirae has arrived to resist the accumulated wrongs of half a
century of hostile legislation, I expressly disclaimed such in
tention in the late Convention.
"Neither ara I in favor of raaking up an issue of con
demnation of our Representatives in Congress on account of
their support of ' the conference bill.' Such an issue would
at once divide and distract that noble band of Southern Rights
men who believe in secession, and have ever been ready to

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 369
exercise it — upon whom the South can alone rely in her
greatest need — who, though not, perhaps, a majority, yet by
their earnest action, by their intellectual ascendency, their
known political probity, the firmness and Intensity of their
faith, have, since 1851, succeeded in giving direction and con
trol to public opinion at the South. Many of the choicest
spirits of that class of Southern raen are now In Congress,
having voted for that conference bill under a sincere ralsappre-
henslon. In my opinion, as to the true design and character of
that measure. I would deeply deplore making an Issue with
such men — an issue Avhich, whatever might be the mere per
sonal result, could not but inflict a deep and lasting wound on
the cause of the South. The only men in our midst who are
now lending their energies to produce such an issue, in my
opinion, are the Union-loving fogies who expect to rise upon
the ruins resulting from a quarrel among the State Rights
men. " But I am for a free discussion of the merits of that meas
ure. I am for a daily reckoning of the position of the South.
I think it prudent to know our latitude and longitude daily —
to heave the lead hourly, to ascertain our soundings — and if
the ship of state has been wrongly directed, she should be put
upon the right track at once. In this view I candidly say
that, in my opinion, Quitman and Bonham were right in vot
ing against that ' conference bill.'
" Bj the treaty with France, by which the United States
acquired the territory of which Kansas is a part, the govern
ment guaranteed, in the 3d article, that ' the inhabitants of
the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the
United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to
the principles of the federal Constitution,' etc.
"By the Kansas act, 19th section, it was provided that a
temporary Territorial government should be erected — 'and
when admitted as a State or States, the said Territory, or any
portion of the same, shall be admitted into the Union with or
without slavery, as their Constitution may prescribe at the
time of their admission.' The 32d section provided that the
people thereof shall be left 'perfectly free to form and regulate
their domestic institutions in their own way — subject only
to the Constitution of the United States.'

24

370 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
" The National Deraocratic Cincinnati Convention, of June,
1856, ^Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of
all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting
through tne legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of
actual residents, and when the number of their Inhabitants
justlfles it, to form a Constitution with or without slavery, and
be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality
with the other States.'
"The flrst clause. Section 3, Article 4, of the federal Consti
tution, prescribes that ' new States may be admitted by Con
gress into the Union.'
"These, I believe, are all the rules which a Democrat
would look to in coming to a conclusion on this question ; and
it seems to rae clear that when construed together, he must
come to the conclusion, frst, that by treaty the inhabitants of
Kansas have a right to be adraltted into the Union, ' as soon
as possible, according to the principles of the federal Consti
tution,' and therefore that Congress has bound itself to exer
cise its general Constitutional discretion, as to adraitting new
States, in favor of admission of Kansas ; second, that the
Kansas act has transferred to the people of Kansas the right
' to form and regulate their domestic institutions In their own
way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States,'
and to be admitted as a State ; thi^'d, that the National Demo
cratic Convention has explicitly recognized this right to ad
mission. The Democracy and the opposition both conceded
the question as to numbers — the only Issue being, first, as to
whether the LeCompton Constitution expressed the will of the
people; and, second as to the admission of a slave State lu
any event.
" The Democracy framed a bill in the Senate to admit
Kansas. It passed that body, and was defeated in the House
by a combination pf Black Republicans, of Douglas Democrats
and a few South Americans.
"The Kansas Conference bill was then submitted and
passed. The Democracy, combined with a few South Ameri
cans and a portion of the Douglas Deraocrats, carried it
through. That bill was. In my opinion, based on this funda
mental error — that Congress had a right to refuse to admit
Kansas as a State, unless Kansas would enter into a contract

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 371
with the general government, whereby, in consideration of
certain land grants, the new State would release certain poAV-
ers, which are specified in the following proviso, to- wit :
' The foregoing propositions herein offered are on the condition
precedent that the said State of Kansas shall never interfere with the
primary disposal of the lands of the United States, or with any regu
lation which Congress may find necessary for securing the title in said
soil to bona fide purchasers thereof; and that no tax shall be imposed
on lands belonging to the United States, and in no case shall non-resi-
•dent proprietors be taxed higher than residents. Sixth, and that said
¦State shall never tax the lands or property of the United States in that
State.' " The leading press, in Alabama, which advocated that bill,
said it was necessary to raake these propositions a precedent
to admission, because, otherwise, ' the right to tax and dispose
¦of the public domain would be wholly iu the hands and at the
mercy of the State, if she chose to exercise it.' — Confedera
tion. "One of the ablest supporters of that bill in the Senate
says :
'The consequences of admitting a State without a recognition prec
edent of the rights of the United States to the public domain, are, in
my opinion, the transfer of the useful, with the eminent domain, to the
people of the State, without reservation.' — Hon. Jeff. Davis.
" Another prominent advocate of that bill said in the Sen
ate, in speaking of the bill and the Kansas Constitution :
' We do not alter that; we accept that part of your proposition, and
we give you the ordinary grant of land, but we will not give you the
extra seventeen million of acres you claim. If they will not agree to
this, what is the consequence? The bargain is at an end, of course the
Constitution fails, and she is in a Territorial coiidition.' — Hon. Robert
Toombs. " These extracts show the principles upon which the con
ference bill rests, as defined by its friends. Now,- as I have
shoAvn that Kansas is entitled to admission 'as soon as possi
ble, consistent with the principles of the federal Constitution,'
it follows that the principles above quoted as ground for her
rejection, unless she accepted the proposition of Congress, to
be vaUd must be 'In accordance with the principles of the
iederal Constitution.' If they are not, then the conference bill

372 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
is fundamentally an error. I think that I shall be able to
show that this is a fundamental error, by the decision of the
Supreme Court of the United States.
"The lands in a Territory belong to the general govern
ment, as trustee for the States. What is called the eminent
domain is vested in the United States ' for the purpose of tem
porary government' alone. When the Territory becomes a
State, the new State succeeds at once to the rights of eminent
domain, and nothing remains to the United States but the
public lands. These principles are not new. They have been
declared to be correct by the Supreme Court of the United
States, in Pollard's Lessee vs. Hagan et al., 3d Howard's Rep.
Said the Court :
' We think a proper '.examination of this subject will show that the
United States never held any raunicipal sovereignty, jurisdiction or
right of soil, in and to the territory of which Alabama or any of the
new States were framed, except for temporary purposes, and to execute
the trusts created by the acts of the Virginia and Georgia Legislatures,
and the deeds executed by them to the United States, and the trusts
created by the treaty with France of 30th April, 180.3, ceding Louisiana.'
* * » 1 When Alabama was admitted into the Union, on an equal
footing with the original States, she succeeded to all the rights of sov
ereignty, jurisdiction, and eminent domain which Georgia possessed at
the date of the cession, except so far as this right was diminished by
the public lands remaining in possession and under control of the
United States, for the temporary purposes provided for in the deed of
cession. Nothing remained to the United States, according to the terms
of the agreement, and the legislative acts connected with it, but the
public lands. And if an express stipulation had been inserted in the
agreement, granting the municipal right of sovereignty and eminent
domain to the United States, such stipulation would have been void
and inoperative, because the United States have no Constitutional ca
pacity to exercise municipal jurisdiction, sovereignty, or erainent do
main, within the limits of a State, or elsewhere, except in cases in
which it is expressly granted.'
" In the opinion of the Court, then. It seems that neither an
act of Congress requiring the assent of Kansas [nor an accept
ance of that requirement by Kansas] to a disavowal of any
right to the eminent domain over the public lands, would ope
rate to confer on Congress any rights incident to the eminent
domain, for such would be 'void and inoperative.' The' lands
belong to the United States. The sovereign municipal power

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 373
over them belongs to the States ; and no act of Congress or
assent of Kansas can alter this state of things.
" Let us apply these principles to the conference bill. The
first and second of the conditions precedent required by Con
gress, it is now clear, are ' void and inoperative,' in the opinion
of the Supreme Court, because Kansas had no right in the
public lands, and, therefore, could no more interfere with their
sale by their owner, than she could with a sale of his lands by
an individual citizen.
" The fourth condition precedent is of the same character,
the Constitution of the United States forbidding a State to tax
the pronerty of a non-resident higher than similar property of
a resident. See case Wiley vs. Parmer, 14 Alabama Reports.
" These questions have all been adjudicated ; and the courts
have jurisdiction over them, and the Constitution of the United
States prevails over any State enactraent or, even. Constitu
tional provision, on the subject.
" These views were relied upon by Congress when it ad
mitted California a free soil State, and at the same tirae re
jected her land ordinance ; and on these principles the Sendte
Kansas bUl was based. Why were they so suddenly departed
frora in the conference biU':'
" The remaining conditions relate to the taxing powers of
the State.
" The Constitution provides that all powers not delegated
to it nor prohibited by it to the State ' are reserved to the
States respectively or to the people.' The power to tax land
within its borders is a ' reserved right,' and any attempt by
Congress to force a grant of such a right by denying the State
admission unless she yields it, in the face of that treaty stip
ulation, is in opposition to the spirit and the ' principles of the
federal Constitution.'
"It is said, however, that Kansas asked too much land,
and Congress should have not yielded to that request. I
agree to this. But the acceptance or rejection of the land
ordinance and the admission of the State are two entirely dis
tinct measures. The land ordinance and the Constitution
were two distinct matters— in no way dependent on each
other— for the State may refuse to accept of any donation of
land from the general government, and not yield one of her

374 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
sovereign rights. The new State was entitled to admission,
but had no right to any raore land than Congress should
choose to give her. The State had a right to be in the Union,.
with or without land ; and Congress, on just principles, was in
duty bound to admit her ; but might say to her, we reject your
application for land, and raake another proposition, which the
State could accept or reject. But Congress had no right to
say, your admission shall depend on your agreement to our
land proposition. Here Is the vice of the conference bill. In a
Constitutional and legal view. Congress refused to the new
State Its undoubted right of admission, and, in order to its
enjoyment of that right, demanded of the State the restriction
of another of its rights.
"As a measure of policy, in my opinion, the conference bill
was a bad one. The object of the free soil opposition was to
obtain a chance, through the vote of the people of Kansas, to
destroy the LeCompton pro-slavery Constitution. The object
of the South was, to force an issue with the North on the ad
mission of a slave State. This was the legitimate issue arising
under and designed by the repeal of the Missouri compromise.
The South had, In every State, pledged itself to meet all the
consequences of such an issue.
" Far better had the issue been met. The South had done
its duty in using all Its exertions to bring Kansas into the
Union ' in accordance with the principles of the Constitution.'
She had nobly performed her duty without counting the cost.
¦Why should she have hazarded her own unity, and compro
mised her position by further effort? General Davis answers
and says, by this bill ' the country was relieved from an issue,
which, had it been presented, as threatened, our honor, our
safety, our respect for our ancestors, and our regard for our
posterity, would have required the South to meet at whatever
sacrifice.' General Davis may be right, but the fact is that the
North laughs at us, and we stand, not exactly a scorn unto
ourselves, but certainly without any cause of congratulation at
the result.
" What has been the effect ? To divide the South— to de
press the spirit of its people — to abate their confidence in their
chosen leaders — to cause them to believe that they have lost
all the substantial benefits which were expected to be realized

THE PEOPLE CONSIDEU. 375
by the country from the result of the canvass of 1856 — to create
distrust and dissension among them."
" Very truly your friend,
" W. L.Yancey."
Mr. Yancey did not favor the re-opening of the African
slave trade, as a distinct proposition. On the contrary, his
judgment condemned it. So soon as he had the opportunity
to cast a vote on the question, disembarrassed of its correla
tion to Constitutional liberty, he voted to prohibit the trade
forever ; and to make of the prohibition organic law, fortified
by severe penalties of disobedience.
The correspondence between Mr. Pryor and Mr. Y'ancey is
useful to expose the energy of Yancey's policies. Pryor ar
gued that Y'ancey did not contemplate the common action of
the slave States in forming a re-organized Confederacy, nor
did he expect even the cotton States to act by the unanimous
voice of theu' people. Yancey freely admitted that he did not
think it would be to the advantage of a hypothetical slave
Confederacy that ^Missouri, Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, or
even Tennessee should participate in its organization. Nor
did he deny that he attached little importance to entire una
nimity of opinion in the cotton States, themselves, when the
time should come for the erection of their Confederacy. The
colonies did not wait to see their people united before raising
the standard of revolt; their people were not united in the
progress of the war for Independence, nor yet for a long time
after it ceased. Harmony was not always progress. He would
cheerfully plead guilty to Mr. Pryor's Impeachraent, charging
him with sympathy with a "new school of Southern states
manship." While principles were everlasting, it was not a
recommendation to party methods that they were old beyond
their usefulness. Safety was not in blindness to danger, and
when party methods, however venerable, sought to repress
new and healthful development of society, it was not conserv
atism to hold fast to them In defiance of their power for evil.
The letter, of this busy season, from his pen, which became
synonymous with his name, and even yet is quoted in re
proach of him and the people of the South, who accepted his
counsel, was in tbe following brief and hurriedly written lines,
considered private at the time of writing :

376 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
TIIE SLAUGHTEE LETTER.
" MoNTGOMEET, 15th June, 1858.
" Dear Sie: — Your kind favor of the 14th is received.
"" " I hardly agree with you, that a general movement can be
made that will clean out the Augean stable. If the Democ
racy were overthrown, it would result in giving place to a
greater and hungrier swarm of flies.
" The remedy of the South is not in such a process. It Is In
a diligent organization of her true men, for prompt resistance
to the next agression. It must come, in the nature of things.
No National Party can save us ; no Sectional Party can do it.
But if we could do as our fathers did, organize Committees of
Safety all over the cotton States, (and it is only in them that
we can hope for any eff'ective movement,) we shall flre the
Southern heart — instruct the Southern mind — give courage to
ea'ch other, and at the proper moraent, by one organized, con
certed action, we can precipitate the cotton States into a
revolution. " The idea has been shadowed forth In the South by Mr.
Ruffin — has been taken up and recoraraended in the Adver
tiser, under the name of ' League of United Southerners,' who,
keeping up their old party relations on aU other questions,
will hold the Southern issue paramount, and will influence
parties, legislatures, and statesmen. I have no tirae to en
large; but suggest, merely. In haste, yours, etc.,
"W. L. Y^ANCET.
" To James S. Slaughter, Esq.''''
The phrase " precipitate," upon which attack upon the
letter turned, was, doubtle^ss, a reminiscence brought down
from the debates in the late Commercial Convention. Mr.
Pryor had there interrupted Mr. Yancey, in debate, to correct
hira in the use of the terra " conservative," as applied by
Yancey to Pryor. Pryor said he proposed " to conserve the
rights, honor, and dignity of the South, and was, therefore,
reluctant to precipitate the South upon a Une of policy that, in
his opinion, would utterly ruin her prospects." Mr. Yancey
Instantly replied : " That is my proposition ; I so stated this
morning." The letter to young Mr. Slaughter, of Georgia, was
a hasty reply to a suggestion coming from him, to force the
Democratic party to dissolution, and a refusal of the writer of

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 377
the reply to concur. Y'ancey never regarded secession as
-" revolution," but, rather, the deliberate and rightful act of a
State liying up to the theory laid down in the Bill of Rights,
that a people have the right to change their form of govern
ment at will. The duty to resist the " next aggression" was a
part of the organic law of Georgia, adopted by her sovereign
¦Convention, of 1850, and accepted by the Southern people)
Avith great unanimity, in their party pledges, covering several
years. The language of the famous letter was, indeed, a para
phrase, dashed off in the familiarity of private correspondence,
upon a recent and notorious debate, of which Mr. Slaughter
was presumed to be in intimate recollection. Mr. Yancey's
political foes were not slow to quote hira in defense of their
own proposition, that secession would be " revolution," and, in
palpable travesty upon his meaning, led by Mr. Pryor, they
made a classic of the Slaughter letter.
The Slaughter letter was cotemporary with Mr. Y^ancey's
labor in organizing a political club, at Montgomery, which Avas
intended to be a precursor for similar organizations throughout
the South. The club was naturally off'ensive to party lead
ers. The plan originated with Mr. Edmund Ruffin, of Vir
ginia, the most eminent agricultural reformer of the slave
States. No oath and no secrecy attached to merabership.
Mr. Yancey prepared the following document and organized a
club or league mider it :
-"CONSTITUTION OF THE MONTGOMEKY LEAGUE OF UNITED SOUTHEBNBES.
"Believing the South stands in need of some efficient and organ
ized mode of concentrating public opinion upon public men and measures
and of influencing and guiding political parties, with a view to the ad
vancement and protection of her constitutional rights, and that the want
of this has enabled all political parties to sacrifice those rights to their
•own necessities;
"And believing, further, that it is the duty of the South to use all
proper means to maintain her rights in the Union, with the view to
being justified before the world in resuming the powers she has dele
gated to the general governraent, in the event she fails to obtain justice
in the Union, we organize ourselves under the following
"constitution:
" Aeticle 1. This association shall be known as the Montgomery
League of United Southerners.
" Aet. 2, Its oflacers shall consist of a President, vice-President,

378 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Secretary, and Treasurer, who shall hold ofiice one year, or until their
successors shall be elected.
"Art. 3. Election of all oflicers shall be made annually and by
ballot. "Art. 4. Any person may become a raeraber of this League who-
will pledge hiraself to carry out its objects and who shall sign this con
stitution. "Aet. 5. The object of this League is, by the use of proper means,,
to create a sound public opinion in the South on the subject of enforcing
the rights of the South in the Union. Among the primary ideas arer
(1) No more compromise of those lights either in party platforms or in
national legislation; (2) a full recognition and maintenance of those
rights as paramount to the safety of the federal administration or the
success of the national parties ; (3) the elevation to the public councils
of the ablest and purest Southern men.
" Akt. 6. This League will nominate no candidates for any ofiice,
State or federal; but its members are pledged to use all honorable raeans
to secure the nomination, by the respective parties to which they be
long, of sound, able, and pure men of the Southern Rights school."
" The President told me If I did not obey him and vote to
force the LeCompton Constitution on the people against their
will, he would take off the head of every friend I have In
office." This was the sensational utterance of Mr. Douglas, aa
he entered the campaign, in Illinois, for re-election to the Sen
ate, in 1858. The President confessed the weight of the can
didate's Influence by publishing a positive denial, over his own
signature, and by a reference to the records to show, that he
was not guilty of partisanship in dispensing federal patronage
in Mr. Douglas' State. The Democrats, of Illinois, were not
united. While Horace Greeley urged the Republicans to sup
port Douglas, Judge Breese was named as the opposingr
LeCorapton Constitution candidate. The State Republican
Convention, which met to norainate State officers for a general
election, was not pleased with Mr. Greeley's teraporizing policy.
Fearful of the influence which such counsels as his might exert
over the Republican members of the Legislature, to be chosen
in the sarae year, the party convention determined, against all
precedent, to forestall It and boldly introduced the innovation
of a popular nomination of the candidate, whom the Repub
lican legislators would be expected to support. Abraham Lin
coln, Whig Representative in Congress, in the' time of the
Mexican war, received the nomination. He was known to be
a man of tact and a good debater on the stump. It was known

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 379
that he was an implacable foe to the institution of slavery, and
that he would be sure to keep abreast with, when not leading)-
the advances toward radicalism of his party. He remained
the typical backwoodsman, whose education had been sufflcient
to permit his rare talent to command respect. He was chosen,
not only because of his ability and courage to face Mr. Douglas,,
great as Douglas was known to be on the stump, but because
those who knew him were well con\'-inced that Lincoln would
be able to put to blush, in his own advanced positions on
slavery restriction, any bid of Douglas' for support, based on
the latter's late affiliation with Seward, Sumner and Chase on
the LeCompton Constitution question. The contest soon at
tracted attention in all parts of the United States and In the
anti-slavery circles of Europe. In the South, it was observed
with intense curiosity. Mr. Lincoln never, on any emergency,
disappointed his party. His affiliations, in the present instance,
were with the radical element of the young Republican party.
As soon as his nomination was announced in Convention, he
rose to address the body, and then laid down the broad propo
sition, that thp original compromises, in respect to slavery ,-
between States intending to become free States and States In
tending to preserve slavery, ratifled in the federal Constitution,-
could no longer be enforced. With consummate skill, he thus
threw Mr. Douglas, at the outset, on the defensive. If It were
not true, that the compromises of the Constitution, between
the free and slave States, in respect to slavery, had become
inoperative, why had Mr. Douglas voted against the admission
of Kansas to the Union because the State presented a slave
Constitution? Seeing himself on impregnable ground, the
Republican candidate quickly sent a written challenge to Mr.
Douglas to " divide time and address to same audience, during^
the present campaign." Douglas promptly and cheerfully
accepted. The joint debate began, in August, and closed in
September. Special trains of cars were provided to move the
great crowds who attended, an exhaustless campaign fund
supplied banners by day, transparencies by night, cannon,.
music and processions. Lincoln maintained the aggressive and
Douglas could not escape the defensive. Lincoln piled start
ling questions to his antagonist, from the standpoint of the
new and remorseless party, which Douglas could not evade

380 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
without confession of the inadequacy of his own doctrine,
and could not answer, to please the crowd, without impeaching
the old pai'ty whose faith he professed. Douglas printed a
list of interrogatories, in the dally papers, to Lincoln, to be
answered In the debate. Lincoln answered, in seriatim, and
exacted from Douglas damaging rejoinders. Douglas, in the
Senate, had taken the side of the revolutionists in Kansas, who
defled the Executive Department of the federal authority. In
answer to Lincoln's leading question, Douglas was forced to
declare. In open speech, against tbe Judiciary Department of
the federal authority. Lincoln opened the canvass with the
following revolutionary proposition :
" If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending,
-we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now in the
fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object and con
fident promise of putting an end to the slavery agitation: Under the
operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has
constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis
shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself
cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently
half slave and half free. I do not f xpect the Union to be dissolved — 1
do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be
divided It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the op
ponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where
the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ulti
mate extinction ; or its advocates will push it forward until it shall
become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new. North as well
as South." Douglas closed the canvass with the following rebellious
ultimatura :
" It matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide,
as to the abstract question whether slavery raay or raay not go into a
Territory under the Constitution, the people have the lawful means to
introduce it, or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery
cannot exist a day, or an hour, anywhere, unless it is supported by
local police regulations. These police regulations can only be estab
lished by the local Legislature, aud if the people are opposed to slavery
they will elect Representatives to that body who will, by unfriendly
legislation, effectually prevent the introduction of it into their midst.
If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation will favor its exten
sion. Hence, no matter what the decision of the Supreme Court may
be on the abstract question, still the right of the people to make a slave
Territory or a free Territory is perfect and complete under the Ne
braska bill."

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 381
The federal Constitution provided for a "house divided
against itself " — a Union of free States and slave States ; the
Dred Scott decree decided, in eff'ect, that the people of a Ter
ritory had not the right to exclude slavery. The political
attitudes of Messrs. Lincoln and Douglas, toward the rights
of the South under the Constitution, being equal to the same
thing, became, to the philosophic mind of the South, equal to
each other.
Some weeks after Mr. Lincoln laid down his proposition, as
the basis of argument for his party, Mr. SeAvard, in a speech
at Rochester, New Y^ork, borrowed the thought and polished
it in his rhetoric. Seward's apothegm, that " it is an irrepres
sible conflict between opposing and enduring forces " which
agitated the sections, and Yancey's promise to " precipitate the
cotton States into a revolution " became, in the same moment,
the Shibboleth, there and here, of a sectional party.
The result of the election, in Illinois, did not surprise the
country. The total vote cast was 247,024, of which Mr. Lin
coln, or his party, received a majority of 4,144. The law of
apportionment of election Districts, hoAvever, remaining over
from 1850, defeated the will of a population greatly increased
and distributed by very different rules in the year of the
contest, and Douglas was re-elected.
The letter to Mr. Orme was followed by a more voluminous
correspondence in the newspapers :
" Dadeville, Ala., June 14, 1859.
" Hon. William L. Yancey :
" Deae Sie — I am sure that you will excuse the liberty I take in
asking your views generally on the political questions which now attract
the attention of the Southern people; for, if I rightly understand your
position, I am one of your warm political and personal admirers.
"As it is a matter about which' there is some dispute among the
people, I would also request you to state whether or not you are ' a dis
unionist, per se.'
"I take this liberty with the more pleasure, because I knoAV and ap
preciate your consistent devotion to all the interests of the South, and
because I know that the true Southern Rights people of all parties in
Alabama are accustomed to listen with respectful interest to whatever
opinion you may advance upon the policy of the South.
" Trusting that you will yield to this request at your earliest con
venience—and allow me to make public your rpply, 1 remain, my dear
sir. Very respectfully yours, etc.,
" James D. Meadows."

382 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
"Montgomery, June 16, 1859.
¦" James D. Meadows, Esq. :
" Deae Sir — I am in receipt of your letter of the 14th inst.,
and comply with your desire, as far as impaired health and
professional engagements in three courts (now in session here)
allow rae to do so ; and these facts will, I trust, be my sufficient
apology for the rambling manner with which, under the cir
cumstances, I must necessarily treat the grave issues of the
time. " The Institution of African slavery on this continent was
founded before the revolution, on a legal and unrestricted
trade In slaves, carried on between the colonies and Africa.
At the date of the formation of the Constitution slavery ex
isted in every one of the States — and this foreign trade was
in great activity. Climate and production, however, had, even
at that day, clearly developed the fact, that slave labor could
only be proflta.bly employed in the Southern States. Hence
we flnd that the States south of the Potomac insisted upon,
-and obtained, protection to the institution of slavery against
anticipated Northern hostility, by express provisions in the
Constitution. They obtained for it representation in Congress,
and in the electoral coUege — • and it thus became an integral
part of both the legislative and executive power of the federal
government. Anticipating, also, the time when the Northern
States would abolish slavery in their midst and become a hos
tile section, both in a political and moral view, it was provided
that slaves fleeing into those States should be delivered up to
their owners.
" It further appears that, feeling the need of more slaves
than were then in the country, to cultivate their Avaste bands,
and fearing Northern hostility to Southern power and Indus
try, and anticipating that the North might amend the Consti
tution so as to prohibit the trade In slaves with Africa, the
Southern States succeeded In making it a part of the Consti
tutional compact — that Congress should not prohibit the
African slave trade, prior to the year 1808 — thus in effect
raaking it a part of the corapact, that the States should have
an unraolested enjoyment of the foreign trade in slaves at
least until 1808, and as long after that as the Constitution re
mained unchanged.

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 383
" These provisions conclusively prove that the Institution
<if African slavery, as it then existed in the States, received an
express and an especial protection In the Constitution; and
that its increase by foreign supply received an express and
especial protection, even to the extent that, while in reference
to all other subjects the Constitution raight be amended at
any time, on that matter It could not be changed, in good faith,
for twenty years, so as to enable Congress to prohibit the trade
before 1808. As far as slavery is concerned, the Constitution
is the same now, as it was when it was adopted by the Con
vention that framed it. The rights which belong to the insti
tution under it, and the powers of Congress In relation to it,
have not been altered, and are the sarae now as then — are
neither greater nor less.
" The foregoing is the basis upon which I have founded my
opinions upon the vexed questions of abolition and of Southern
rights. I have squared all questions as to slavery by these
Constitutional rules. Both in theory and in practice I have
ever held them as paramount to mere party obligations — and
I am happy to flnd that In doing so I have obtained the mead
of your approbation, and that of other true Southern men, and
that, in your and their opinion, I have ever shown a ' consis
tent devotion to all the interests of the South.'
" Exceedingly loose, and indeed unconstitutional, ideas on
the subject of slavery, early crept Into the public mind. Wild,
impracticable and false notions, as to the equality of the human
race, got abroad both here and in Europe. The world had so
long been pressed down under the weight of absolute despot
ism, that the rebound of opinion went far beyond the line of
truth ; and the error, starting in France, swept across the At
lantic, and for a time unsettled, even here, the well-balanced
principles of our Constitution, and the opinions of some of our
greatest statesraen. Frora this source Mr. Jefferson became
imbued with the spirit of slavery emancipation; and under
his powerful influence this mental poison spread through our
political sphere, while under the still stronger influence of sev
eral mighty preachers of the gospel, it becarae a creed in our
religion that slavery was a moral leprosy fastened upon the
land. In the height of these radically false notions. Congress
passed the law prohibiting the foreign trade in slaves —

384 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
declared it to be of the ignominious grade of piracy — on a level
with and the equal of murder and robbery on the high seas ;
and having thus cut off one of the chief sources of its increase
and prosperity on the East, it turned to the West, and by the
Missouri coraproraise, as it was falsely called — by the flrst
application of the Wilmot Proviso In fact, it declared that
slavery should be forever excluded from all of our Territo
ries north of 86° 30', that is from three-fourths of our do
main. In the progress of time, under the influence of wiser
statesmen and theologians, and stimulated by the fact that
slavery, by means of the cotton-gin discovery, had become by
far the most valuable labor in the world, better opinions as to
the moral and political basis of the institution began to prevail
in the South. Now, after a struggle of over a quarter of a
century, the mass of our people believe slavery to be morally,
as well as politically right — and the action of Congress ex
cluding the South from the Territories has been declared un
constitutional, and has been repealed. There yet remains, on
the statute book, of this semi-abolltlon policy, the act of pun
ishing dealers In foreign slaves as pirates — and there Is yet in
reserve for the better opinions of the time, I sincerely trust, a
triumph In the repeal of the infamous law.
"But while there has been this great revolution in opinion
at the South, such has not been the case at the North. On the
contrary, from the milder and calmer form In which It existed
at an earlier day, under the specious name of emancipation In
Virginia, this hostility to slavery has grown Into the flercest
crusade against the rights of slaveholders that the world has
ever Avltnessed upon any other question of civil polity.
"It is the only question upon which parties are formed —
like Aaron's rod, it swallows up all others. J^or , years past,
since 1848, it has assumed this position of paramount impor
tance. Its progress has elevated a party whose earliest advo
cates were pelted with rotten eggs, even in New England, to a
position in which it flercely and exultantly struggles for su
premacy against all other political combinations. I^ has ut
terly destroyed that great and powerful historic party, which
was led by such raen as Clay, Webster, Adaras, Crittenden
and Clayton. It is an intensely sectional party, based upon
Northern prejudices, and warring against the South and its

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 385
prosperity. It is purely an aggressive party — assailing a sec
tion which acts entirely on the defensive, and which has never
put in jeopardy a single Constitutional right of the North. Its
energies are fearfully great ; while its integrity to its princi
ples is as undoubted as it is worthy of a better cause.
" While it has not yet destroyed the national organization
of the Democracy, it has made most fearful inroads into its
ranks. Formerly, the national Democracy maintained a de
cided ascendency in the Northern States. To-day, it cannot
reasonably calculate upon carrying more than three out of
seventeen of these States, and those the weakest In influence
and numbers. But though it has not destroyed, it has utterly
demoralized the Northern wing of that great party ; so that
the triumph of Douglas and his adherents upon his Territorial
policy would be fraught with as much actual danger to the
South as would the triuraph of Seward.
"A union of all these elements which are hostile to the
South on this question at this time, would present a majority
in both branches of Congress, and in the electoral college.
The personal ambition and jealousy of Northern leaders alone
prevent that union to-day. To-raorrow it may be eft'ected.
" While we are thus openly and directly assailed from the
North by Seward and his great party, outside of the Deraoc
racy, we are as effectually assailed, in flank as It were, through
the Territories by Douglas and his followers inside the na
tional Democracy. Acknowledging the correctness of the
principle that slavery cannot be excluded from a Territory by
direct Territorial legislation, and that It has a right to go to
and settle in the Territories, the Douglas doctrine is, that the
Territorial Legislature can properly refuse to protect it Avhlle
there, and even can assail Its prosperity by laws taxing it so
severely that it will be obliged to abandon the Territories. It
is pretended that this doctrine is founded in the right of the
Territories to inherent original powers of legislation — and Is
also based upon the Kansas act. That they have not Inherent
and original powers of legislation is sufficiently shown by the
fact that they have never pretended to exercise any except
under a grant from Congress — and further, that they are
under the government of the federal Constitution, as well as
of Congress ; and that Congress has no original and inherent

25

386 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
powers of legislation, but its powers are purely derivative and
expressly restricted.
" In the immediate case to which this new principle is
sought to be applied — Kansas — the Territory derives its
power of legislation from the act of Congress, and no higher
source. Its language Is this :
" ' Sec 6. And be it further enacted. That the legislative
power of the Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of
legislation consistent with the Constitution of the United
States and the provisions of this act, etc'
"I have already shown that slavery cannot be assailed
under tbe federal Constitution, and that Congress has no
power over It, save to protect It. As the Territory derives its
power of legislation from Congress, It follows that it pos
sesses no higher power than is possessed by that body.
" But the advocates of this new creed insist that the exer
cise of any legislative poAver by the Territory Is not, under
the Kansas act, a subject of revision by Congress ; and that
Congress has expressly declared that its laws shall alone be
passed upon by the Supreme Court. The position is untena
ble. In the 9th section is to be found all that bears upon
this point, and it is in the following w^ords, viz.:
' Writs of error, and appeals from the flnal decision of
said Supreme Court, shall be allowed, and may be taken to
the Supreme Court of the United States, in the same manner
and under the same regulations as from the Circuit Courts of
the United States, where the value of the property, or the
amount In controversy, to be ascertained by the oath or af-
flrmation of either party, or other competent witness, shall
exceed one thousand dollars; except only, that in all cases
iuA'olving title to slaves, the said writs of error or appeals
shaU be allowed and decided by the said Supreme Court,
without regard to the value of the matter, property, or title in
controversy.' " This clause clearly defines the rights of parties to suits
alone, and neither In letter or spirit, can bear the construction
that the federal government should abandon its right as a
principal to review and repudiate the unauthorized acts of its
agent — the Territorial Legislature.

'THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 387
" If that Legislature violate the Kansas act and pass a law
not 'consistent with the Constitution of the United States,'
-such act is null and void, binding neither on Congress nor
^lpon individuals, and Congress can set aside or repeal such
-act and declare it null and void. The Supreme Court acts on
individuals alone, not on Congress or Territorial Legislatures.
" This Douglas doctrine has already. In eff'ect, been declared
unconstitutional by the decision of the Supreme Court in the
Dred Scott case. The Supreme Court having declared that
no Legislature possesses such power, if a Territorial Legisla
ture shall disregard that decision, who is there to enforce a
regard for it if Congress cannot do so ? It must be clear to
¦every unprejudiced mind that the South is entitled to protec
tion, and that it is the duty of Congress to afford it against
all Abolition aggression.
"Yet, though this be the obvious interpretation of the
Constitution and of the Kansas act, a Northern Senator of
repute — ^ Mr. Pugh, speaking doubtless the sentiment of the
great mass of the Northern Democracy, frankly and firmly
-declares in the Senate, that if the South insists upon protec
tion in the Territories against Abolition laws, not a raan at
the North will be found to sustain her !
" But, what is far more astonishing, even here in the South
are to be found Democrats who, ' for the sake of the harraony
¦of the party,' attempt to screen Douglas and his followers
from the just indignation of our people, and who maintain
that his Territorial doctrine is a mere abstraction, and should
be ignored by the Democracy ; and who even go so far as to
•declare that if Mr. Douglas shall be nominated at Charleston,
they will support him for the Presidency. If public rumor Is
to be credited, even one of your Senators in Congress holds
these dangerous anti-Southern positions ; while it is well
known that one of the public journals of the State, generally
-deemed to be his mouth piece, has openly advocated such a
policy. " The assertion that this Douglas heresy is a mere abstrac
tion is itself fraught with significance. It is an acknowledg
ment that past legislation as to the Territories as a Avhole has
been disastrous to the South, and has so operated upon her
fears and upon the sensitiveness of her slave property, that

388 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
she wUl be kept from making further effort to organize Terri
torial governments favorable to her policy ; and thus it will
never again be a practical question whether a slave State can
be admitted into the Union ! What a sad comment upon the
condition of the South ! Manacled and robbed, she is exhorted
to be quiet, for lost rights are but as split milk ! Debauched
and humbled, she is persuaded that her best course is to go to
work and sustain a party, which will, perhaps, choose one of
her sons to be President or vice-President, and others to be
Cabinet officers and foreign ministers ! — and yet even more,
is being persuaded that it will be no dishonor to take to her
bosom her greatest and raost dangerous assailant, and in hon
oring hira, to smother all regrets about her lost rights !
" Outside of the Democracy, In the South Is another fac
tion, which goes still further in its attempts to create a
national party, in utter disregard of Southern rights, and the
dangers menacing them.' It is, the faction of Botts, of Vir
ginia, and Bell of Tennessee, who would ignore entirely the
slavery question, and unite even with free negroes, if Ave are
to believe Mr. Botts, to obtain possession of the government.
"The great mass of the State Rights men of the South,
however, without distinction as to party affinities (including
a large majority of the Southern Deraocracy), have declared
for protection to the rights of the slaveholder In the Territo
ries by law of ('ongress against Abolition legislation, and will
sustain no party, be It national or sectional, which does not
unequivocally avow this doctrine. I belong to that class ; and
am rejoiced to find that time has developed the fact that. In
reference to the Issues of slavery, patriotisra and sound Con
stitutional views are confined to no one party in the South
The concentration of the Northern raasses In favor of the
principle of Abolition, and the fearful defection of Douglas and
his twenty-one followers in Congress, on these issues, utterly
crushing the ability of the national Democracy to protect the
South, has convinced me that hereafter the South should place
her reliance and confidence on herself alone — cheerfuUy re
ceiving aid from any son of hers, who brings to her service
integrity, good faith and sound views, no matter what party
name he chooses to assume — and holding to strict accounta
bility all parties In our midst. In my opinion, the stern

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 389
despotism, and exclusiveness and jealousies of party have con
tributed more to dissensions in the South on the question of
her rights and remedies than any other cause, and I believe that
the public mind of our section has arrived at that conclusion.
It is a favorite maxim of the hour, and quite as much quoted
approvingly by the mere partisan as by the single-rainded
patriot — 'the union of the South for the sake of the South.'
And yet, what does it mean? Does it mean, 'a union of the
Democracy for the sake of the South against all other par
ties ; ' or, ' a union of all the elements of opposition to the
Democracy for the sake of the South ? ' I humbly think it
means neither, but that in its spirit and letter it means, if it
means anything, ' a union of all the citizens of the South in
defense of and for the sake of the South.' But how can this
desirable result be obtained if every man of character who
entertains sound views on the slave Issues is to be run down ,
with abuse and ridicule by a partizan press, merely because he
does not belong to a particular party in the South, or because,
though a Democrat, he chooses to be a candidate independent
of a party nomination ? For myself, though I have never been
in principle anything but a Democrat, I rejoice to flnd such
numerous evidences of the spread of State Rights principles
among the members of the party opposed to the Deraocracy, as
is being exhibited every day in our midst, and whenever they
take an open stand upon those principles in the cause of the
South, though I should prefer that they should become Demo
crats also, I shall, nevertheless, in good faith hail them as
brothers, ' foi* the sake of the South.' I say for myself, as
has been eloquently and well said by another, that whenever
on the great battle fleld where our rights are contended for, I
hear a stirring bugle call sounding the charge, I shall not
pause to inquire what is the motto upon the shield of the gal
lant champion who thus rallies his countrymen to the rescue
— but I will ride- by his side into the ranks of the foe, and
thank him when the conflict is over. The interests of party
may not be so well subserved by this course, but the Interests
of the South will be vastly promoted.
" Indeed, in my opinion, the South at this time is not so
much in need of platforms or belief in correct principles, as
she is sadly in need of true men in her councils. She has often

390 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
enough enunciated sound platforms and creeds, which have as-
often been frittered away and rendered valueless by compro
mises. What she requires Is men of the right stamp in her
councils — enlightened, conscientious, determined and able
men, who know the Interests of the South, and who can .and
will uphold them, without compromise, against all other inter
ests, whether they be the Interests of parties or of individuals
at home, or of hostile sections. I do not desire to be under
stood as saying, that she has not such men now in her service.
But I do say, that they are far too few for the occasion. The
most of her Representatives are mere puppets in the show,
raade to wheel and dance as the party .organists choose to
grind the music ; while others of ample ability and individual
ity are absorbed in their own personal advancement, which in
variably requires a compromise of Southern Issues.
" You ask if I am a disunionist, per se. If by that is meant,
am I in favor of disunion in preference to Constitutional Union,
I answer that I am not and never have been. In 1850, 1 advo
cated disunion on three grounds, viz : That in the raonth of
August of that year, the federal government had admitted
California as a State, formed under the free soil process of
Squatter Sovereignty, had dismembered the slaveholding State
of Texas and annexed a part of its soil to the Territory of New
Mexico, and had abolished the internal slave trade between
the States and the District of Columbia ; and had thus in effect
destroyed the Constitutional compact of Union. The South,
however, voted down the State Rights band with which I
acted, and since then I have not again proposed or advocated
such a measure. LTpon that question I ' bide my time,' and
shall be ready with the readiest ; believing at the same time,
that sufficient causes exist for a resort to that remedy, even
now. If it were expedient.
" There is one other question to which I will briefly allude:
I refer to the foreign slave trade. The federal government is
using its best endeavors, through its marshals and judges, to
convict as pirates all who import African slaves into the coun
try; to put in the penitentiary all who buy such when im
ported ; and also to seize the slaves and return them to Africa,
to be supported and educated for one year by our government.
I am opposed to the whole system, in its details and as a whole.

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 391
I believe these laws to be unconstitutional, and in violation of
the reserved rights of the States, and hostile to the true policy
of the South. Congress has no power to enact them. There
is in the Constitution no express grant of such poAver, and
there Is no express power there Avhich cannot be executed,
without implying the power to prohibit that trade. It is a
settled rule of construction that Congress has no power, unless
it be expressed, or if not expressed, unless it is necessary to
be implied in order to carry out some express power.
" The power to prohibit that trade lies alone Avltli each
State, and Is a reserved right of each State. An exercise of it
by Congress is an invasion of that right. No one will contend
that Congress had power under the Constitution to declare the
slave trade piracy, before the year 1808. But yet, the power
to deflne piracy, under which these laws are enacted, existed
before the year 1808. How, then, can Congress declare that to
be piracy after the year 1808, which it did not have the power
so to declare before that year, under the sarae identical clause?
"Is the Constitution a flxed, unchangeable. Immutable rule
of conduct for Congress ; or does It stretch, expand or contract,
with each change of the temperature of public opinion? I am^
therefore, in favor of the repeal of those laws. The federal
governraent is now urging prosecutions throughout the South,
for their alleged violation ; and In ray opinion, whenever that
governraent shall obtain verdicts of guilty against any of our
citizens, and shall succeed in hanging thera or sending them to
the penitentiary, either for bringing African slaves here, or for
buying and selling them in our midst, tiie successful march of
AboUtionism will have commenced on our very soil, and the
public spirit of our people will htive been utterly destroyed.
With Abolition successful In our Territories — with the slave
trade abolished between the States and the District of Colum
bia — with the navy employed to arrest the slave trade at sea,
-and federal judges and marshals preaching semi- Abolition doc
trines in our midst, and imprisoning our people who buy Afri
can slaves, and the President drawing from the Treasury hun
dreds of thousands of dollars, with which to send these slaves
back to Africa as freemen, and to educate and feed them there
for one year, the South may at once give up the struggle and

392^ THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
consent to linger out a poor existence, on the bounty which
Abolition may allow her.
"That it is the duty of every good and enlightened citizen
of the South to use his utmost endeavors to prevent so dire a
result, I have not any doubt.
" As to re-openlng the African slave trade, that is a grave
question of the highest political and economic import, and
should be decided alone by the several States — each for itself,
and with reference alone to the industrial interests of each.
The time for its decision has not arrived, and as I have formed
no opinion upon Its expediency with that thoughtfulness which
its great importance demands, I will not discuss it here.
"Very respectfully, " Your fellow citizen,
" Wm. L. Yancbt."
The more notable political events, of 1859, were — the
treason of John Brown ; the publication and diffusion under
the patronage of the Republican leaders of an incendiary book,
written by one Hinton Helper, of North Carolina, instigating
the slaves to revolt ; the protracted revolutionary scenes in the
federal Blouse of Representatives, which terminated in the
election of a Republican Speaker ; the speeches of Mr. Yancey,
In South Carolina, preparatory to the forthcoming Charleston
Convention ; his candidacy for the United States Senate and
the election of a Legislature, in Alabama, as the final triumph
of his eadershlp, which put in motion, in his own State, in
advance of all the Southern States, his political poUcy.
Andrew B. Moore, Secessionist, was re-elected Governor, in
1859, without opposition, except that William F. Samford, Se
cessionist, made an Ineffectual contest for the office. The
Representatives chosen gave to the State the ablest delegation,
perhaps, which had served for many years -Stallworth, James
L. Pugh, David Clopton, Sydenham Moore, J. L. M. Curry,
Houston and Cobb. In the Montgomery District, where Dow
dell, Secessionist, had defeated Judge, In 1857, by only sixteen
votes, Clopton, Secessionist, defeated Judge by a majority in
excess of two hundred.
John Brown was a native of Connecticut, of humble origin,
limited education, a zealot by nature and, by occupation, a
peripatetic preacher of the gospel. At an early period of his

THE PEOPLF CONSIDER. 393
career he was associated with Gerrit Smith, in providing a
refuge of concealment for fugitive slaves, on some of the lat
ter's lands in the upper part of the State of New York. He
was employed by the Abolitionists to foment discord in Kan
sas. The peculiar zest with which he performed acts of arson
and murder there, established a high reputation for him with
his employers. In 1857, he returned to New England, resolved
to devote himself to the enterprise of insurrection in the slave
States. He was received by the leading Abolitionists wdth
open arms, and, with secret enthusiasm, they entered into his
scheme. " My husband told me (declares Mrs. Julia Ward
Howe), in 1857, of a very remarkable man who, he said,
seemed bent on sacrificing himself for the colored race, as
Christ sacrificed Himself for the huraan race. ' You will hear
of him one day (said Dr. Howe) ; meantirae, you are not to
mention what I have told you.' He had not told me the name
of this person. In the summer of that year, he asked me
whether I remembered his mention of this man. I replied that
I did. ' He will come to this house this afternoon (said my
husband). You will see him. His narae is John Brown.' He
did come and I remember hira as a raan of raiddle height,
thick set, his hair and beard, of an amber color, a little touched
with grav. His face was grave, resolute but kindly. I had
the pleasure of taking him by the hand, but our conversation
was brief and unimportant. Yet even this meeting with him
had, in my eyes, a certain solemnity."*
Male and feraale instigators of Brown's scheme in secrecy
assisted him. They gave money and counsel.t
Brown never relaxed. He spent two years in puerile prep
arations, drilling, in Iowa and at other points, a score of men,
one or more of his sons of the number. At CoUinsville, Con
necticut, he placed a contract with a blacksmith for the
manufacture of 1,000 pikes of an original pattern. At Roch
ester, New York, he drafted a Constitution and By-laws for the
government of conquered slave States. The property of the
massacred whites, their money, plate, watches, jewelry were
"to constitute a liberal -safety or intelligence fund." From
1 Canada and the free States an army of blacks would rush to
*Mrs. Julia AVard Howe in Cosmopolitaii Magazine, 1889.
tNicolay aud Hay's I-ile ol I,lncoln.

394 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
his standard ; mules, transportation and commissary supplies
would be brought into his camp from the plantations by the
fleeing slaves. These general plans of operation were ex
plained to the founders and leaders of the New England Anti-
Slavery Society and were accepted by them, not because of
their practical wisdom in the execution of a purpose, the logical
conclusion of the work of the Society, but because the attempt
of Brown's expedition would assuredly precipitate more im
portant movements in the same general direction. Brown,
under false pretense, rented a farm on the Maryland side,
opposite Harper's Ferry, went there with bis raen, and trans
ported there rifles, pikes, tents, and other military supplies.
Sunday evening, October 16, after dark, with a one horse
wagon containing pikes for the use of slaves and with eighteen
armed followers, he started for the contemplated attack on
the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. The Arsenal
was captured, easily, at 11 o'clock the same night. Citi
zens were taken prisoners in the town and a squad of his
men went flve miles Into the country, capturing prominent
slave owners. At daylight, Monday morning, the cause of the
excitement was revealed. Firing began between citizens and
the Invader's sentinels, posted here and there. By noon,
Monday, the nilUtla were victorious over all Brown's squads
scattered In defensive positions, and a number had been
killed and wounded, on both sides. Monday night, Lieutenant-
Colonel R. E. Lee, of the federal army, arrived from Washing
ton In command of eighty marines. The doors of the Arsenal
were battered down by his men. One marine fell from the
flre within. Brown fell, severely wounded by bayonet and
sword thrusts, two of his sons were slain, and all in the
Arsenal were captured. The blacks remained perfectly un
moved, to the amazement of their would-be leader and the
Abolitionists who had promoted the invasion frora a distance.
Brown was a typical Abolitionist. A fatalist, he declared he
had no compunctions of conscience to rebuke his course — that
what he had done and intended to do, " was decreed to happen
ages before the world was made."
The battle on Kansas soil was transferred to Virginia, and
Brown's invasion was so accepted by the people of the North.
Two of his followers, escaping, were captured and placed in

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 395
prison at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where Alexander K.
McClure, a young laAvyer of highest respectability, resided.
McClure's AAufe, and a feraale companion, prepared to enter the
prison, carrying Avoman's apparel in which to disguise the
prisoners, take their places In the cells and send thera forth,
free men. The prison keeper was privy to this deliberate
prostitution of the most vital of the laws of civilization, Avhich
was stayed only by the unexpected celerity of approach of fed
eral officers In pursuit of the fugitives.* BroAvn and his active
coadjutors in tre-ason Avere' the founders of the Republican
party and even now held its fate in their keeping. The party,
supported chiefly by Brown, had defied the federal authority
in Kansas and had conquered that State. Now, on the eve of
the regular quadrennial party contest for the administration
of the government and the control of the army and navy,
BroAvn's raid was a bold notice to the people of the free States
of the purpose of the Republican party to conquer, after meth
ods of Its own, and to destroy the social fabric of the slave
States. Amidst tbe unmistakable signs of on-rushlng revo
lution must be accounted the unbroken silence of the entire
population of the free States In the presence of the events at
Harper's Ferry. No note of public protest went forth from
any political party, or town meeting. On the other hand,
many individuals, iu all parts of the free States, to whose
teachings in philosophy, and morals and statecraft the people
of the slave States had, from the earliest periods, been bounden,
were outspoken in praise of BroAvn. Eraerson declared the
fanatic outhuv " a new saint, waiting yet his martyrdom, and
who, if he shall suffer, will make the gallows glorious like the
cross ; " " the lesson of the hour is insurrection," proclaimed
WendeU Phillips;" "the road to heaven is as short from the
galloAvs as from a throne, also, as easy," exclaimed Rev. Theo
dore Parker. The Virginia Court ordered his execution and
that of others, his followers, on December 2. On that day the
Abolitionists went into formal mourning. At Boston, the
great church of James Freeman Clarke was opened for appro
priate services, the building darkened, save as the low burning
gas cast- a weird light over the crowded benches. Melancholy
sounds, ever niid anon, broke from the lips of the congregation,
*A. K. McClure's narrative. LippincoU's Magazine, 1884.

396 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
while very many were moved by the spirit to cry aloud in
agony. At length the congregation was disturbed aud the
ceremonies dissolved by the Inrushlng of young men, of the
up])er class of Boston society, resolved to protest, even so
rudely, against the burlesque on sacred rites. Congress met,
and It was at once discovered that the. Abolitionists there
were far frora feelings of resentment against Brown. The
ominous silence of the people in the free States alarmed the
ardent Unionist, Mr. B. F. Perry, of the South CaroUna Senate.
In his deep mortification, he Introduced resolutions In that
body inviting public attention to the national disgrace. Perry's
resolutions quickly aroused the Democrats of the North to a
sense of their dependence on the outraged slave States, and
thereupon broke forth a general demonstration of indignant
protest against Brown. In the Senate, Mr. Douglas promptly
Introduced a bill to take federal cognizance of all disturbances
like Brown's; "that Congress shall pass efflcient laAvs for the
punishment of all persons. In any of the States, Avho shall, in
any manner, aid and abet Invasion or Insurrection in any State,
or comralt any other act against the laws of nations tending to
disturb the tranquility of the people or government of any
other State." The Republicans received news of the bill with
jeers, in all parts of the free States ; Massachusetts elected
John Albion Andrew, the eulogist of Brown, Governor; the
leading apologists of Brown, in Brooklyn and New Y'ork, sum
moned the ductile and astute Mr. Lincoln from the West to
speak on the situation, at Cooper Institute, and there he ridi
culed Mr. Douglas' measure as a " sedition bill." With char
acteristic adroitness, Mr. Lincoln ingrafted the grateful narra
tive of Brown's enterprise Into the purview he presented to
his select Republican audience, of Republican party tests and
prospects. It was the February succeeding the raid in October.
Public opinion had had time to reveal itself. Had Brown
committed treason? Mr. Lincoln, speaking in New York, in
the interest of the Republican party labors toward an oiganl-
zatlon on distinct issues, in Pennsylvania, for the campaign of
1860, did not term Brown's act treason. Had Brown led a
rebelUon in seizing an arsenal of the United States by an
armed force, or committed murder In shooting down, without
warrant, citizens of the United States in their homes, Mr.

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 397
Lincoln, throughout an elaborate discussion of the facts, did
not so pronounce. He said the time was inopportune and
might never arrive for such an enterprise; the slaves could
never be organized to assist it, and hoping to the contrary.
Brown had fallen Into a great mistake. His words were :
"Occasional poisonings from the kitchen, and open or stealthy
assassinations in the fleld and local revolts extending to a score or so,
will continue to occur as the natural results of slavery; but no general
insurrection of slaves, I think, can happen in this country for a long
tirae. Whoever much fears or much hopes for such an event, will be alike
disappointed. * * Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon, and John
Brown's attempt at Harper's Ferry were, in their philosophy, precsely
the same. The eagerness to cast blame on old England in the one
case, and on Kew England in the other, does not disprove tho same
ness of the two things."
Whether the state of aff'airs which impelled Orslnl or
Brown to act was desirable or to the cimtrary, Mr. Lincoln was
silent. Mr. Lincoln's appreciation of his party bias, in respect
to the act of Brown in 1 860, has been in later years interpreted
by the most pronounced eulogists of his public acts and the
most authoritative recorders of the purposes of his party.
While these lines are written, an exhaustive and friendly " Life
of Lincoln " appears in the book stores, ten volumes, copiously
Illustrated, the joint work of two of the leader's private Secre
taries. Three actors in Lincoln's time are chosen, besides him
self, for exceptional pictorial favors, a handsome portrait of
each impressing the reader with the suggestion that four men,
in the same era, were determinate characters of the events,
whose occurrence the text extols. Four men are associated
thus In history as co-laborers with a common purpose, and
these are : (1) Abraham Lincoln, the combiner of forces, made
ready for his appUcation; (2) Henry Clay, the author of the
last of the two Missouri " compromises," intended to subdue a
State and put in motion a new theory of centralization, and the
author of a federal flscal policy calculated to divide society
into the favored and the oppressed class ; (3) Zachary Taylor,
the Executive who flrst employed the sword to determine a
political question being debated in Congress ; (4) John BroAvn.
Mr. John Sherman was the Republican party caucus nom
inee for the Speakership of the federal House. He, with a
large majority of his party followers, seventy in all, had made

398 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
a formal endorsement of Helper's book, " The Impending
Crisis," and the book committed the Republican party to "no
co-operation with slave holders in politics ; no fellowship with
them In religion ; no affiliation with them in society ; no recog
nition of pro-slavery men, except as ruffians, outlaws, and
criminals." The AboUtionists were advised, in its pages, to
land organized bodies of armed men on Southern soil, to
conquer the whites by aid of the blacks and "to teach the
slaves to burn their master's buildings, to kill their cattle and
hogs, to conceal and destroy farming utensils, to abandon labor
in seed time and harvest and let the crops perish." This
publication was adopted as a campaign document by the
Republican party, in 1859 and 1860, and Avas freely distributed
lay the campaign fund of the party in the free States. The
organization of the Republican party was not yet complete.
Mr. Sherraan Avas radical. After' the contest under his leader
ship had progressed long on the floor of the House, with no
sign of terraination, his name was withdrawn and, that of
another having been substituted, his party inducted its nom
inee into the offlce.
At the spring, 1 859, terra of the United States Court, sit
ting at Montgoraery, Charles G. Gunter, foreman, and fourteen
others of the Grand Jury, reported the peace of the country
disturbed by the nulUflcatlon acts of fourteen free States,
against the fugitive slave law.
There were three candidates before the Legislature of Ala
bama when it met, in 1859, for the Senate. Walking away
from the Capitol with his personal friend. Watts, Yancey
said : " What think you of the standing of the candidates ? "
" Fitzpatrick will lead you," was the reply. " Why ? " " Be
cause you are not working for an election ; you seem to know
none of the merabers ; Fitzpatrick knows everybody." The
advanced Southern Rights men of Alabama, supported by men
of the same political faith in other States, demanded the
candidature of Mr. Yancey, hoping that in his election to the
Senate he would be able to present the argument of the South
to accomplish the organization of the South. He did not
aspire to the office, but consented to allow his narae to come
before the Legislature. The third candidate, Mr. John A.
AVinston, was a Douglas Deraocrat. If a Black Republican

THE PEOPLE CONSIDER. 399
should be elected to the Presidency he would favor a Soulhern
Confederacy. " Nor shall I have any of the fears in that
event (he wrote) which seem to haunt those who croak at
every thing like Southern Independence, and equality and
capacity for self government. On the contrary, I shall expect
to be a citizen of the most prosperous government the world
ever saw." No ballot was taken for Senator. The politicians
were alarmed. The ^ilure of the Democratic Legislature to
¦chose Y'ancey to the Senate, in December, 1859, and the
alacrity with which the State convention of the Democratic
party, virtually a convention of the whole people, the next
month gratifled his wishes, in every particular, with unanim
ity, is one only of the examples, which adorn his career, of the
superior confidence of the people in hira.

CHAPTER 19.

The Man and the Advocate.

Mr. Yancey lived in good style on Perry street, the resi
dence thoroughfare of Montgomery. His premises were un
usually spacious and were kept In perfect order under his own
eye. He Introduced as much of country privileges and enjoy
ments into his home, as the proscriptions of the town per
mitted. He maintained there a public dairy, for the profit and
also for the gratification of his taste for the care of Uve stock.
He kept a number of select breeds of dogs, trained to meet
hira daily at the gate. Often, at the noon recess of the courts,
he sought rest at home, fondling the cattle in their lots, with a
troop of pet dogs at his heels. He rose habitually with the sun,
drove, as a daily rule, rapidly to his farm to gh^e Instructions,
and, returning to breakfast, appeared at his law office for the
day's work. His only extravagance of personal gratification
was in fine horses, kept for his own use. A conteraporary
remembers, that, in 1860, when all Araerica awaited Yancey's
utterance, the orator drove into Union Town, where a large
corapany awaited his speech. A bystander directed his atten
tion to the congregation already at the stand, in the distance,
and the off'er of an escort to the position was made. " Not
immediately (was the response). I wish to see that my horses
are properly cared for before tbe meeting Is called." His in
come was divided between the support of his family in a high
degree of comfort, the education of his children in the best
schools and colleges, and the Improvement of his farm. An
architect had furnished plans for a handsome residence to be
built on the farm, where he Intended to take up his permanent

\/v, Jcci^ 1^4^

THE MAN AND THE ADVOCATE. 401
abode. An orchard for the market and other sources of In
come from the land had been put under way, and It was his
anticipation to resume agriculture, as his main employment,
at the earliest practicable moment.
Yancey's domestic life was singularly happy. His devotion
to his wife never wearied; his affection for his children was
tender and ardent. On the fly leaf of Kane's Arctic Explora
tion he wrote: "A Christmas Present to ray son William:
May he learn from these pages lessons of patience, fortitude
and reliance on Divine Providence in all trials." Soon after
removing to Wetumpka he joined the Presbyterian' Church,
attended its services regularly and obeyed its discipline. He
lead, at horae. In family Avorship, regularly, evening and morn
ing. Returning from a sumraer's tour with his wife and
daughter, he checked his carriage at his pastor's door that he
might raake a hasty call of respect within. Wine was served
at his table, but his temperance in use of it was never broken.
"If you would know the loveableness of his heart (wrote a
clergyman of a church not his own) you must sequester him
and the heart is sure to respond. Though not the belle-lettre
scholar Mr. HiUiard was known to be, he was cultured far be
yond his seeming. If beauty or sublimity came under discus
sion, he was sure to take a scholarly part. If heroes or hero
ines were being analyzed, he spoke with wisdom and often
with thrilling force."
The income of lawyers, taxed, in Montgomery county, for
the year 1859, was $116,222. The tax return from no other
county was so great. The causes were mostly conflned to
wealthy clients, for the laborers were slaves. Few corpora
tions existed. The conditions of society were favorable to the
elevation of the bar. The lawyer was engaged in a profession,
rather than employed at a " trade." The qualities of a states
man were essentially the qualities of a lawyer. The lawyers
of Alabama, who reached fame and fortune, were great advo
cates, liucubrationes viginti annos was none the less a con
dition. Patience, industry and a retentive memory brought to
bear upon a thoroughly artificial system, built upon artificial
doctrines and precedents, were not less essential qualities of
the lawyer here than elsewhere. Nevertheless, there was
here a peculiar pressure of reputation, as an advocate, which

26

402 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
controlled public patronage of the profession. Perhaps there
was no example of social organization where a lawyer was
more called upon to discuss great public questions before the
people than here.
There was an interval of seven years between Mr. Yancey's
preparation for the bar, at Greenville, South Carolina, and his
entrance upon the practice at Wetumpka, Alabama. As cotton
planter, newspaper editor and public orator, meantime, he be
came thoroughly familiar with the structure of society, the
lives of Individual men in the community. In which he was to
pursue his profession, and the practical operations of govern
ment, whence emanated the statute laws. At the age of
twenty-seven he began tbe practice with an established repu
tation as an orator and a man of extraordinary native ability.
The law firm of Elmore and Yancey was second to none In
reputation In the Southwest. Yancey's labor in politics from
1846, when he entered the partnership, up to 1856, while
arresting national attention, had not seriously interfered with
the duties of his profession. The Bench and Bar of the South
West, a history prepared by Henry S. Foote, a bitter political
foe, referring to Yancey in this period, declares : " In a few
years his fame as a jurist and as a forensic advocate was
widely diff'used and he attained such a degree of intellectual
culture as placed him far beyond the reach of local rivalry."
" Let Yancey talk two hours with Elmore upon a case, and
then rise in Court to argue it, and he made the clearest and
most delightful forensic address I ever heard," said one of the
most learned of his brethren of the bar. Judge William M.
Brooks. " From my youth up I heard Mr. Yancey's wonderful
oratory in Nisi Prius Courts and In the Supreme Court of Ala
bama. It is one of the peculiarities of genius to fall occasion
ally In command of native powers. Mr. Y'' ancey was an excep
tion to this rule, for though his genius was undoubted, in the
true acceptation of the term, he never failed. Sometimes, on
great occasions, he rose superior to himself, but he never fell
below the standard of his own rare excellence," said Malcolm
C. Grahara, lawyer and statesraan. " I first saw Mr. Yancey
at the bar (wrote Chief Justice Stone, of Alabama) in a trial
over which I presided. Two families occupied apartments In
a building at a watering place. One was in good circumstances,

THE MAN AND 'THE ADVOCATE. 408
the other was poor. The wife in the wealthy family was
healthy and robust; in the poorer, in feeble health. Mr.
Yancey, as attorney, brought suit in favor of the husband and
wife of the poor family against the husband and wife of the
rich for alleged assault caused to be committed by the wife of
the latter upon the wife of the former. The testimony tended
to show, that a quarrel had arisen between the two wives,
caused by their children, and that the rich woman had com
manded her servant, a negro man, to throw the otlier woman
¦over the hand rail of the second story gallery of the building,
a summer resort. It further tended to shoAV, that the servant
so far obeyed the order of his mistress as to seize the woman
very rudely, and was proceeding to execute it, when some gen
tlemen appearing in sight, his mistress ordered hira to desist,
which he did. The defendant's testimony differed essentially
from this. Mr. Y'ancey's fame as an orator had become widely"?
known and the court room was packed to its utmost capacity
to hear him in this somewhat celebrated case. He commenced,
as I afterwards learned to be his custom, by renouncing and
eliminating every minor or severely disputable conclusion of
fact, which weaker advocates are apt to argue, as grounds for
a recovery. He then stated clearly and distinctly the propo
sitions of fact which he contended the testimony established ;
and Ingeniously and ingenuously dissected and collated the
testimony in such- manner as almost to force the conviction
that his contentions were just. To say that his speech was a
powerful one is meagre praise. His voice was music's self.
The vast audience maintained a deathlike sUence, while the
jury sat almost as motionless as statues. So impressed was I
with the fear that the jury would be swerved from their
proper poise, I felt it to be my duty to caution them not to
allow their feelings to carry them beyond what their judg
ments would approve. The verdict, for the times, was a large
one for the plaintiff". Mr. Yancey had an imperious will, which
sometimes led him to assume attitudes of questionable benefit
to his case, but no man was freer frora quibbles or the tricks ;
which sometimes degrade the holders of laAv licenses." — '
Ex-Governor Thomas H. Watts, the political opponent,
generally, the brother at the bar and always the personal
iriend of Yancey, wrote of him : " Elmore was one of the

404 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
greatest lawyers I ever met. I never knew anybody who sur
passed him. Yancey was his partner, and it was not necessary
that Yancey should go to the books, as he must and woula
have done, had he been left entirely to his own resources.
Yancey was a wonderful man before a jury and before a court.
He had as much power over juries as he had over public
audiences, in bis political speeches. As an advocate he was
unsurpassed. I will not say he was as complete a lawyer as
any man I have ever known. I do say I have never seen him
surpassed, before a jury. There was a charm in his oratory
peculiar to blm, and I have asked, myself, ' TFAa* is itf It
was not wholly in his arrangement of facts, yet in this he was
a master. It was not in his power of analysis, though in that
he was great. But he was a man of remarkably fine presence
before a jury. There was the charm of his sweet and mellow
voice — every word and every syllable of every word so clear,
and In conversational tones, that he was heard distinctly in the
largest room. He was always deeply in earnest, and I must
say that he fell into the rule, consciously or unconsciously,
adopted by the famous Garrick — he spoke truth as if it were
truth, and as if he felt, in the deepest recesses of his heart, the
full measure of the words he used. In that way, in my
opinion, he manifested his magical power. He did not use
many adjectives. Y^ancey's fiery temper sometimes got the
better of his judgment. In social life he was very affable, and
was a fine conversationalist, in the corapany of his friends."
Governor Watts also relates the following incident of a
case in which he jointly appeared with Yancey. In the Know
Nothing party exClteraent, Foster, a young raan lately arrived
at Montgomery, from Pennsylvania, a clerk in a drug store,
shot and killed, in a bar roora, an Irishman, Thorapson, a
waiter in a hotel. Foster was able to pay a good fee, assisted
from horae. He eraployed Yancey and Watts to defend him.
Judge George Goldthwaite, formerly of the Supreme Court,
assisted in the prosecution, having been retained by the Irish
residents of the town. Montgomery county was a Whig
stronghold, and to empanel a jury for the case who would rise
above the political feelings of the day was quite a consider
ation. The political prejudices iuArolved and the array of
eminent counsel attracted the planters from the surrounding

THE MAN AND THE ADVOCATE. 405
territory, and the large court room was packed, even in stand
ing room. When it was seen that the Know Nothings pre
vailed on the jury, this fact gave intensity to public feeling.
It was agreed that Goldthwaite should open for the State and
Yancey should follow for the defendant. Goldthwaite's friends
were extremely delighted with his speech ; all declared he had
never been so happy and the argument was surely with him.
Yancey spoke four hours. " I venture to say (said an eye
witness) not an individual left the house. The Judge and the
jury were spellbound." He painted a glowing picture of a
young American standing, unoff'ending, on his native soil,
grossly insulted by a foreigner, fresh from the most oppressed
land of the earth. The jury promptly brought in their ver
dict, " not guilty."
Traveling the circuit was an interesting experience in a
lawyer's life, in Yancey's time. Some journeyed on horseback,
with saddlebags, the thirty to flfty railes from Court House to
Court House, each Court holding one or two weeks ; some, as
the country roads improved, with time, drove their teams. All
' put up at the same cheap hotel, two, four or six In the sarae
sleeping apartment, two in a bed. Yancey boasted hiraself the
best " whip " on the road. Driving slowly for a few railes, it
was his wont to give the rein to his team, thereafter, pass his
associates of the bar, with jests thrown back at their slow
progress, and so draw up at the tavern in time to arrange his
papers before their arrival. Not infrequently, on the Monday
night, before the court had organized for its work, he was
compelled to speak on political topics, and occasions of this
kind constituted no small part of his instructions to the
people. On one occasion, in the Polk campaign, he arrived at
the capital of Macon, a rich county, late in the afternoon. The
County Convention of Democrats was in session, and appealed
to him by coraraittee to address thera, after tea. He declined,
on the plea that professional labors would require his atten
tion at that hour. The convention at once resolved, although
its work was complete, to adjourn until the next evening for
the special purpose of hearing him. A correspondent, writing
of the event, said : " I am unable to employ words to describe
Mr. Yancey's speech here last night. It was all argument,
hut it was argument instinct with life and spirit. It was not

406 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
only solid. It was shining — just as sparks ascend from the
anvil under the blows of the skillful smith." Whenever it was
known that he would argue an iraportant case in court the
room was crowded to its utmost capacity with the people,
while the lawyers filled the bar. Judge, jury and spectators
dwelt with Insatiate eagerness upon his words.
In 1860, after Mr. Yancey had practically surrendered him
self to the public service, he retired from the co-partnership
with Mr. Elmore and formed a Uke connection with the emi
nent jurist, lately Chief Justice of the State, William Parrish
Chilton. The firm of Chilton and Yancey consisted of W. P.
and Thomas Chilton, son of the senior, and W. L. and B. C.
Yancey, father and son. After a few months, W. P. Chilton,-
Jr., was admitted to its membership. The part Mr. Yancey
took in the business of the new firm was necessarily limited
by his political labors.

CHAPTER 20.

The Southern Argument.
i860.

Another quadrennial season of contest for the Presidency
arrived. Rival parties were, with common consent, expected
to state the plea of sections. The normal attitude of the slave
States in this crisis of the national life, will be the theme of
this Chapter. It is to be found in the raoral responsibility of
a happy and progressive social systera to its sources. This
patent fact of responsibility impelled the slave States to de
mand the assertion of certain propositions, as the basis of the
teachings of the national Democratic party, preliminary to the
pending election :
1. The adjudicated rights of the institution of African
slavery in the origin and authorized interpretations of the
principles of the federal government ;
2. The self-sufficiency of the society of the slave States
to fulfill their federal obligations ;
3. The evolutionary character of the institutions of the
slave States, presenting indubitable evidence of adaptation to
the most enlightened theories of progressive social organism.
The earliest national adjudgment of the rights of masters
of slaves, in free America, was incorporated in the first national
act. The Declaration of Independence lodged complaint against
the king of England, alleging his interference between master
and slave. The treaty of peace with the mother country de
manded the restitution of slaves the British army had carried

408 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
off. The Congress of the Confederation, on a report of Alex
ander Hamilton, passed a resolution, August 26, 1788, nearly
a year after the Constitution had been framed, but before the
government under it had gone into effect, requiring the Secre
tary of the Department of Foreign Affairs to communicate
with his Catholic Majesty, the king of Spain, representing to
him "the inconveniences which the States bordering on his
dominions experience from the asylum afforded to fugitive
negroes belonging to the citizens of the said States ; and that
Congress have full confidence that orders shall be given to his
Governors to permit and facilitate their being apprehended
and delivered to persons authorized to receive them ; assuring
his Majesty that the said States will observe the like conduct
respecting all such negroes belonging to his subjects, as may
be found therein." Hamilton, Sedgewlck, from Massachusetts,
and Madison made the report to the Congress. The adoption
of the report, after the fugitive slave proviso of the Ordinance
of 1787 had taken effect, and after Paragraph 3, Section 2,
Article IV, of the Constitution, had been adopted, may fairly
stand as the fact Inferentlally constructive of the same pro
vision in the two docuraents. It is well worthy of notice that
this report, coming from the most eminent statesmen of both
the Navigating and the Agricultural States, did not pledge the
federal government, or the federal officers, to return to Spanish
authorities in Florida fugitive negroes, but pledged " the said
States''^ — the separate States, that happened to be near the
Spanish possessions — to reciprocal acts of comity touching
the return of that kind of property. At a future day, to be
presently discussed, great confusion arose in Congress and in
the Courts respecting the assumed right of the federal govern
ment, under the fugitive slave provision of the Ordinance and
of the Constitution. The discussion, in its time, received im
pulse from the novelty of the attempt of the federal Constitu
tion to dispose of the fact of African slavery. The history of
all monarchies, republics and confederations had been searched,
and the speculations of political literature had been exhausted
to suggest theories for an American government. So it hap
pened, that the provisions of the Constitution, relating to the
African race, came to be the only essentially original features
of the instrument. In the task of adaptation of the African to

THE SOUTHERN ARGUMENT. 409
civilization there was no precedent to draw upon. The debate,
nevertheless, in the Convention on the subject was in good
temper. Virginia, not yet a slave breeder for market, de
manded the immediate suppression of importations; Massa
chusetts, not yet ready to surrender the profits, demanded un
hmited pursuit of the trade. Mr. Roger Sherman, from Con
necticut, said :
" As the States are now possessed of the right to import slaves and
the public good did not require it to be taken from them, etc., he
thought it best to leave tfie matter as we find it."
Mr. Oliver Ellsworth, from Connecticut, said :
" He was in favor of allowing every State to do as it pleases. The
morality or wisdoin of slavery were matters belonging to the States
themselves. If the question was to be considered in a moral light, we
ought to go farther and free those already in the country. As slaves
multiply fast in Virginia and Maryland it is cheaper there to raise than
to import them, whilst in the sickly rice swamps foreign supplies are
necessary, if we go farther than is urged, we shall be unjust towards
South Carolina and Georgia. Let us not intermeddle."*
Mr. Rufus King, from Massachusetts, thought the question
should be considered in a political light only, but that the
exemption of slaves from iraport duty seemed to be a discrimi
nation in favor of Southern imports " that could not fail to
strike the Northern and Middle States." Mr. Gouverneur
Morris thought the question " might form a bargain among the
Southern and Northern States." The whole question relating
to the African slave trade was put in charge of a committee.
Their report forbid Congress to interfere with the trade " prior
to the year 1800." Mr. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, from
South Carolina, moved to amend to make the date 1808. Mr.
Madison said twenty years of the trade would do all the harm
that could be done. The amendment was accepted, and the
report, thus amended, was passed, all the New England States,
except Rhode Island, which did not appear, voting yea, assisted
by Maryland, the two Carolinas and Georgia, seven. New
York did not vote. Against the amended report New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virginia, four, voted. After the
adoption of the slave trade provision, Mr. Elbridge Gerry, frora
Massachusetts, moved to reconsider Article XIX, referring to
*Madison Papery A'^ol. HI., p. 1391 et al.

410 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
amendments to the Constitution. He proposed so to alter it
as make safe the State Constitution as against any possible act
of the federal government. While Mr. Gerry's raotion was
being considered Mr. John Rutledge, from South Carolina,
said : " He never could agree to give a power by which the
Articles relating to slaves might be altered by the States not
interested in that property." It was thereupon agreed that
the following words should be added to the provision relating
to amendments : "Provided, That no amendment which may
be made prior to the year 1808 shall in any manner affect " the
provisions relating to the African slave trade. The vote on
Mr. Rutledge's motion to prohibit any amendment, hostile to
the trade, prior to 1808, stood: Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Caro
lina, South Carolina and Georgia, nine, aye ; Delaware, nay ;
New Hampshire divided, and New York not voting. Mr.
Luther Martin, writing to the Legislature of Maryland, ex
plaining the work of the Convention, said: "I found the
Eastern States, notwithstanding their aversion to slavery, very
willing to gratify the Southern States, proAdded these in turn
would lay no restrictions on the Navigating Acts." In the
debate, negroes held to service were spoken of as " slaves " and
as " property." In the debate Avhich resulted in the provision
relating to enumeration of persons for apportionment and tax
ation, negroes of that class were spoken of as " slaves " ahd
" property." In the 54th Number of the Federalist, Avritten
by Mr. Madison to explain the relation of slaves to the Consti
tution, before the States had consented to ratify it, and to
prevail with the Southern States to ratify, he refers to the
Africans held to service as " slaves " and as " property." " The
federal Constitution, therefore, decides with great propriety on
the case of our slaves, when it views thera in the mixed char
acter of persons and of property," he wrote. These citations
are sufficient to show that the founders of the government of
the United States considered slaves as property; and con
sented to the increase of their number, by importation ; and
provided for the protection of slave masters in their rights of
possession. They are sufflcient also to show, that the Consti
tutional rights of slavery were founded on compromise or

THE SOUTHERN ARGUMENT. 411
"bargain" made between the Navigating States, then pre
paring to abandon the institution, and the Agricultural States
preparing to enlarge and perpetuate it, as a basis of Union.
The Legislative Department of the federal governraent, at
divers times and in various acts, recognized the property
status of the slave.
The conventional guarantees of slavery were sustained by
an unbroken series of judicial decrees frora courts of last
resort, beginning at an early period of the government and
continuing until the sword extinguished the institution. So
far as the question was connected with history, its precedents
and analogies, and so far as the best commentators and ex
pounders had established general principles, the Institution in
the Southern States could safely be expected to run its course
and reach its natural end as it had done, under the Constitu
tion, In the Northern States.
One, Prigg, seized a female slave escaped to Pennsylvania,
and returned her to service whence she had fled. The legality
of the seizure, made without warrant of arrest or other author
ity in law save the fugitive slave provision of the Constitution
and the act of Congress, of 1793, came before the federal
Supreme Court. In Prigg vs. the Commonwealth of Pennsyl
vania (XIV Peters), Justice Story pronouncing the opinion,
the Court held, following a citation from Blackstone :
" Upon this ground we have not the slightest hesitation in holding
that, under and in virtue of the Constitution, the owner of a slave is
clothed with entire authority in every State in the Union to seize and
recapture his slave whenever he can do it without any breach of the
peace or any illegal violence."
The importance of the decree in this case was seen in the
immediate consequences. Its political aspect appeared under
two heads. The free States rose in Indignation against the
principle laid down, that no legislation, anywhere, was neces
sary to enforce the right conferred upon masters, under and in
virtue of the Constitution of the Union, to seize their fugitive
slaves in any State. The decree of the Court, thus far, was in
full accord with the report of Hamilton concerning the " fugi
tive negroes " and reciprocity of favors with the Spaniards, in
Florida. Great was the delight of the free States when the
Court held the fugitive slave act, of 1793, unconstitutional.

412 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The decree In this respect, however, was based upon the
highest State Rights doctrine. It held that Congress, the
mere agent of contracting sovereigns, could not enter their
respective bounds to compel the Executive and Judicial offl
cers of the sovereign to execute the compact. As the act, of
1793, required the federal government to return fugitive slaves,
the Court held the act to be an invasion of the right and duty
of the States, under the Constitution, to do the same thing.
The free States at once repealed their laws, requiring their
officers to assist federal marshals in arresting fugitive slaves,
but they failed to adopt the reasoning of the Court, that each
State, in its individual capacity, was bound, by the federal
Constitution, to return fugitive slaves. After the passage of
the "compromise," of 1850, amending the act of 1793, Mr.
Seward traversed the West, speaking to the people in many
places. In Ohio, he said :
" Your Constitution and laws convert hospitality to the refugee
from the most degrading oppression on earth into a crime, but all man
kind, except you, esteem that hospitality a virtue. I say extend a
cordial welcome to the fugitive who lays his weary limbs at your door
and defend him as you would your household gods."
The impassioned speeches of Mr. Seward in the West, Mr.
Sumner in the East, Messrs. Wade, Hale, Giddings In either
House of Congress, in conflict with the decrees in the Courts of
last resort. State and federal, led people and States into open
rebellion. Not only did the free States repeal their previous
statutes providing aid to the federal authorities in the capture
of fugitive slaves, when the decree in the Prlgg case was ren
dered, but they substituted for them statutes calculated to
encourage fugitive slaves to seek asylum in their bounds. Mr.
Seward did not pretend to found his counsel upon the Consti
tution, but Mr. Sumner and others of the Abolition orators
were less candid. They cited the Constitutional guarantee
declaring the object of government to be security to life, Ub
erty and property, until deprived by due process of law ; the
right of trial by jury ; exemption from seizure, without war
rant supported by oath or affirraation describing the person or
thing to be seized. It is true Justice Baldwin decided, in the
case Johnson vs. Thompson, heard in the federal Circuit Court
cf Pennsylvania, that " the foundations of this government are

THE SOUTHERN ARGUMENT. 413
laid and rest on the rights of property in slaves and the whole
fabric must fall by disturbing the corner stone " ; that Chief
Justice Taney held, in the Dred Scott case, that the Constitu
tion was made by the white people of Araerica for them and
the successors of their race, and that the negro Avas contem
plated by it as a slave only. To these arguments answer
was made, that freedom In a free State was universal and
indisputable, unrelaxing because of color or previous condition,
to which every raan was entitled, prima facie, and that the
fugitive slave provision of the Constitution was Itself irrecon
cilable Avith the Declaration of Independence and the objects
for which the governraent was established.*
In the season of reorganization, of 1860, the slave States
proposed to commit the Democratic party to the universally
accepted doctrine of publicists that the king was not owner of
the public property, to dispose of it at his pleasure ; but, to the
contrary, the natural equity of public enjoyment attached to
the thing acquired by the comraon blood and treasure of the
people. This proposition became pertinent, because of the in
tensely perverted practices of the Republican party, derogatory
of the fundamental principles stated. Among the essentially
federal, or State autonomous, features of the federal compact
was the provision :
"A person charged with treason, felony or other crime who shall
flee from justice and be found in another State, shall on demand of the
executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to
be removed to the State haAdng jurisdiction of the crime."
So thoroughly was the compact nature of this provision
preserved in the phraseology, that the word " Congress " does
not appear in it. The provision was, indeed, taken from an
established law of nations to protect feeble powers against
riotous or revolutionary characters, subjects of strong powers,
without a resort to hostilities. But the compact provision was
forgotten in the sacredness of its obligations when, as early as
1838, Governor Seward, of New York, refused to deliver up a
person charged with felony in another State and who had
escaped, because the crime charged was theft of a slave, a
species of property not recognized by the law of New York.
?Speeches ol Ciiarles Sumner, Horace Mann, and others.

414 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The Governor of Ohio and the Governor of Maine refused like
requisitions, on the sarae ground.
The second proposition, that a moral obligation rested on
the slave States, In 1860, to protect the sources of their phe
nomenally prosperous and happy social existence, will now be
considered frora data drawn from the only available supply —
the offlcial records of the federal government ; and thus it will
appear that a higher general prosperity prevailed, at that
time. In the slave States than in the free. It has been made
manifest that the slave States were on the defensive, as against
the free States ; it is certain, that no people ever did or ever
will surrender the moral and physical attainments of the for
mer without a struggle, unless the love of truth shall have
ceased to animate their hearts or courage shall not longer be
accounted a public virtue.*
First, it is to be said, the increase of native born whites in
the slave States, from the flrst census, 1790, to the last, 1860,
was very slightly in excess of the Increase of the native born
whites in the free States — old and new States reckoned to
gether in each case. The preponderance of white population
in the free States, at the date of the Eighth .Census, 1860, arose
entirely from foreign Immigration. Under the blessings of
then prevailing institutions, the whites of the South were
healthy, well fed, well clad and prollflc, judged by the tests of
the most enlightened people of the earth In corresponding en
joyments. DOMESTIC EXPORTS (1859 and 1860 combined).
.Slave Ports — Free Ports —
New Orleans. . . .$208,276,608 New York  .$123,127,769
Charleston  39,081,544 Boston  21,271,440
Savannah  33,724,250 Philadelphia.... 10,480,919
Total  $281,082,402 $154,880,128
The statistics are taken from the Ninth Number, Statis
tical Abstract of the United States, page 44, issued by the Sec
retary of the Treasury, and embrace the three largest export
ing cities of the slave States and the free States, respectively,
east of the Rocky Mountains. The exhibit shows a dlff'erence
of $126,202,274 in favor of the slave States. MobUe is omitted
» " War is terrible, the hoof of the war-horse and insult to woman -worse than
death, hut more terrible still is the loss of public spirit-"— ./fee. Frederic]; W. Itob-
^rtson.

THE SOUTHERN ARGUMENT. 415
l)y the authority cited, to the disadvantage of the slave States.
It was, in fact, a larger exporter than Charleston or Savannah.
Another Treasury document gives the value of cotton, alone,
exported from that port, crop of 1858, at $42,278,468. The
failure of the slave States, in their eft'ort to preserve their social
organism in the contest of the sections, was the chief cause
that so changed the relative account of the principal ports.
North and South, with Doraestic Exports, that, in 1885 and
1886, New Orleans had faUen to 1159,925,933, In the aggregate,
and New York had risen to $639,214,838. There was even a
greater relative decadence at Mobile, a sraaller one at Charles
ton, and an increase at Savannah, to some extent. Domestic
' exports increased, in the same time, more than four-fold from
the port of Boston and more than flve-fold from the port of
PhUadelphia. The settlement of the West, to which the in
crease is largely due, in the exports of Eastern ports was enor
mously facilitated by the fiscal action of the government, be
ginning at an early period. For example, the estimated items
of the bill for Internal Improveraents considered In the House,
March, 1851, called for §372,000 exclusively for use in the
slave States, and $1,050,000 for use, exclusively, in the States
north of the Potoraac and the Ohio, adding $240,000 for the
improvement of the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri and Arkansas
rivers. While the railroad mileage in the New England States
was increased only 1,162 mUes, from 1850 to 1860, in Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia there were built,
in the same years, 3,354 miles. In the Upper Mississippi Val
ley States, however, Ohio, Indiana and IlUnois, In the same
decade, tbe railroad mileage increased 5,889 miles to only 3,421
miles in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Missouri. But,
examining the reports of the government. It Is discovered the
three free States received an excess of land grants over the
four slave States In that time. The excess of land grants
alone, at $1.25 the acre, would have built the increase of rail
road mileage and left over and above the cost of construction,
at census rates, a cash surplus exceeding $3,500,000.* There
Is no way to account for the increase of railroad mileage, in
the Atlantic slave States, of three-fold over the New England
States, except in the accumulation of profits of Industry. They
* Comp. Census, 1860: Report Sec. Interior, 1853.

416 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
received no donations frora the government, that is, no resto
ration of their taxes and no share in public lands, for internal
improveraents, education or anything else. The various and
numerous ways in which the inequality of collections and dis
bursements of federal revenues was accomplished, to the un
varying gain of the free States and the loss of the slave States
tended to aggravate the feeling of the South against the incen
diary and other attacks upon slavery. Up to 1842, there had
been no tariff' upon railroad iron, for example, and the Atlantic
free States had built railroads rapidly, with untaxed iron, to
connect with their furnaces. The domestic iron business hav
ing been established, the tariff was put on by their votes in
Congress. These States united all parties to pass the iron
tariff of 1842. The South was then beginning to build rail
roads. The discrimination of the tariff tax against Southern
railroad building was disastrous. The Legislature of South
Carolina, with the approbation of Calhoun and Hayne, had
made a flxed appropriation of $250,000 a year for internal im
provements. It was soon discovered that the bounty the
federal law offered to Northern Iron masters. In the form of
tariff', had raised the price of rails beyond the power of the
State to buy. While the free States of the West Avere prac
tically relieved of the tariff, on iron rails, by land grants. South
Carolina nor any other slave State shared in that counter
balancing federal beneficence. Sectional discrimination, in the
acts of Congressional appropriations, attacked the interior
water ways. It was just shown that the export coramerce of
New Orleans exceeded in value the commerce of any port of
the Union. Nevertheless, while there was a mail service twice
dally from Cincinnati to New York, the mail service, out from
New Orleans on the Western waters as high up as Louisville,
was so defective that it was the ordinary practice of merchants
along the river to trust their correspondence to the pockets of
passengers found willing to carry it. In February, 1851, a
bill came up in the House to appropriate $100,000 to each ship
carrying the mall from New York to Bremen, and $75,000 to
each ship carrying the mail from New York to Havre. It was
developed in debate, that less than $35,000 was aUowed to the
whole number of steamers carrying the mails between New

THE SOUTHERN ARGUMENT. 417
Orleans and Louisville via St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg and
many smaller places, a distance nearly as great as across the
Atlantic, populated, more or less, along the entire line. Com
plaints of the people of the Southwest were unavailing. " The
econoipy of this great government is exhibited in the South
west ; the wants of the lower Ohio and the Mississippi are not
properly regarded," exclaimed Representative Humphrey Mar
shaU. " What becomes of the $1,600,000, which the people of
Tennessee pay annually, according to the latest report of the
Secretary of the Treasury? I ask what becomes of 'this great
sum which the people of Tennessee contribute to the support
of this government ? Is there $100,000 of it returned to them
in the appropriations of the government among them ? I ven
ture to say there is not, and in this you will see me vindicated
by the report of the Secretary." So spoke Representative
Jones, from Tennessee, on the bill.
The inequity of federal disbursements was systematically
pursued, beginning with the early ascendency of the free
States in Congress. From 1791 to 1833 the States, south of
the Potomac received, on account of internal improvement,
$878,709. The States north of the Potomac, in the same time
and on the same account received, approximately, three dollars
to one, or $3,117,206. In 1845 a bill was before Congress to
appropriate $2,019,402 to Atlantic fortifications, south of Bal
timore, and to appropiate $12,222,422 to Uke fortifications
north of Baltimore. Each mile of coast defense, north of
Baltimore, was allowed $9,267 ; each mile of coast defense
south of that point, $4,382. The sectional character of the
legislation appropriating the respective suras will appear on
inquiry into the sources of revenue. The chief source of
revenue was the import tax. Imports resulted from exports
and exports initiated, through the whole history of the
slavery confiict, as to the sections, approximately in ratio set
forth in the following statement :
-EXPORTS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDIKG JUNE 30, 1859.
INITIATING IN FEEB STATES EXCLUSIVELY.
Products of Fisheries  $4,462,974
Coal  653,536
Ice  •  164,581
Total, exclusive exports of free States  $5,281,091
27

418 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
INITIATING IN SLAVE STATES EXCLUSIVELY.
Cotton  :  $161,434,923
Tobacco  21,074,038
Eosin and Turpentine  3,554,416
Tar and Pitch  141,058
Eice  2,207,148
Brown Sugar  196,935
Molasses  75,699
Hemp  9,-279
Total exclusive exports of slave States  $188,693,496
•
These figures, however, do not embrace $57,502,305 of
specie exported from the free States. They omit also to divide
between the sections $84,417,493 exports of products of indus
try in which both sections were involved. For example, the
largest export flouring mills in the Union were at Richmond,
Virginia, and the next largest were in the interior of the State
of New York. Shingles, timber, horses, mules, cattle, meal,
etc., produced in both sections, were exported to the amount
stated. An analysis of the items of the exports in common
will shoAA^that at least one-third is due to the slave States' side
of the statement. The exports of the sections, of their own
productions, may be safely stated at $216,000,000 for the slave
States, and $118,000,000 for the free States; making & per
capita export, both races included, of $18.00 for the slave
States and $6.83 for the free States.*
While adraitting that two-thirds of the exports of the
Union initiated in the slave States, it was a favorite argument
of free State politicians, that the South expended the proceeds
of sales of her exports in buying from the free States the
necessaries of life. The fallacy of the argument is easily
shown, true, as it may be, that the ceaseless menace hanging
over slavery, in the violence of the Abolitionists, tended to
confine industry in the South to the most elementary con
ditions, where risks of capital were at a minimura. Neverthe
less, the chief single industry of the tax favored free States,
cotton manufacturing, increased 83 per cent, from 1850 to
1860, while the chief single industry of the slave States, raw
cotton production, discriminated against in the fiscal action of
the government, increased much more than 100 per cent;
* Report Secretary Treasury, 1859.

THE SOUTHERN ARGUMENT. 419
frora 2,233,718 bales, the crop of 1849, to 4,861,291 bales, aver
aging forty-five pounds heavier, the crop of 1859.* Stating
the actual relative sources of human maintenance, in the two
sections, from the census of 1860, the evidence stands :
ANIMALS SLAUGHTERED, 1860.
Slave States  $106,362,075 Free States  $102,889,811
The per capita for population of all races being, in the slave States
-$8.83, and in the free States $5.33.
BUSHELS OF CORN PRODUCED.
Slave States  437,045,726 Free States  884,045,726
BUSHELS OF WHEAT PRODUCED.
.Slave States  22,408,915 Free States  72,270,828
The two staple grains of diet aggregated a product of 37
bushels per capita of population in the slave States to 25
bushels in the free States. Of rice, molasses and raw sugar
the slave States produced largely and the free States none.
•Of peas, sweet and Irish potatoes the slave States produced,
in round numbers, two-thirds of the aggregate production of
the Union. In orchard products, market garden products and
dairy products the free States far excelled the slave States.
It is not to be denied that waste entered largely into the
habits of life in the slave States, nor that the want of a strict
economy required the importing of bread stuff's and provis
ions, in large quantities. But it raay well be questioned
whether the prevalence of slavery, in itself, was the moving
cause of extravagance. The absence of diversified industries
was, prima facie, the invitation to waste, and the Abolition
crusade against slavery, through the years, reduced Southern
industry to one main pursuit, as has been again and again
demonstrated. In truth, however, no laboring population ever
were known which consumed as largely of bread and meats as
the slaves of the South. Infants were fed lavishly, by systera
as well as the producing labor. The elevation, physical and
moral, of the race, essential to its productive capacity, required
high feeding, and this was well understood by masters. I
remember my neighbor, who was esteemed the best manager
of a plantation, issued extra rations of milk, lard and other
nourishing articles of diet to his negro workers when the sun
was hottest and the labor most exacting.
* Latham Alexander & Co.'s Cotton Trade of the United States.

420 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The chief assessable values of the sections, in 1860, being
brought into view, exhibit great increase, above 1850, but the
percentage of increase, except in manufacturing, of all land
pursuits, was in favor of the slave States. Bank deposits, for
example, increased, in the decade, less than two fold in the free
States, and only less than three fold in the slave States. True
they reached in the slave States but $8.62 per capita of white
population, rising to $10.66 in the free States per capita of
population, but in the former, having reached the grand aggre
gate of $61,741,163, indicated thus a new direction of business.
Pursuing this indication, it is shown by the census that, rail
road mileage in the slave States, in the decade, increased at a
per centage greatly over the Increase in the free States. The
cash value of the farm lands of the slave States increased in
greater per centage than tbe same class of property in the free
States, as the following tabular statement shows :
CASH VALUE OF FARM LANDS IN ORIGINAL STATES.
Slave states. Free States.
Virginia, New York,
South Carolina, Georgia. New Jersey, Pennsylvania.
1850  $394,586,672 1850  $1,082,660,252
1860  668,427,522 1860  1,645,664,6.38
CASH VALUE OF FARM LANDS IN NEW STATES.
Alabama, Ohio,
Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas. Indiana, Illinois, Iowa.
1850  $150,878,113 1850  $ 600,934,633
1860  536,688,174 1860  1,562,449,421
NotAvlthstanding the ceaseless peril of slavery and the
consequent discouragement of manufactures of large invest
ment and slow growth, manufacturing capital Increased In
the slave States frora 93 millions. In 1850, to 161 millions In
1860. In the same decade the sarae class of enterprise In
creased in the free States frora 440 railllons to 848 mllUons.
In the Republic, wealth is social strength according to the
evenness of its distribution. Man for raan, the population of
the sovereign slave States of America •<ffere, by tnis test, the
happiest and freest of all known to history. Cities were less
numerous and less magnificent than in the free States ; the
small farms, tilled by their white proprietors, in the free
States, were more tidy than the great cotton, tobacco and rice .
plantations of the slave States. So much for environments and

THE SOUTHERN ARGUMENT. 421
adaptation. The " business " blocks of the city, where granite
highways are lined with marble palaces and temples, are not
allowed by the statistician to detract frora the peculiar honors
due to the suburbs, where art is less a consideration of actual
value and nature enters more into the estimate. The greater
population, occupying smaller area, in the free States gave
higher market value to the soil in the free States ; the pro
ductive occupation of all slaves of both sexes, of proper age,
contributed to the advantage the laborer of the slave States
maintained over the laborer of the free States.
The brief account of industrial conditions prevailing in the
warring sections, of 1860, will be closed with the following
summary of wealth in Agriculture, Manufactures and Com
merce : Slave States. Free States.
Cash value of farms  $2,082,997,403 $4,555,416,818
Capital in Manufactures  161,677,029 848,178,686
Eailroads built, 1850 to 1860  304,526,332 823,324,497
Value sailing vessels  109,417,125
Value steamships  60,755,490
Bank capital  11 1,466,9.57 310,423,138
Value of slaves  2,800,000,000 
Total  $5,460,667,721 $6,707,515,754
The per capita of wealth in the free States, in the specified
items, is shown at $372, and in the slave States, enumerating
whites only, at $682.*
In estimating the imperfection of any social polity, the
truth it contains within itself can only be appreciated by con
sidering the concrete and comparing and contrasting it with
others. The slave States having lost nothing, on the material
or industrial score, where the free States were brought into
view, it becomes important to pursue the parallelism involved
into the sphere of morals. The relative illiteracy of the sec
tions was markedly against the slave States ; the relative pau
perism and crime of the free States far exceeded the count
under those heads in the slave States. It should not be for
gotten that Uliteracy in the slave States did not disqualify the
* California and Oregon are omitted from the items of land values and raU
roads. The saUing vessel tonnage is estimated at $25 the ton and the steamship ton
nage at S70 the ton. Comp. Eighth Census and Commerce and Navigation, United
states Government Print, 1890, are authorities used.

422 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
individual from the successful prosecution of the main indus
try of the section. Nor did the fact of illiteracy operate to
deprive the individual white man of the respect and confidence
inspired in the minds of educated people by his general char
acter for probity and industry. The iUiterate white man had
an equal opportunity to hear public oratory and to attend
public assemblies, and the social recognition allowed to him
on all sides by all classes encouraged a manly appropriation of
the advantages to be derived from it. In so far as illiteracy
in the African affected Southern society, it may be safely de
clared that the average mental acumen and moral perception
of the race far exceeded, in 1860, the status attained to in 1890,
after twenty-five years of devoted experimentation in its schol
astic training. EDUCATION IN 1860.
Slave States. Free States.
Exp' d on colleges  $1,662,419 Exp'd on colleges  $1,514,298
Exp' d on academies. .. 4,328,127 Exp' d on academies. . . 4,663,749
Exp'd on public schools 5,277,217 Exp'd on public schools 17,271,302
Total  $11,267,763 Total  $23,449,349
There was abundant evidence of the revival of interest in
public schools in the slave States, in 1860. The University
and College had preceded the public school system in Ncav
England, as in the South. There was CAddence, that in this
particular, the slave States were following the experience of
England in working reform from the top downward, through
the organization of society. Indeed, the public educational
system of Alabama, which received special attention from the
Legislature, in the early years of the decade of 1850-1860, was
advanced to a position quite equal to that of Indiana, a free
agricultural State, at the same period.
The moral condition of the slave States lost nothing in
comparison with the free. Churches were more numerous in
the former than in the latter, and church membership in pro
portion to population was more numerous.*
* I am indebted to Rev. Basil Manly, D.D., ol the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, Louisville, for the compilation of educational statistics, verified hy Vol.
IV, p. 60 Introduction, and pp. 502—606 Census 1860.

CHAPTER 21.

The Argument Continued.
i860.

A modern philosopher — Herbert Spencer — insists that
whenever natural causes are discovered to be powerful, a wide
spread accusation springs up against them that they are
powerless ; and that in proportion as an evil decreases popular
denunciation of it increases. A remarkable justification of
these general conclusions appears in the metamorphosis which
spread itself over the Northern mind when it had become
apparent that the laws of nature were rapidly preparing
slavery, in the South, for self -extinction. In the last Chapter
it was shown that the problem of Southern society, if undis
turbed by the revolutionary acts of the Abolitionists, would
be to adjust the profits of slave labor, the incomie derived
from plantations, to the spirit of development abroad in the
land. Local competitive economic forces were inevitable. The
competition with slavery, thus arising, had been fatal to the
institution throughout its history, coming down the ages.
" Do not ask (says a writer in the early Christian epoch) how
these Old Testament precepts can be good now, when the need
for them is pa^t ; ask how they were good when the period
required them. Or, if you wish, do inquire into their merit
even now. It is still conspicuous, and lies in nothing so much
as what now enables -us to find fault with them. Their highest
praise is that we now see them to be defective."

424 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
By the census of 1840 the free States gained in representa
tion in the Lower Ilouse of Congress, so that their majority
was fifty -one. Their majority in the decade next following
was fifty-four. The federal taxes and disbursements of reve
nues were controlled by this majority, to the great injury of
Southern industrial life, in respect to the natural laws affect
ing the relations of the African. An equitable disbursement
of taxes collected under a just system would have left, in the
slave States, vast accumulations of money derived from sales
of plantation crops. Slave property being limited to natural
increase, investment of ready cash must have sought enter
prises not dependent on slave labor, however useful might
have been free African labor. It has been shown that the
cotton crop of 1859, increased, over that of 1849, more than one
hundred per cent., on a rising market ; that Southern hank
deposits multiplied, but the increase of slaves, in the same
tirae, was less than 24 per cent. Moreover, the price of
slaves doubled. The basis of a reformed economy was, the
ready money awaiting investment. No investment of a profit
able nature was possible, which would not have become
competitive with property in labor. Year following year, the
fiscal action of the federal government militated against the
ndrinal action of Southern society, and so prepared the sword
to work out the extinction of slavery ; for which end active
economic influences, within the slave States, were preparing
with justice and peace. The measure recommended by Mr.
Adaras, that Congress should make a treaty with each slave
State, for emancipation of its slaves, and the various " compro
mises " enacted by Congress, hostile to the institution of
slavery, were in direct conflict with the theory of Constitu
tional growth, founded on the evolutionary elements of the
society affected. They involved the application of power,
resident in a central government, ignoring the reformatory
instinct of society to adjust Its inherent forces to the end of
social progress. Throughout nearly half a century of acri
monious agitation, the Abolitionists brought forward no tem
perate, practical or humane raeasure to assist the African of
the South along that line of raental and moral development
upon which the methods of the plantation and the statutes
and Constitutions of the slave States propelled him. The

THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED. 425
anti-slavery sentimentalism of New England was fomented in
old England, and was complicated with English financial
policies and commercial interests — the same which deraanded
the breaking up of the English colonies in the West Indies to
transfer English supremacy to the East Indies. The alliance,
with old England, of the Abolitionists extended to the ob
structing, up to the full measure of their opportunity, of the
designs of their own government to the southward ; refusing
their sanction to a commercial highway connecting the Pacific
and Atlantic, across the isthmus of Central America ; secretly
approving the murder of Crittenden, in Cuba ; openly applaud
ing the downfall of General William Walker; denouncing
Commodore Ingraham, the Southerner, for the honorable serv
ice he rendered his fiag in the seas of Eastern Europe. So,
too, it appeared that when every vote in the Lower House of
¦Congress, from Massachusetts, joined South CaroUna in sup
port of the tariff bill, of 1857, Massachusetts was recompensed
in the augraented sympathies which bound together Exeter
Hall and the school of Garrison.
The infidelity of the Abolitionists to a just or humane
statesmanship, looking to the solution of the question of
slavery, was made evident in their bold and persistent re
nouncement of the following propositions, held out in the
actual conditions of Southern society :
1. The involvement of the slave in a self-adjusting econ
omy calculated to elevate hira from the ancient status of bond
age to the modern status of contract,
2. The involvement of the slave in the political doctrine of
the sacredness of Constitutional obligaticms.
Both of these propositions were avoided by the Abolition
ists. The sublimated theory of the rights of the minority in
the federal compact was forced to yield to the profane power
of the majority. The destiny of the African, of the Southern
plantation, was turned from its course. The glory of the
American idea was denied its opportunity. The process of
African transition, through the perfected agency of bondage,
was disastrously convulsed.
There cannot be said to have been any general appreciation
on the part of the Southern people of the practical conflict be
tween accumulating profits of the plantations and the security

426 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
of slavery. There was a silent force in their conduct, never
theless, which was practically irresistible, fomenting that con
flict. In the midst of the secession controversy, of 1851, a
Legislature of Alabama was chosen on the Georgia Platform, as
has been explained. This body gave extraordinary attention
to industrial reform. It was the first Legislature in session
after Bank Commissioner Lyon had accomplished the rescue
of the State from threatened repudiation. A safe currency
was assured, on State regulations. Besides discussing a policy
of commercial advancement, with cotton as the main element
of trade, an appropriation was made, the first in order, to
enable Michael Tuomey, Professor of Geology, at the State
LTniversity, to locate coal seams and iron ore deposits known
to exist in the mountainous central counties. Georgia had
already led off in the line of reformed industries in her gold
and copper mines, and cotton mills, and politicians had already
attained to a view, however uncertain and confusing, even, of
the latent meaning of a small beginning of the pre-ordained
competition at home between slave labor and investment in
productive enterprises, of the fruits of slave labor, operated on
the wage systera. Accordingly, the briUiant young editor,
Mr. John Forsyth, writing from his home, Columbus, Georgia^
under date September 12, 1850, hoping to encourage that State
to secede from the Union, while her policy was as yet unde
termined, said:
"Gentlemen of Charleston, as a Georgian I hardly know what to
say to you Carolinians. I feel that my people should be at this moment
shoulder to shoulder with yours. I feel that instead of pouring out
their torrents of ridicule and abuse on you, as the guilty authors of the
disturbance of the peace of the Confederacy, our miscalled Constitu
tional Union men should lock their shields with yours and present an
impregnable phalanx to our common foes. I feel that Georgia is called
the ' Empire State,' in derision, by those whose principles and conduct
are fast making of her no State at all, but a dependent province. I
would to God we had fewer miles of railroad, fewer millions invested
in manufactures and stocks, fewer proofs of enterprise, and thrift and
money-making, and more of that chivalry of Georgia, of the olden time,
which, on more than one occasion, has interposed her sovereignty to
check the usurpations of the federal government, if, as I greatly fear,
the tribute to our enterprise is at the expense of independence of spirit;
and if the national timidity of wealth and the enervating influence of
unbounded prosperity have had the effect of rendering our ears more

THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED. 427
sensitive to the Syren song of Unionism and our eyes more blind to the-
dangerous consequences of submission to undoubted wrongs. * *
While life, and limb aud fortune are due to country, when did freedom
ever deraand of her votaries a sacriflce of liberty and labor!"
While Mr. Forsyth was, when he wrote, in earnest sympa
thy with Mr. Yancey, touching the remedy of secession, Mr.-
Yancey at no time sympathized with Mr. Forsyth's regrets
touching the material development of the South. In his ad
dress prepared for delivery before the literary Societies of the
University of Alabaraa, he said, of the institution of slavery
and of the course of the South : " The Southern mind is deal
ing generously with this complicated and dlfiicult question,.
but slowly, for it is one which time and extraordinary pru
dence alone can solve." He never conceded any thing to the
argument of nullification or retaliation in commerce, advanced
by Southern men, but held to a complete and final separation
of the States, when the Union became oppressive and intolera
ble. Hence, in his debate with Pryor, in the Southern Com
mercial Convention, he spoke with great respect of the enter
prise of the people of the North, and particularly of their
labor saving inventions. "In the City of Washington (he
said) two temples stand — one representing the South, the
other the North. One is the Capitol, the other the Patent
OfBLce. In the temple of law are the men of the South, lead
ing in the expansion of the law ; laboring on the CA^er magni
fying problem of the humanities. In the other temple. Is a
vast collocation of utilitarian ideas, set forth by the men of
the North striving for practical achievements. * * Out of
the million of models, not exceeding a dozen, perhaps, avUI
enter the current of men's lives to determine its course. But
the dozen are worthy of the temple and the cost to the people
in its maintenance ; and Avorthy of the spent lives of genius
and all that may be hereafter spent in such endeavor. In
ancient times, centuries occupied the transplanting of thought
from nation to nation. Even the light from the sublime alti
tude of the Cross traveled painfully and slowly. Now, from
the centre of the Sq-w World an idea encircles the world in a
moment of time, sent in a fiash from the genius of a young
American coming out from obscurity to fame." He spoke in
defense of the immutable principles of Constitutional liberty^

428 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
without regard to the moral aspect which slavery might be
supposed to present either to its advocates or opponents. His
own mind was singularly inventive of methods, in his chosen
sphere of action, and was without prejudice against Inno
vations which impelled genuine progress. His distrust of
slavery, as a flxed econoray, was foreshadowed in his refusal
to commit himself to re-opening the African slave trade.
News of , Tuomey's discoveries, of inexhaustible, wealth of
iron ores and coal were abroad in the State; a convention of
capitalists and planters had, deliberated at the foot of the Red
Mountain, a phenomenon of hematite in Jefferson county, to
inaugurate a railroad project to connect the mineral wealth
with deep water at Mobile ; and this, ere the most sagacious
had a correct appreciation of their enterprise. The vote re
ceived by the Know Nothing candidate for Governor, in 1855,
was cast by a people seeking an outlet for their cash, and was
cast for "State aid," or State control of enterprises. The
Democratic majority in the Legislature compelled Governor
Winston to veto bill after bill passed by them to grant " State
aid." The pioneer line of railroad surveyed to connect the
Alabama river, at Selma, with the mineral regions, the same
recommended by Jesse Beene's bill, of 1835, had been surveyed
and many railes of it constructed, when the Legislature met,
in 1857, to hear Tuomey's report, cut short of completion by
the death of the devoted and eminent author. A bUl was
passed, at this session, appropriating $10,000 to be used bythe
Governor for the purpose of making " a thorough survey of a
route to connect the Tennessee river with the navigable waters
of Mobile bay with reference to the development of the mineral
region of the State." A young Georgian, John T. Milner, was
selected by Governor Moore to be Chief Engineer, A\'ith instruc
tions to make " a full report of the reconnoisance." MUner
averred he knew not where the " mineral region " lay, as Tuo
mey's incomplete notes did not indicate, to that fulness neces
sary. The Governor confessed his own ignorance, but Insisted
the young Chief Engineer should flnd them, even amidst the
millions of acres of twelve counties of mountain forests. The
Alabama and Tennessee Rivers railroad and the Alabama and
Chattanooga railroad were now well under way. The bank
.deposits of Alabama had increased, since 1851, nearly four

THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED. 429
hundred per cent., lands and slaves were rising ; Sherrod, in
the Valley of the Tennessee, McGehee and Pollard, Price and
Grlfiin in the prairie belt, all large planters and railroad offi
cers, Jemison, Powell, Barnett and many other large slave
masters, were urging upon their brother planters to invest in
local railroad stocks rather than in Virginia negroes. " Our
lands and negroes do not pay eight per cent., at ruling prices,
(wrote Grlfiin) and railroad stock in Alabama is sure to com
mand high dividends." The merchants of Mobile asked for a
charter for a new bank, with a capital stock of $2,500,000.
"Let them have it," said .fudge Rice, frora his seat in the
Lower House of the Legislature ; " let them have it, but with
the proviso that every subscription shall include one-third of
the amount subscribed in the stock of the Alabama Central
railroad, surveyed by Mr. Milner. I know at this moment
where, in the little town of Montgomery, $1,900,000 cash, the
property of cotton planters, awaits investment in local enter
prises." The charter was granted. Milner's report came up.
Its lucid statements, bold counsels and self-evident logic con
firmed the mind of the Legislature. It was as the passing
wind that blew the ashes from the embers of hope, leaving it
aglow with warmth and secure of the future.
" Neither banks, public buildings, schools or anything else (said the
engineer) have conferred so much beneflt or have rendered themselves
so indispensable to progress as the railway. We oan form only an in
adequate estimate of the benefits which must accrue to the people from
a generous support of this railway project in our State. We have been
thinking and talking of this, or some other connection, Avith the same
general purpose, for forty years. The line located will lead to the de
velopment of the greatest sources of minerals most needed by the world.
It is of paramount importance to the State to build it, and thus estab
lish against any contingency our commercial independence."
Many, indeed, were the complications gradually drawing
around slavery. Every apparent success attained by it was,
in truth, a premonition of its decaying powers. Every raile of
railroad opened toward the boundless mineral wealth of Ala
bama opened the avenue farther and yet farther toward the
powerful aad inexhaustible competitor for the employment of
capital and energy in Alabama. Truly, as Mr. Yancey told
the University graduates, it was " a question of time and great
prudence." The most desirable negroes were worth $1,500 to

430 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
$2,000 each. The average price of slaves In the prairie region
of Alabama was, perhaps, above $1,000. Large planters were
growing fewer in proportion to population. In the low-coun
try, of South Carolina, it was complained that, on the division
of estates, the share of slaves falling to the heirs did not sup
ply suf&cient labor to justify the beneficiary in devoting his
time or energy to its oversight, and that the inheritance was
liable to be sold to the great planters of the Mississippi valley,
leaving the land, in South Carolina, unoccupied. There is no
room for doubt that the three railroads surveyed to penetrate
the mineral region of Alabama, in 1858, would, when com
pleted, speedily have resulted in the establishment of great
industries inconsistent with the eraployraent of the costly
slave labor ; and that a then contemplated great Iron manu
facturing city would have quickly grown up, in proximity to
mines there, which would have lived in intimate commercial
alliance with the port of Mobile, thus confining, within the
State, two rival industries, supporting, at the outset, each
-other, and providing for that economy which would have set
tled, in peace, their differences, imthe destruction of the weaker
and less expansive. The inheritors of a limited number of
high-priced slaves, whose labor would produce a small cotton
crop, would, in common reason, have sold them to Louisiana
or Texas sugar or cotton planters and, returning to the iron
-centre of Alabama, destined to be an iron centre of the com
mercial world, would have iuA'csted the proceeds in industries
-SO inviting to the cheaper free labor.*
Not alone were the times distinguished by industrial re
vival. Governor Moore, in his regular message to the Legis
lature, of 1859, said:
"The education of the children of the State is one of the most
sacred duties of parents and the government. * * The Legislature
in discharge of a Constitutional obligation has wisely instituted a sys
tem of common schools intended to provide the means, to the poorer
classes of children, of learning to read and write. The system is in its
infancy, and a raan of learning and. judgment should be placed at its
head."

*The city of Birmingham, Alabama, was founded, in effect by John T. Milner and
associates, all former slaveholders of Alabama, in tne year 1870-71, in accordance
¦with the original design of building railroads, surveyed long before the emancipation
of slavery, and was founded under the disadvantage of a loss to -Alabama, alone, of
quite $600,000,000 as the result of the revolutionary emancipation of slaves hy the
jnilitai-y authority of the United States.

THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED. 431
The President, Dr. Garland, of the State University, was
summoned to deliver an address before the Legislature to
enlighten the members on their duty to that institution. Fur
ther appropriations were raade to locate the mineral wealth of
the State. Like the rising of the sun, the light of enlarged
life dawned upon the most highly favored of States, even
through the gloom of the great struggle then known to be
approaching near, and whose avoidance few anticipated. The
capital stock of the banks of New Orleans was $12,370,890, in
1850, and the deposits were $8,464,389. In 1860, the capital
stock had increased to $24,496,866 and the deposits to $19,777,-
812. The surplus cash known to be in North Carolina induced
the Legislature of that State, in 1849, to impose a tax on all
money placed at interest when the lender had out more than
$1,000, above his own indebtedness. The returns showed
$15,000,000 so loaned and, it was supposed, a sura equally
great was actually loaned out in sums which did not fall under
the statute. This is one of the many facts going to show that
the bulk of collateral being in land and slaves, the surplus cash
did not, in the nature of business, go through the banks, as in
the w^ge or free States and, consequently, was not reported at
the South as at the North. The Richmond journals of Janu
ary, 1860, report the rising rate of hire charges for slaves, the
increase for that year being 10 to 15 per cent. Every labor
saving farm implement brought into use, every ton of commer
cial fertilizer, tending to increase the yield of the Southern
farm, increased the price of slave labor, whether hired or sold.
The surest emancipation literature ever sent abroad in South
Carolina was the address of Mr. McDuffle delivered, by re
quest, before the Legislature explaining how, in the appUcation
•of the labor of his slaves, he increased his crops two to three
fold. When David Dickson, of Georgia, taught his fellow
planters that, in a certain organization of slave labor, ten or
more bales of cotton could be produced where a third of that
•quantity had been hitherto produced, it was only necessary
that Messrs. Lincoln and Sumner should permit the instruc
tion to become effective to see the area of slavery contract and
the institution prepare itself for extinction. Every geological
-survey in Alabama, exposing the mineral wealth of lands,
-owned by non-slaveholders, was a practical guarantee that the

432 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
owners would not defend slavery, as a vital economy, longer.
Every railroad line, surveyed through the raineral region of
the same State, was the precursor of investment in productive
enterprises which would not tolerate capital in labor. Year
following year, the lines grew deeper and wider between the
productiveness of capital in railroads, cotton mills, and free
labor enterprises, and capital in slaves and plantations. Nor
were the master's prejudices of a feather's weight, as against
the climax of the process. The approaching contract status of
African labor was the inevitable result of the master's energy
acting upon the slave's efficiency. In the factory system, were
found the methods of the plantation enlarged. Were the fac
tory hands graded by a standard, so were the plantation
hands. Were the forraer paid, according to services rendered,
the latter were provided with araple protection in sickness or
health, youth and old age by a fixed rule. Were the wage
workers under overseers, so were the slaves. As the methods
of the two systems grew less distinguishable, the overruling
consideration of their merging was, the silence of the Aboli
tionists. The outcry of the South, " Let us alone ! " was the
spontaneous outcry of society, evolving its own forces after
normal laws.
The mental, moral and physical growth of the African, in
bondage, was the basis of the evolutionary economy leading to
his emancipation. When the youthful Victoria ascended the
English throne, by her side stood the companion of her child
hood and her youth. Miss Amelia Murray. First among the
chosen companions of the crowned (Jueen was Miss Murray.
Years, passed, the Prince Consort and his royal wife and her
court had read and wept over "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and
thanked the author. Excitement raged in the United States
over the Nebraska-Kansas bill, there was a North and a South
apparent to the slowest apprehension. Miss Murray, attended
only by a maid servant, landed at Boston, in full sympathy
with the anti-slavery feeling of the English court and the
North. Having traversed the free States, leisurely, as far
west as Pittsburgh, accepting the private hospitality lavished
on her, she arrived at Baltimore, the guest of a gentleman's
family. iVIore in apprehension than curiosity, she had looked
forward to a first contact with slavery and slave masters. Her

/-i^^

THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED. 438
carriage was driven to the stoop by a slave coachman, she was
met there by a slave man servant, and attended to her apart
ments by a slave maid servant. She discovered the first de
portment of servants she had seen in America. At dinner,
she found herself in the presence of a thorough aristocracy.
The dignity of the gentleraen was complete, but most of all
pleasant surprises was the absence, in the ladies, of the sharp
accent and peculiar pronunciation which she had, regretfully,
observed in her earlier American experiences. At Washing
ton, she became the associate of Southern statesmen and
Southern society, by laAv of natural attraction. From Rich
mond she was taken to see the great wheat farm, " Westover,"
and was taken to see the slaves in their houses and at work.
From Charleston she visited the cotton and rice plantations of
the vicinity. She pursued her way as far as Galveston, wrote
letters to an English friend describing the irreconcilability of
what she had seen, concerning slaves and their masters, with
what she had read, and published them. The exigency of
sentiment, at the English court, required her dismissal, and
this punishment, for the defense of the Southern social life,
she bore in retirement. The lads on the play ground of a
school in South Carolina, where I attended, reported their dis
covery of the 111 treatment a neighboring planter had Inflicted
on his black servant. The punishment was less than the
Governor of Massachusetts, Benjamin F. Butler, at a later
day, informed the Legislature was habitually visited upon the
paupers and insane of his State, under public protection. A
public meeting assembled, nevertheless, at the village library
to consider the ca^ of the maltreated negro. Every person
present was a planter. A committee from the meeting bore
the protest of the community to the offen(tng master and an
other committee employed the leading criminal lawyer of the
local bar to prosecute him, at the neighborhood expense. The
children at school pointed to the unfortunate planter, as he
passed, with derision, for many months, and, in shame, he sold
his plantation and left the neighborhood. In the last decade
of slavery, cholera of a deadly type, attacked the negroes on
an island, near Charleston, the plantation of William Aiken,
once Governor, and then Representative in Congress. Mr.
Aiken left his seat in Congress, at the first report of the

28

434 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
suffering of his many hundreds of slaves, hurried to their
relief, and remained in constant attendance upon them until
the epidemic ceased. Mr. Badger, from North Carolina, speak
ing in the Senate, February 14, 1854, said:
"I have no more idea of seeing a slave population in Kansas or
Nebraska than I have of seeing it in Massachusetts; not a whit. It is
possible some gentlemen may go there and take a few domestic servants
with tliem; and I would say if those domestic servants were faithful
and good ones, and the masters did not take them with them, the mas
ters would deserve the reprobation of all good men. What would you
have them do? Would you have me to take tlie servants who w?-it upon
me and live with me, aud to whom I have as strong attachments as to
any human beings on this earth, out of ray immediate relations and con
nexions, and, because I want to move to Kansas, put thera in the slave
market and sell them? Sir, I would suffer my right arm to be cut off
before I would do it. Why, therefore, if some Southern gentleman
wishes to take the nurse that has charge of his little baby or the old
woman that nursed him, himself, and whom he called ' mammy' until he
returned frora college and, perhaps, afterwards, too, and whom he
wishes to take with liim in her old age for the betterment of the for
tunes of his whole family, why, in tho name of God, should anybody pre
vent it? Do you wish to force us to become hard-hearted slave dealers?
Do you wish to aggravate the evils, if there are evils existing in this
relation? Do you -wish that we shall no longer have a mutual feudal
feeling between our dependents and ourselves? Do you want to make
us mercenary and hard-hearted? Or would you allow us, having, as I
trust we have, some touch of humanity and some of the beneficial and
love-breathing spirit of Christianity, to let these beings go forth as they
are accustomed to go and us to rejoice when we look out and see our
slaves happy and cheerful around us, when we hear the songs arising
from their dwellings at night or see them dressed in their neat clothes
and going to attend their churches on Sunday and realizing, as they
look at us, that we are the best friends that they have upon earth?"
After tariff' and bank questions had been pacified, Mr.
Webster visited Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina.
He was received Avith open arms in private and public hospi
tality and was rauch aff'ected by it. The students of the South
Carolina College waited on him, at Columbia, in a body.
Colonel Wade Hampton carried him over his plantation, in the
vicinity of that town. Mr. Webster left his carriage, walked
among the negroes at work and talked with them. He went
into their houses and informed himself of their domestic
habits. At dinner the same night he spoke, informaUy, with
deliberation, saying he " did not see that the negro could be

THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED. 435
henefitted by any change in his condition." * Chancellor liar
per, the NulUfier, delivered an address, at Columbia, Avarning
slave OAvners of their error in not promoting the education of
slaves. The mental enlargement of the producer would insure
-a measure of intelligence profitable to the master; the moral
culture of education Avould counteract the machinations of the
incendiaries. There were not a few thinkers of the South who
-accepted the same conclusions.
With reasonable haste, toward the close of tAvo centuries of
bondage in America, the African had become the best plow
man, the most expert teamster, the most dexterous hoe hand,
the only profitable cotton harvester the agriculture of the
world had produced. He was a respectable architect, a good
brick mason, cobbler, blacks.raith and the best doraestic servant
any civilization afforded. The measure of negative morality
prevailing in a plantation viUage, " the quarters," excelled a
village of equal population, perhaps, of any race. Theft was
very rare, personal combat unknown, profane or boisterous
language unheard. The only unmanageable vice was bas-
tardy.f The marriage law of the plantation prevailed. The
master and his family were wont to attend the marriage cere
mony, to assist the dignity and sacredness of the rite. The
former plantation law of divorce was far less seldom drawn
into application than the statute law of divorce, for any equal
negro population of this present time. Economic causes con
spired to prevent separation of families. Slaves passed, gen
eration by generation, to masters, more by inheritance than by
purchase. Being less and less subjects of comraerce, as tirae
progressed, a raore tender regard continually grew up betAveen
master and servants. The voluntary separation of husband
and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, involved
in German and Irish imralgration to Araerica, exceeded, infl
nitely, the enforced parting of members of slave families of the
South. At the battle of Winchester, In 1862, General Jackson
discovered the negro servant of General Taylor exposed to flre
and advised him to seek shelter. The negro replied, if the
General pleased, he would remain near his master, Avho might
* Perry's Reminiscences.
¦f Quoting from Robert Toombs' Address at Boston, one-half of the births ol
Austria were illegitimate and one-fourth of those of France, in the last years of
.'Slavery in the South. My personal belief is that not exceeding one-tenth of the
births of slaves on Alabama plantations were out of wedloclc.

436 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
need him. On his rounds of the army, that night, Jackson
found Taylor sitting at one end of a bivouac flre and his black
servant at the other. Advancing to the servant, he grasped
his hand warmly, explaining to the master the occurrence of
the morning. Colonel Pegues, commanding a regiment of
Alabama cavalry, C. S. A., permitted his negro servant to ride
away, for an hour, his favorite battle horse. The regiraent
was suddenly called into action, with the coraraander badly
mounted. The servant learning the facts on his return to
camp, dashed into the heavy flre, at imminent risk of his life,
and changed horses with his master, all of his own volition.
Major B. C. Yancey, C. S. A., finding himself in an uncertain
position, off'ered his purse, $100 gold, to his negro servant,
with a pass through the army lines, which would enable him
to reach Fortress Monroe, In possession of the United States.
The friendly off'er was firmly rejected. Mr. Lincoln said, ih
his Cooper Institute speech, the "Ignorance" of the slaves of
the South would defeat any such enterprise as Brown's raid.
That slaves of the South were less harmful than fanatics and
wiser than the great raen, enemies of their masters, is the proper
explanation of the failure of the raid. Of the thousands of ne
gro servants who left their families to endure all the privations
of the bivouac, on scanty fare, of the Confederate Army, there
Is no record of even one desertion to the enemy. In a whole
land, denuded of Its arms-bearing ruling race, there is no rec
ord. In the war of the Confederacies, of African insubordina
tion, save where the " party of morality," the invading army,
instigated it with much labor. The accumulating successes,
mental, physical and moral, of the African in bondage, were
guarantees ample, to the perception of sound statesmanship,
that he was working out his own redemption ; and that re
demption would find him prepared to incorporate his race In
the industrial Ufe of a land overfiowing with the riches he had
created. The solution of the problem of his social state was
involved in the continued prevalence of peace. Gradually new
enterprises would command his labor, new cities, and older
growing cities, with their educational infiuences, would attract
him from the less productive or smaller plantations. As serv
ant at the hotels, barber, drayman, brick mason, wood worker,
his services to his master, not a large planter, would be more

THE ARGUMENT CON'ITNUED. 437
remunerative than as farm hand. Whenever the inevitable
transition period might arrive, it was far more important to
the freedman, than to the ex-slave owner, that society should
be tranquil, wages sure and confidence perfect between the
races. Until time had ripened all these conditions for con
sumraation, their premature and abnormal disturbance was
neither humanity to the slave nor a just expedient of war
against his master.*
Considering, briefiy, the second proposition of this Chapter,
It Is sufficient to say that the federal Constitution having
evolved from native conditions, had fallen, in 1860, to foreign
infiuences. In the free States, about one-third of the men of
voting age were of foreign birth, while, in the slave States, not
more than one in twenty were of foreign birth. True as it
may be, that the bulk of the immigrants, then, were raen of
good intentions, farraers in large proportion, with sorae means,
it Is also true that they had no part in raaking the organic law
of the Union, or their ancestors. They did not understand It
and did not feel need of understanding it. A kingly power
awaited them — the right to vote. They were content in its
license. Hence it became impracticable to repair or amend the
Constitution, as the systera contemplated. The unity of
Northern interests converted every strong man devoted to a
Constitutional Union, there, into a sectional partisan. Firm
and great as was Mr. Douglas he was borne on the tide of
resistless public opinion, as cork upon a torrent. In 1858 he
was an ardent State Rights advocate, debating with Lincoln.
In 1861 he voted to supply an army to a part of the States to
conquer the others. Nor was so brave and well meaning a
man as Mr. Lincoln more able to stand before the pressure of
the foreign vote, striving for the right but knowing nothing of
its foundations. In 1858 Mr. Lincoln said in debate with
Douglas :
"I am not now, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in
any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.
I am not now, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of
negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with
*When Richmond was occupied by the United States army, in April, 1865, the
Inhabitants were upon the verge of starvation and without money. The blacks were
declared free by the invader, and rations were liberally dispensed to them. Many
masters and their families were supplied in this way by their faithful servants with
the necessaries of life.

438 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
white people ; and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a physical'
difference between the white and black races which I believe will ever
forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political
equality." But, a few years later, in less than six hours before he re
ceived his death wound in the revolution inaugurated to
abolish slavery, Mr. Lincoln signed a military order intended
to elevate the black race to social and political control of the
Southern States.
When the year 1860 opened the fruits of a wise and vig-
orous statesmanship blessed Alabama and the promise of the
Coraraonwealth, In the course of peace and freedom, was
unrivalled in all America. The public debt of the State had
been adjusted, her honor established and an eminently suc
cessful monetary system put in operation ; political animation
prevailed throughout her borders ; her inestimable mining and
manufacturing resources had been discovered and proclaimed ;.
her main arteries of coraraerce had been laid. Idle, indeed,
would be the allegation that the maturing manhood of the
African was not involA^ed in these accumulating beneficences
of enlightened society. False, indeed, must appear in history
the statesmanship which either ignored the fact or defeated
its consummation. Four individuals had come out from the
ranks of the multitude to fix above and beyond the public
mind, in its forward movement, four avenues of advance — the
release of the people from the banks; the organizing of the
people to defend liberty ; the discovery of the mineral wealth ;
and the instigation of enterprise to enlarged eff'ort. Leader
ship effecting these results, in the chronological order named,
belongs to Martin, Yancey, Tuomey, and MUner, respectively.
If the bondage of the African of the South was, in truth, a
social and political evil, these were his humane liberators, the
true Abolitionists, freeing the African, presently, frora the
statute which affirmed his bondage, 'out making sure a new
and final economy for the masters, irreconcilable with a prop
erty status of labor.

CHAPTER 22.

The Charleston Convention.
i860.

Kansas, an unadmitted State, remained yet at the doors of
Congress. A civil community, worthy of incorporation into a
Confederacy of self-governing States, had never existed there.
The very proceedings in which the feeble and flckle social ele
ments had been forced into political form were sanguinary
conflicts, on the soil, instigated by the mad passions of the
colliding sections on the floors of Congress. Would the free
States persevere, to the final extinction of the compact rights
of the slave States ? Would the slave States submit, because
submission had become the logical sequence of the errors of
the irremediable past? These Avere the questions which town,
precinct and State meetings and conventions of the people
were to determine, in the opening months of 1860. Congress
had lost power ; the people had assumed power.
When Mr. Yancey set out early, after writing to Mr.
Meadows, for his summer vacation, he carried his physician's
injunctions to avoid public speaking'. After a few weeks
spent in the mountainous regions of Georgia, he passed on to
Greenville, South Carolina, and was so far restored as to re
turn to the political work he had begun for the relief of the
South. At Greenville he was received with demonstrations of
public delight. He spoke there and elsewhere in the vicinity.
July 28, he spoke at Columbia, to a crowded house. He said :
"It is not uncommon to hear those who hold my opinions

440 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
denounced as agitators. I, for one, accept the appellation.
Error and ignorance occupy a more primitive relation to our
lives than enlightenment and truth. Agitation, incenti\'es to
exertion, inducements which Impel inquiry are sources of
knowledge and wlsdoni. The prophets of old were agitators.
Nature disturbs the peace, which broods over the land and the
sea, like slumber, with the resistless rush of the hurricane, and
the mad billows lash the shores of the hemispheres in their
fury. Languishing beneath a tropical sun, animated nature
pantingly seeks shelter from its burning gaze. The green
slime covers the still waters ; the deadly miasma rises. Sud
denly, the heavens are over-clouded, the blazing electric mete
ors shoot, the deep toned thunders roll through the great
vaults above, the torrents descend, the unrestrained winds
career in madness and, as suddenly, athwart this gloomy
aspect, nature resumes a smiling face and a purified breath
overspreads her dominion. The Divine Martyr, dying, died
araidst convulsions of nature which shook the earth in its
foundations. His last injunction to His disciples was, to go
forth to proclaim His words until every heresy should yield.
If we have the right on our side^it is our bounden duty to
'agitate.' If we are in the wrong, agitation will prove the
truth. No good cause has ever been delayed by agitation, and
every error has trembled before it."
The object of the speech was to urge the Democrats to be
represented in the Charleston Convention. A few weeks later
Mr. Yancey wrote to Mr. Rhett requesting him to prepare and
publish, in the Charleston Mercury, the outline of a Southern
policy. October 18, 1859, the Mercury, the confessed organ of
the Southern leaders, appeared with a temporate and elaborate
article embracing six distinct propositions of procedure: (1) ,
The Legislatures of the Southern States, soon to assemble,
should protest against the acts of the fourteen Northern
State Legislatures nullifying the fugitive slave law of Con
gress and other demonstrations of hostility to a Constitutional
Union, by declaring for the principle laid down in the Dred
Scott decree; (2) the Legislatures of the Southern States
should commit their States to abide by the action of the
Charleston Convention, based on the principles laid down by
that decree; (3) should the candidates to be nominated at

THE CHARLESTON CONVEN'TION. 441
¦Charleston, on this principle, be defeated by the candidates of
the Republican party, then the Legislatures should re-assem
ble, recall their Senators and Representatives in Congress, and
-devise some " means for their common safety ;" (4) should the
National Convention of the Deraocratic party be so dominated
by the free States as to refuse to accept the principle laid
-down by the Court, then the South, as a last resort, should
put forward candidates for President and vice-President repre
senting the true national policy ; (5) should the true national
candidates, so put forward, be elected, then the South should
accept the result as the pledge of a Constitutional Union ; (6)
-should the Northern sectional candidates be elected, demon
strating, beyond cavil, the insecurity of the society of the
South, in the Union, then the proposed conference of Southern
States should be had to determine what would be best to be
done. Every fresh outbreak of sectional discord, every "compro
mise " by which the trouble of the day had been " finally set
tled," every ne^ Congress chosen had verified the prophecies
•of Mr. Calhoun's address, of 1849. There was no break in the
•order and extent of fulfillment, up to this day. Sectional con
flict was to result in enforced emancipation, in subordination
¦of masters to their former slaves, in the imposition of taxes
intended to enrich one section and one class. North and
South, united by the sword, would be dominated by some irre
sponsible power, a Congress, mayhap, for a season, and next a
•dictator. Nevertheless, in Congress and without, were raany
examples of Southern leaders who had confessed precipitate
and inexplicable reversion of sentiments. The fact seemed
ominous of the sudden turn of power and glory from the civi
lization of the slave States, whence the government had come
iorth, to abide in the civilization of the free States, born since
the government. Most conspicuous of the recent converts was
Mr. Jeff'erson Davis. The signature most valued by Mr. Cal
houn to his Address was the signature of Mr. Davis. In 1858,
while assisting in the celebration of Independence day, in Bos
ton harbor, he compared his former associates in the South,
the Secessionists, to " mosquitoes around the ox's horn." In
•debate, of 1850, Mr. John Bell, from Tennessee, said, in the
•Senate : '

442 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
" Sir, it is not a mere question whether we shall preserve the Union.
* * I say give me separation, give me disunion, give rae anything in
preference to a Union sustained by power only."
Mr. Bell was now held to be unconditionally for the Union.
Howell Cobb remained firm to the declaration he had made in
1856. Toombs and Stephens were separated from each othei-
on the obligations of the Georgia Platform. Mr. Hilliard was
now a Unionist and Messrs. Forsyth and Seibles were of his
company. The honest convictions of the Southern mind, and
the interpretation of transpiring events by a leader who would
not dally with popular deceits or turn aside to appease the
jealousies of ambitious and unstable men, explains the origin
and now pressing maturity of the Southern movement.
Alabama, to whom turned all eyes in the rapidly gathering
storm, paused in the ascent of a splendid prosperity of peace
to prepare for the part she was to act in the tragedy of fac
tions. The final force of the Alabama Platform is now to be
displayed. Quickly following the editorial of the Charleston
Mercury, and yet six months before the time flxed for the
raeeting of the Charleston Convention, on November 12, 1859,
the Democrats of Montgomery county, Alabama, after formal
call, held the first primary, in the slave States, preparatory of
the National Democratic Convention of April, 1860. Samuel
G. Arrington presided. John W. A. Sanford introduced a
series of resolutions, covering substantially the principles laid
down in the Alabama Platform. Henry C. Semple, a Douglas
man, moved the meeting adjourn, to meet at the end of four
weeks. Sanford spoke to his resolutions ; Yancey followed in
support, Semple and Sayre opposing. Samuel G. Reid oft'ered
an amendment, committing the meeting to opposition to Doug
las as a candidate for first place on the ticket to be put forth
at Charleston. The amendment was accepted and the reso
lutions so amended were adopted, nemine contra. The Chair
appointed a committee of five to select delegates to the State
Democratic Convention, to meet early in January following.
Yancey's narae was placed at the head of the list. Thirty-six of
the principal Democrats of the county were selected, one-third
of the whole being avowed political supporters of Douglas.
Late in December an unauthorized call appeared in the Con
federation newspaper, inviting the Democrats of Montgomery

THE' CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 443
county to meet, to do what they had already done — select
delegates to the State Convention. On January 2, the court
room was well filled, in response to this call. A venerable
Democrat, a planter from the prairies, discovering the Irregu
larity of the procedure, rose, asked to be informed what
was expected of him on such an occasion, drew on his riding
gloves and walked out. Arrington addressed the meeting,
protesting against the attempt to divide the party ; Yancey
followed and, as he took his seat, the body dissolved without
formal motion. Colonel Seibles, however, succeeded in collect
ing a body of Douglas men, and a delegation to the State-
Convention was named by them, with Mr. Hilliard at its head,
Semple, Bethea and other strong men making the number
required. The State seemed to be practically united on the
resolutions sent out from the Montgomery county primary.
There was no other confiict in any county primaries, except
in the case of Mobile, under Mr. Forsyth's infiuence. There
was a " Court House " and an " Amphitheatre " platform
adopted at Mobile and contesting delegations appointed.
Every county, save Covington, remote and unimportant,.
sent a full delegation to the capital, and the State Deraocratic
Convention met January 11, 1860. Francis S. Lyon was made
President, without opposition. John Erwin, a Secessionist, an
eminent lawyer and large planter, was made chairman of the
Committee on Resolutions. John Tyler Morgan, a young law
yer, a stranger to the delegates and hitherto unknown in
politics, was made chairman of the Committee on Credentials.-
Moblle and Montgomery appeared with earnest contesting del
egations — Forsyth leading the contestant from MobUe, and
HiUiard from Montgomery. The report of Morgan's Commit
tee Avas unfavorable to each. There was much and exceed
ingly spirited debate. HiUiard and Yancey; Forsyth, Percy
Walker and Meek joining in it. Morgan defended his work,.
in committee, before the Convention with astonishing effect.
" Who is he? " passed from lip to lip : " Surely, he is the raan
next to Yancey," was the only answer. Seibles at length
withdrew the Montgoraery contest. The Convention was in
admirable temper and, on motion of Mr. Clitherall, voted to
seat the Forsyth delegation. Whereas Messrs. Forsyth, Meek
and Percy Walker appeared on both delegations from Mobile,.

444 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
and were of the highest personal standing and known to be
in a harmless minority, the motion passed.
On the third day, while the Committee on Resolutions de
liberated, Mr. Forsyth offered a series of resolutions to be
Referred to it, important here to illustrate the deliberation in
which the Convention reached Its ultimate action. The reso
lutions declared :
" That sinking all minor differences of opinion we will strike hands
and lock shields with our brethren in the Charleston Convention from
the North, South, East and West in the great battle soon to come off in
which the issue is, ' the government and Constitution of our country,
as they are, or their invasion and subversion by the Vandal hordes of
Black Republicanism.' * * That we will abide by the action of the
Charleston Convention, not doubting it will be taken fairly and accord
ing to the established usages of the Democratic party."
Mr. Lowe, of Madison, presented the issue with greater
directness, by resolution endorsing the recommendations of
Governor Letcher, to the Virginia Legislature, advising that
body to summon a convention of all the States, North and
South. If the dlff'erences of the sections were there discovered
to be Irreconcilable, it would be the duty of the convention of
States to frame a plan for a peaceable separation and an
equitable division of the public property. If the convention
of States could effect nothing, "the South will understand
what to expect In the future." In a few hours after these res
olutions had been submitted to It, and after two days consul
tation, the Coraraittee on Resolutions reported the Alabama
Platforra, of 1848, with the instructions to the delegates to
the Charleston Convention repeated, as they had been orig
inally given to the delegates to the Baltiraore and Cincinnati
¦Conventions. Thus in three, of four, successive quadrennial
State conventions of the Democracy of Alabama, Yancey's
policy had been vindicated and his leadership established.
Thus was Alabama placed in the lead of the South in the
counsels of the dominating party of the Union. The 8th of
of the series of the Committee Resolutions declared :
"The principles enunciated by Chief .Justice Taney in his opinion
in the Dred Scott case, deny to the Territorial Legislature the right to
impair or destroy, by any legislation whatever, the right of property in
slaves and maintain it to be the duty of the federal government in all
•of its Departments to protect the rights of the owners of such property

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 445
in the Territories; and the principles so declared are hereby asserted to
be the rights of the South, and the South should maintain them."
Mr. Yancey's attention had been divided between the
courts then sitting at Montgomery and the Convention. It
was understood he would speak to the report of Mr. Erwin's
Committee Saturday morning and close the debate. At the
appointed hour the floor, the galleries and the rotunda of the
building were, as usual when he appeared, crowded with
ladies and gentlemen. In the peroration he said : "Even here
in Alabama, aye, even in this Convention are to be found those
who deprecate any decision of the question by the Charleston
Convention, who insist on giving it the go by, who declare if
we demand an assertion there of what we believe to be our
Constitutional rights we will break up the party ; or if the
party should endorse us, it will be beaten in election and dis
solve in defeat. You have heard passionate appeals to you not
to dissolve the Union. Your fears, your love of quiet, of ease,.
of peace, your attachment to a party that ever has had your
admiration, all have been evoked to sway your judgment
against these resolutions. I appeal to a higher principle of
your nature. I Invoke that gallant and wise sentiment which,
in days jtjst preceding the revolution, induced your fathers to
consider, discreetly, in those trying times, that ' eternal vigi
lance is the price of liberty ' ! I invoke that other principle
upon which alone the Union was based, upon which alone it
can be perpetuated as the home of the free — 'Liberty, the
Constitution, the Union,' three in one and, therefore, Insep
arable and indissoluble ; the flrst an Inalienated and, undying
principle, the last tAvo valuable only as the machinery planned
and operated for the protection of the flrst ; and in that light,,
and that alone, sacred and worthy of preservation, and in that
estimate only to be held inseparable frora the flrst. * *
But, Mr. President, I will not indulge in such gloomy antici
pations. A better spirit prevails at the South than we have
realized for years. Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Mis
souri are manifesting somewhat of that ancient temper which
brooked no position of inequality, no act of palpable in
justice." The resolutions, one after the other, were put on their
passage. The opposition never counted more than six votes,.

446 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
lead by Mr. Forsyth, in a body of four hundred and fifty-five.
Mr. Percy Walker, of MobUe, and Mr. A. K. Shepard, of Perry,
argued the Impropriety of sending an instructed delegation to
a National Convention involving a National party policy.
-" Why (asked these delegates) should this Convention not
content Itself with dispatching a bearer of Its ultimatum to
Charleston ? Why commission a dozen honorable gentlemen
to take their seats in a National Convention whose course Is
already determined here?" Mr. Yancey replied that he did
not insist on the instructions, " he cared nothing for them.''
The question had passed beyond the necessity for such in
structions. The ConA'entlon was united, and the State Avas
united, on the principle laid down in the Platform and, the
delegation to Charleston could be irapllcitly relied on to sup
port It.
Francis S. Lyon was chosen, by acclaraation, first delegate
to the Charleston Convention. The other first seven dele-
.gates -were chosen by ballot in the order named — Leroy Pope
Walker, W. L. Yancey, A. B. Meek, John A. Winston, Levi
W. Lawler, D. W. Balne and H. D. Smith. Robert G. Scott,
J. R. Breare, John Erwin, N. LI. R. Dawson, R. M. Patton, W.
¦C. Mclver, O. O. Harper, Lewis L. Cato, John W. Portls, P. G.
Norman, W. C. Guild, JuUus C. B. Mitchell, W.' C. Sherrod, G.
G. Griffin, J. T. Bradford, T. J. Burnett, A. G. Henry, William
M. Brooks and Reuben Chapman completed the list.
Mr. Yancey was delighted with discovery of Mr. Morgan.
To emphasize his own feeling, as well as to express the appre
ciation of the Convention, he placed Morgan's name In nomi
nation for elector for the State at large, pronouncing a glowing
eulogy on him. The Convention with alacrity and enthusiasm
confirmed the nomination. Little things, saith the proverb,
do not make great things, but little things start them. The
distinguished career of John Tyler Morgan, in two Republics, ^
commanding the confidence of his constituency, the respect of
his eneraies and the love of his friends, began in the maturity
of his manhood, in this incident : Upon entering the door of
the Convention to take his seat, after its organization, his ear
caught his narae called as chairraan of the Committee on Cre
dentials. He mounted, at once, a chair and was in the act of
declining the place, when Judge G. W. Stone, standing by,

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTIOIS^. 447
begged him, instead of completing his seutence, to announce
the place and hour for the assembling of his Committee.
The holiday recess of the Legislature expired and the body
reassembled, aglow Mdth the spirit of the late Convention.
There were no Whigs and no Democrats. Robert Jemison, an
old line Whig, a Senator from Tuskaloosa, an accomplished
gentleman and wealthy man, in the prime of life, introduced in
the Senate, immediately, resolutions endorsing the platform
and resolutions of the Convention, declaring : " It would be a
dangerous, if not a suicidal policy, to submit our vital rights
to the arbitrament of a Convention, a majority of whose mem
bers are from the non-slaA'^eholdlng States, without demanding
a distinct admission of those Constitutional rights as a con
dition precedent to being bound by the action of any such
Convention." The resolutions passed, unanimously, recom
mending, as they did, the withdrawal of the Southern delega
tion from a National Convention, if found hostile to "vital
rights," beUeved to be recognized by the organic law of the
Union and the decrees of the highest courts.
A few days later the Legislature of Alabama formally
initiated the Southern movement of 1861. The body passed
certain resolutions, anticipatory of the reorganization of the
federal system, in a contingency, for whose arrival the South
ern States were declared to be not responsible, in any degree.
The preamble expressed the mature belief of the people and
was passed, along with the resolutions, by unanimous vote,
save two non-concurring, as follows :
" Whereas, The slavery agitation persistently continued in tho
non-slaveholding States of this Union for more than a third of a century,
marked at every stage of its progress by contempt for the obligations of
law and the sanction of compacts, evincing a deadly hostility to the
rights and institutions of the Southern people and a settled purpose to
efi'ect their overthrow, even bythe subversion of the Constitution and at
the hazard of violence and bloodshed ; and
" Whereas, A sectional party calling itself Republican, committed
alike by its own acts and the antecedents and the public avowals and
secret machinations of its leaders, to the execution of these atrocious
designs, has acquired the ascendency in nearly every Northern State and
hopes, by success in the approaching Presidential election, to seize the
government itself; and
" Whereas, To permit such seizure by those whose unmistakable
aim is to pervert its whole machinery to the destruction of a portion of

448 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
its members, would be an act of suicidal folly and madness, almost
without parallel in history; and
"Whereas, The General Assembly of Alabama, representing a
people loyally devoted to the Constitution of the Union, but scorning
the Union which fanaticism would erect upon its ruins, deem it their
soleran duty to provide, in advance, the means by which they may
escape such peril and dishonor and devise new securities for perpet
uating the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity; there
fore be it Resolved,'" etc.
The resolutions required the Governor to Issue his Procla
mation, after ascertaining the election of a " so-called Repub
lican " to the Presidency, calling a sovereign convention of the
people, to meet within forty days. The militia was ordered
to be re-organized and $200,000 was appropriated for "mili
tary contingencies." The Senators and Representatives in
Congress, from Alabama, were notified, officially, of the action
of the Legislature, and copies of the preamble and resolutions
were sent to each Executive of the slave States.
The Legislature, so lately chosen by the people, and the
Convention, of the only party in the State, fresh from the
primaries of the people, described, most accurately and with
deep solemnity, the crisis which all the people understood.
The harmony of the two bodies was perfect. It is one of the
most mysterious anomalies of the course of public opinion
that, the co-dependence of the Legislature and the Democratic
Convention was the last evidence of united purpose, in the
events of 1860, on the part of the people of Alabama. There
was no room for denial of the facts recited in the preamble
of the joint resolutions. No engagements of the future could
be expected to bind the people of the North to the Constitu
tional rights of the South. With many struggles and mis
givings and, doubtless, with many prayers for divine guldanoe^
the old Union sentiment of the State suddenly returned to its
early love. It was a common remark of Mr. Calhoun to his
friends that, the people of the South were more strongly
attached to the Union than they were to their liberties.*
The voice of Alabama, in alarm, aroused Mr. Douglas to
renewed efforts. He was not mistaken in the rapid trend of
public opinion in the free States toward the RepubUcan party.
Stuart, from Michigan, and Dodge, from Iowa, Democrats
* Perry's Reminiscences.

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 449
whose terras had expired with his, had been repudiated by
their States for raore radical successors. Even he had been
saved to office by the Intervention of a partisan statute, which
created a voice in the Legislature of his State not the voice of
the people. His rupture Avith Mr. Buchanan's Adrainistration
had placed him under the ban, socially and politically, of his
own party in the slave States. His enemies within his party
in the free States were Implacable. William Kellogg, Repre
sentative from Illinois, speaking In the session of 1859-60
from his place in tbe House, said :
"Douglas was in the habit of remarking that it was policy for him
to remain in the party, iu order to hold certain of the rank and file, so
that if he went over from the Democracy to any other party he would
be able to take the crowd along with him; and when he got them all
over, he would cut down the bridges and sink the boats. * * After
talking awhile with Douglas I inquired of him if he knew where his
present course would lead him. He replied with emphasis: 'I do; I
have checked all my baggage and taken a through ticket.' In using
this expression to me, as he did several times, he conveyed to ^py mind,
as I think he intended to do, that he was going from the Democratic
party over, bag and baggage, to the Republicans — 'a gi-eat Northern
party,' as he used to call it."
Mr. Kellogg quoted numerous authorities to. support his
charge of infidelity against Mr. Douglas. Francis P. Blair,
Republican, of the House, from Missouri, wrote an open letter
declaring there had been " an understanding, perfect and cora-
plete, between Judge Douglas and several prominent members
of the Republican party, the aim and scope of which I am not
obliged to divulge." Greeley admitted. In more than one let
ter, that he had been called to Washington by Mr. Douglas
and had raet him in the Senator's own house, in private con
sultation, to discuss the differences between himself and the
Democrats who supported the Administration. Senator Wil
son, from Massachusetts, said, " in the hearing of many per
sons, that ' he knew that Senator Douglas was all right ' and
that ' he intended to act with the Republicans.' " Mr. Doug
las had no purpose of shaping himself into a hero. He saw
the North rushing with headlong haste, whither it knew not,
"the confused ferment of a great, rude, untutored energy."
The paradoxes of his course denoted the earnestness of his
struggle, in the thick of the confiict, for reason. He honestly

29

450 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
believed he could not sacrifice hiraself, to the South, without
the inevitable result of relinquishing the North to utter radi-
calisra. The alarm of statesmen had been, everywhere, aroused by
the display of martial instinct suddenly coming forth from the
affair of John Brown, at Harper's Ferry. Since that ominous
occurrence an armed truce alone stayed the collision of the
sections. Political Clubs were drilled In the tactics of the
field and given martial names. The President of the Univer
sity of Alabaraa bad openly declared to the Legislature its
duty to train officers at that institution to command the mUltla
for a service which was unavoidable. The pride of the domi
nant party of the North was tbe Wide AAvakes, bands of citi
zens organized in every town under common by-laws, parading
in the darkness only, bearing in their hands the murderous
John Brown pike and the flambeau and concealing, under their
long capotes, the Kansas knife, emblems, together with their
chosen narae, of Brown's ill-starred raid. In the temper of
armed Conflict, political parties proceeded to organize. Accord
ingly, when the New York State Democratic Convention met
to appoint delegates to Charleston — the country persuaded
that this State held the fate of the party in its control — it
dissolved In "disgraceful riot, one faction instructing its dele
gates to cast the entire vote for Douglas, while the other, the
" yard stick Democracy," flUed with the sympathy of the com
mercial emporium for Southern trade, sent a full delegation to
contest. The IlUnois Democracy divided, sending two dele
gations. In Pennsylvania, a more adroit policy controlled the
Douglas men. They caused to be passed through the State
Deraocratic Convention a resolution suspending the ancient
coraraon law of the party, which the Douglas men of New
York and Illinois had adopted. This common law required
that the majority of the delegation should cast the vote of all
the delegates. The Douglas men, in the Pennsylvania dele
gation, although In the minority there, were thus to be enabled
to assist, in the National Convention, the solid instructed vote
of the two other great States, by adding to it a fractional part
of the uninstructed vote of Pennsylvania. Mr. Douglas ap
peared in all the preparatory measures for joining battle at
Charleston, and his friends among the delegates went equally

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 451
instructed with the Alabama delegation, in a reverse policy.
•One of the most honorable of press correspondents wrote :
"He put his hands on my shoulder aud said: ' I authorize you to
say there is not a word of truth in the report that the President and I
have settled our dispute.' * * Mr. Douglas' plan for destroying the
Missouri line and thereby opening the way for the march of freedom
beyond the limits of that line and the opening up of free States, in terri
tory which it was conceded belonged to the slave States, and its march
westward, embracing the whole line of the Pacific, struck me as the
most magnificent scheme ever conceived by the human mind. This
¦character of conversation so frequently used by him, with those with
whom he talked, made the deepest impression on their minds, enlisted
them in his behalf and changed, in almost every instance, their opinion
of the man."
The regular quadrennial Convention of the National Demo
cratic party was called to order at Institute Hall, Charleston,
Monday morning, AprU 23, 1860. Practically, the representa
tion from the Southern States was a representation of the
whole people of those States, in the then prevailing condition
•of public sentiment.
Full delegations from all the States enrolled their names
— from the South, few merabers of Congress In the number,
but from the North, many. The elegant and commodious
hotels of the city, hundreds of private residences, and even
some steamers, towed at the wharves, were filled with dele
gates and their wives and daughters and thousands of visitors,
especially from the South, come to attend upon the sessions,
whose Iraport all confessed was charged with decisive results
never before awaiting the action of a similar body. Southern
members of Congress, AvhUe remaining In their places at Wash
ington, maintained an organized correspondence with Southern
leaders, at Charleston, by telegraph.
Among delegates, prorainent at home, were Governor Rob
inson, of Vermont, the first Democrat who had ever occupied
the Governor's seat in his State — and who died In his bed,
suddenly, ere his duties in the Convention were over — Sena
tors Dodge, from Iowa, Bigler, from Pennsylvania, Stuart, from
Michigan, Pugh, from Ohio, Bayard and Saulsbury, from Dela
ware; Representatives John A. Logan and Richardson, from
IlUuols, Payne and Vallandingham, frora Ohio, Sarauels, from
Iowa. From New York came Horatio Seymour, Dean Rich
mond, Fernando Wood, Randall, the biographer of Jefferson ;

4-52 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
from Massachusetts, Caleb Cushing, B. F. Butler, and others.
There was an admitted obligation, upon the body, of division
of the honors and influence at its command between the sec
tions. Thus, at the outset, an Intensity of Douglas rivalry
Impaired the dignity of the proceedings and gained permanent
and fatal advantages. It was agreed that the South should
supply the temporary Chairman. The concession was neutral
ized by the selection of Flournoy, from Arkansas, the only
Douglas man from his State and one of the few present from
his section. The ruling of the temporary Chairraan seated the
Douglas delegations from New York and Illinois and permitted
them to participate in proceedings decisive of their own rights.
Fisher, frora Virginia, rose to read the protest of the Fernando
Wood delegates, favoring the South, against the partiality
shown to the Dean Richmond, or Douglas, delegates, from New
York. Cochrane, of the latter class, hoping to deter the
reader, stoutly resisted the procedure. Leroy Pope Walker,
official leader of the Alabaraa delegation, a man of tall stature,
went upon the stage to confront the presiding officer with
charges of injustice in his ruling against Fisher and for Coch
rane. Amidst boisterous scenes. Walker leaped upon the Sec
retary's desk, denouncing the decision of the Chair. Chairman
Flournoy remained unmoved and Wood's protest Avas not
heard. Mr. Cessna, Avho had led the Douglas men In the Pennsyl
vania Convention to a great advantage, now came forward
with a substitute for several motions ostensibly looking to the
same end. He moved that two committees be appointed, " one
coraraittee on permanent organization and another on creden
tials." On Tuesday morning he appeared on the floor as
Chairman of the Committee on Organization, with its report,
short enough. He presented the name of Caleb Cushing for
President of the Convention, and hardly had the applause
ceased to resound and the vIce-Presldents been named Avhen
he resumed the reading, a mere sentence, re-affirraing the
rules of 1852 and 1856 — "with this additional rule." The
" additional rule " was the Pennsylvania partisan act rescind
ing the coraraon law of the party. It was contained in a few
words, big with the fate of the party, as follows :

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 453
" That in any State, lohich have not provided by its State
Convention hoio its vote maybe given, the Convention will recog
nize the right of each delegate to cast his individual vote.'"
" This additional rule " reversed the common law of the
party, as established in the case of Pennsylvania, in the Cin
cinnati Convention, of 1856, and the case of Virginia, In the
Baltimore Convention, of 1852. In both of these cases, it was
decided that the vote of the State should be determined by
the majority of the delegates and should be counted as a unit.
Mr. Cessna's amendment was intended to remove the irapedi-
ment of the common law to the success of his chief. The
friends of Mr. Douglas had discovered, upon a thorough
canvass of the delegates, that it would require the minority
Douglas delegates, found in the Southern delegations, unin
structed by State Conventions, added to the Northern Douglas
States, instructed, to secure for their leader even a promise of
nomination. The history of the adoption, in committee, of
the amendment, exposes its revolutionary character. The
Committee on Organization, in its deliberations on Monday
evening, considered and rejected it by a decided majority.
The committee, at the close of this, its flrst session, adjourned,
by common consent, sine die, and the morning newspapers so
reported. Tuesday morning, however, at an early hour, Mr.
Chairman Cessna went forth to summon members to re-con
vene. ThecaU did not reach all members. The member from
Missouri, the raeraber of Louisiana and the raember from
Texas, all opposed to the amendment, were not caUed. At a
meeting of the fragment of the Committee, Mr. A. B. Meek,
from Alabaraa, in his own handwriting, off'ered " this additional
jule." Debate foUowed, members protested, but the majority
present agreed to report it. An hour later Mr. Cessna pre
sented the report of the full committee, as prepared Monday
evening, supplemented by the bastard amendment. Mr. Hub
bard, the committeeman frora Texas, appealed to the body of
the Convention to pause, hear the tale from him and reject
"this additional rule." Others spoke in the same line of
argument. Mr. Yancey was in his seat, but was sUent.
Months later, he said : " It was a rule concocted by a remark
ably smart raan, and was so cunningly devised its eff'ect was
not suspected until the Convention had passed it." In truth,

454 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the South was well content with Caleb Cushing for presiding
officer, upon whora the selection of the Committee on Platform
would fall ; a false sense of reciprocity of comity of factions
occupied the minds of Southern leaders, while Northern leaders
prepared to suppress the traditions of the party as well as the
fundamental principles which, in all past time, National Demo
cratic Conventions had been organized to, express as the State
Rights theory of government.
Mr. Flournoy, temporary chairraan, as has been said, re
fused to entertain a protest against seating the delegations
from New York and Illinois, until the Convention should pass
upon the contest for seats appearing from those States ; and,-
by his ruling, the Douglas faction from both assisted in Com
mittee to bring forward the additional rule and assisted to
pass it through the Convention. Next in order, came the two
reports from the Committee on Credentials. The one seating
the Douglas delegates frora each of those States, the other,
offered by Mr. Brooks, frora Alabama, denouncing the claims
of both delegations from New York as so disreputable and
fraudulent as to be unworthy of recognition by the Convention
and advising, under the circumstances, that both be allowed
seats, with the voting power of one. Mr. Cushing, taking the
chair, spoke In animated words. He hoped the Convention
would drink in the spirit of the raaxira engraven on the tomb
of Calhoun, hard by : "Truth, Justice and the Constitution."
"(Tremendous cheering.)" "Opposed to us (he said) are those
who labor 1;o overthrow the Constitution, under the false and
insidious pretense of supporting it ; those who are aiming to
produce in this country a permanent sectional conspiracy — a
permanent, traitorous sectional conspiracy of one-half of thS
States against the other half ; those who, impelled by a stupid
and half Insane spirit of fanaticism, would hurry our land on
to revolution and civil war." So spake the presiding offlcer
presented to the Convention by the real author of the " addi
tional rule " — Mr. Cessna.
Mr. Yancey remained quietly in his seat in the four full
days the Convention passed in waiting for the report of the
Coraraittee on Platform. He had not been assigned to any of
the committees, for it was well understood the proper work
for him would come in the crisis of action. He asked the

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 455
Convention to obtain the consent of the city authorities to
spread saw-dust on the paving stones in the vicinity of the
Ijall; and, at another time, moved, in a single sentence, that
one member from each contesting delegation be allowed to be
heard on the floor before the flnal vote of the Convention on
the report of Committee on Credentials. "(Applause, and cries
of 'no,' 'no.')" Beyond these motions he was silent.
At the afternoon session of the fourth day It was evident
the Convention had grown restless in the apprehension that
the Committee on Platforra would not agree upon a report.
Mr. Sayles, from Rhode Island, sent a resolution to the chair
and moved the previous question. Mr. Sayles' resolution
required the Committee to report, at once, the Cincinnati
Platform, with the supplemental declaration that, to preserve
the Union the equality of the States must be maintained and
that, to preserve the equality of the States " every branch of
the federal government shall exercise all its Constitutional
powers in the protection of person and property, both in the
States and Territories." "(Great applause.)" The raotion was
overruled and the Convention, to preserve its teraper, ad
journed, to meet at ten o'clock the following morning, the
flfth day.
News spread rapidly on the streets, Thursday evening,
that the Committee on Platform would appear befoie the
Convention the next morning with an account of their disa
greement. As hostile armies confront each other in final
preparations for the collision of the coming morn, so passed
the night in the places where the delegates of the sections
discussed the approaching decisive day of the Convention.
Rev. Dr. Smyth, of the city, prepared a special prayer for the
opening of the session Friday morning. He petitioned that
"the spirit of moderation, discretion and forbearance might
prevail " ; that " every counsel of Architophel might be brought
to nought"; that the spirit of Washington "or, rather, the
spirit that made Washington what he was," might animate
his posterity to " live under the wide banner of the glorious
Constitution." Promptly, Mr. Avery, from North Carolina, chairman of the
Committee on Platform, ascended the stage with the Majority
Report. He read It amidst profound silence. He explained it

456 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
at length. Congress had never recognized the sovereignty of
first coraers on the common domain; Congress was, at that
moraent, preparing to suppress polygamy in an unorganized
Territory; it was not an "abstraction" to contend, as the
report did contend, that the Constitution extended to the Ter
ritories and that Congress should protect person and property
there. Possibly slaves might never be carried to any of the
present territorial possessions of the United States, but the
Democratic party. North and South, had long been committed
to the acquisition of new territory in latitudes favorable to
slave labor. The Committee was unanimous in advising the
enlargeraent of the area of the Union to the southward.
Cuba, Mexico and Central Araerica were inviting fields for
the occupation of the energies of the people of the United
States, and great statesmen had advised important additions
to the L^nlon in that direction. It was a practical question,
therefore, to be determined whether person and property
should be protected by the government of the Union where-
ever the flag of the Union waved :
" I know it is said (continued the speaker) that the sentiment of the
men of the North is such that they dislike to be thrown into association
with the owners of slaves. Gentlemen of the Convention, you from the
North, I ask you to correct that sentiment among your people, for it is
that sentiment of antagonism, that feeling of the people of the North
and of the people of the South that will create disunion. * * It is no
solution of this question to refer it to the Supreme Court. We are all
law-abiding people. North and South, I hope. We ask that there shall
be no equivocation and that there shall be no doubt left in the minds of
the people of the fundamental principles upon which we shall erect the
Democratic banner, uninfluenced by considei-ations of sectional interests
or the interests of individuals."
The minority had Intrusted their report to Mr. Payne,
from Ohio. Explaining it, Mr. Payne said, he was aware the
people of the South were frightened. "(Voices, ' no danger of
that.')" It had been pronounced a sacrifice of rights and dis
honorable to accede to the demands of the North. One of the
raajority resolutions required the fiag to protect property on
the high seas. To a raan, the Abolitionists would say this
meant protection to the slave trade.
"I ask you (he said) to look at my own State, Ohio, where Abo
litionists rave as madly and as wildly as in any other part of the globe.

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 457
None of you of the South have an army of two hundred thousand crazed
fanatics to deal with. When the Missouri compromise was repealed
these men carried the State by eighty thousand majority and elected
every one of twenty-one members of Congress. « * I say, with perfect
-confidence, that I do not believe Ave can elect a single member of Con
gress in the whole Northwest, outside of Lower Egypt, on the doctrine
of intervention." Mr. Butler, from Massachusetts, a raember of the corarait
tee, submitted as a substitute for the minority report the Cin
cinnati platform, " pure and simple," he said. The country
was prosperous and the subject of dispute should be Ignored.
When balloting began he would cast his vote for a man who.
If elected, would be a President for both sections. The man
was Jefferson Davis.
The Convention adjourned to meet at four o'clock in the
afternoon. Yancey and Pugh would speak for the sections.
When the President took his seat the floor and galleries were
already packed and thousands surged In disappointment at the
street door. The friend of Yancey's youth, Mr. Alfred Huger,
met him at the entrance to the hall, grasped his hand and
whispered : " Remeraber, It Is glorious to have a giant's
strength, but more glorious not to use it." The orator pleas
antly assured his venerable monitor that his friends should
have no cause to regret his words. While the great concourse
of ladles and gentlemen crowded into position on the floor and
In the galleries, Mr.'Barksdale, from Mississippi, delivered a
short but animated speech, declaring the Democratic party
" was born with the Constitution ; the two rose together and
will fall together." Mr. King, from Missouri, followed, for the
expectant throng had not yet composed Itself to receive the
debate between the Northern and Southern chosen champions.
Mr. King proceeded in a loose discourse ; he was alarmed ; he
was well persuaded that party policy required the acceptance
of the minority report;, he verily believed, if the Convention
accepted the majority report, " at the November elections there
would not be Democrats enough left in the Northwest to tell
that any had ever lived there."
In the gloaming of the May day, the high hall ablaze with
Ught, the most ancient, polite and splendid society of America
gathered there, Mr. Yancey arose frora his seat on the stage.
Instantly burst forth from floor, lobbies and galleries the most

458 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
wonderful demonstration orator ever received. Frenzied thou
sands on the street took up the shouts within and sped their
own deep tones far Into the horaes of the people. On rang-
the plaudits, within and without — "the ladies covered him
with flowers." The silent orator brushed a tear from his eye.
In sheer weariness of repeating itself, the clamor died away ;,
Turning to the presiding officer, he suggested some alter
ation of a rule regulating the length of speeches, desiring that
both he and the "representative man of the North " who was
to follow him should be permitted to complete their arguraents.
The Chair desired to know how much time the orator would
require; the audience responded with cries, "Go on;" "Go
on." It was a mere business colloquy ; the orator promised to-
condense his argument to the limit of justice to his cause.
Turning then to Mr. King, he expressed regret that " an un
natural speech had fallen from a Southern delegate, a repre
sentative of the State whose admission to the Union had
caused the South nearly all her trouble." Such was the exor
dium and the scenes surrounding an exaraple of oratory which
must be allowed to vie in potency with all oratory which em
bellishes the annals of a free people. The well chosen words,
suppressed passion, the magical tones, the pathos, the logic,.
the almost supernatural power of the man made the speech
which brought light and force to forty years of public thought.
It was the natural utterance of painful and protracted public
anxiety. It was the articulate sense of resolution in the public
mind aroused to action. In the hour and a half of its delivery
profound silence alternated Avlth vehement applause. A North
ern delegate rose to complain. For an hour and twenty min
utes, he said, the Convention had been compelled to submit to
recurring scenes of enthusiasm unsuited to its work. He
would demand the galleries be cleared. Mr. Rynders, from
New York, raortifled and indignant, cried out : " Mr. Presi
dent, you will have to stop Mr. Yancey frora speaking, if you
expect to suppress the. applause on the fioor." " (Tremendous-
applause.)" Mr. Pugh rose in reply, saying with emphasis proper to a.
noble appreciation of the scenes of the hour : " I thank God
we have had one true and honest man from the South to speak.
to us, who hides behind no equivocal expressions ! " His

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 459"
voice was sharp, his manner excited, but there was ability and
earnestness In his speech. His friends carae to his relief,
however. In a motion to adjourn until half past ten o'clock the
same night. At that hour the Ohioan resumed : " My fellow
citizens (he said), the reason why I objected to the first
proposition contained in the majority report is, I can see no
Constitutional authority for it. When the honorable gentle
man frora Alabaraa, or any other gentleraan, can show rae any
authority for It In the Constitution I will go with him."
Congress had never received power to substitute itself for a
Territorial government. Squatter sovereignty had carried
slavery wherever it had gone and given it all the protection it
could receive. There was a right of emigration from the
States to the Territories. The emigrant did not carry with
him the law of the State whence he came, but did carry with
him the right of self-government. This was Americanism.
No platform could cover the extent to which this Americanism
could go.
"And here (he said) let me make a single observation, in reply to
the gentleman from Alabaraa, and the gentleraan frora Massachusetts..
I agree that no Court, Supreme or Inferior, has any right to bind any
State in the last resort. (Applause.) I believe the federal government
to be founded on mutual compact between the States, and as the States
entered into that corapact of their own sovereign will, so it belongs to
each of them as the arbiter of its own destiny to decide when the com
pact has been broken and the mode and manner of redress. (Great
applause.) But while I say that, I say in reference to the federal gov
ernment itself, within its own sphere, with reference to its co-o'-dinate
Departments, it must of necessity result that the decisions of the judi
ciary are to be respected. * * i will make one further remark in
reference to this subject. I believe, in a condition of a Territory that
may be supposed, and where a people have shown themselves incapable
of self-government, it may become the duty of the federal government
to interpose to prevent anarchy and confusion and for the protection of
private and personal rights. * * I admit that the affairs of a Terri
tory may be so conducted by Emigrant Aid Societies, or any other set
of disorderly men, as to form a virtual prohibition of American citizens
to emigrate there, without subjecting themselves to confiscation of
their property, to abuse of the judicial power or refusal to obey the
mandates of the federal courts and, in that case, I grant the whole
power of the government may be brought to correct the evil."
Had the peril of the liberties of the country presented
itself to the Northern and Southern Democrats alike? The

460 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Northern raerabers of the Convention hoped the " permanent
conspiracy," as Mr. Cushing phrased it, could yet be over
thrown by concessions from the South, on the question of
squatter sovereignty. This advice was encountered, at the
outset, with evidence that Mr. Douglas, the prophet of the
doctrine, was far more disposed to concede to the Republicans
of the North than to the Southern wing of the Democratic
party. Nothing raore clearly exposed the sectional division
of the party than the criticism of Mr. Pugh upon the Dred
Scott case. The language of the Court, referring to the au
thority of Congress over the Territories to enact laws pro-
scriptive of person or property, was :
"It is a total absence of power everywhere within the dominion of
the United States. * * And if Congress itself cannot do this — if it
is beyond the powers conferred on the General Government — it will
be admitted, we presume, that it could not authorize a Territorial gov
ernment to exercise them. It could confer no power on any local gov
ernment, established by its authority, to violate the provisions of the
Constitution." The Alabama Platform demanded the recognition of the
principle here laid down, not because It was the decree of the
Court, In a particular case, but because it was the Constitu
tional theory, necessary to the administration of the govern
raent, in reverence for which the party should educate public
opinion. This was the issue forced by Yancey, since 1848,
and sanctioned In Its statesmanship, eight years later, by a
judicial construction. But the delegates in the Convention,
from the North, declared the construction of the Court would
not be accepted by the party, in that section, and that assent
to it, in convention, would result in immediate disintegration
of the Northern Democracy. Mr. Pugh argued that the issue
presented by Alabama could be consistently avoided. The
Court had not touched the question of authority in the Kansas
Territorial Legislature over slaA^ery. " I admit (he said) that
the constitutionality of the Missouri comproralse was fully
before the Court, but I say that the power of the Territorial
Legislature was not before the Court. * * I stand upon
every syllable of .Judge Taney's decision. I repudiate nothing
In it." Neither did Yancey repudiate anything in it, but
accepted all. Had the exigencies of the sections passed be
yond the range of argument?

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. • 461
, The debate of the sections had, to all practical purposes,
now closed, forever, on the question of slavery. Yancey's
speech had raade a profound impression strengthened only by
Pugh's reply. The moment Mr. Pugh ceased, midnight as it
was, Mr. John Cochrane, from New York, rose to offer a reso
lution which covered the extremest Southern view. Mr.
Bishop, from Connecticut, thought the opinion of every dele
gate had been made up for four years and all further amend
ments or discussion was useless. The body adjourned until
the next day.
The Convention assembled Saturday raorning at 10 o'clock,
a deep solemnity resting on every countenance. The West re
mained firmly devoted to the fortunes of its chief. The East
sought not to conceal its intense anxiety. Mr. Spinola, frora
New York, broke the silence, which seemed only grateful to
all, with a motion to dispense with the reading of the journal.
Senator Bigler, from Pennsylvania, next rose. He said, never
before had the Deraocratic party been in a condition so critical.
He had risen only for the purpose of impressing on the minds
of all, if possible, the importance of moving with calmness
and deliberation, for the purpose of reconciling, if possible,
those differences of opinion prevailing in the same faraily,
which. If permitted to survive, must overwhelm all in one
common ruin. He would speak for the unity of the Demo
cratic party, convinced that the Union of the States depended
upon the reconciliation of its present divisions. Mr. Bishop,
from Connecticut, Douglas follower, called the speaker to order
on a technicality. The Chair decided promptly Mr. Bigler
was not out of order. Mr. Bigler then moved that the major
ity and minority reports be recommitted to the committee, with
instructions to report within one hour. Seven resolutions, the
substance of which was, that the government of a Territory
was provisional and temporary ; that any citizen had a right
to settle with his property in any Territory ; that the Demo
cratic party stand pledged to the doctrine that, it was the duty
of Congress to maintain, in the Territory, all rights of person
and property; that nullifications by States of the fugitive
slave law, " were hostile in character, subversive of the Con
stitution, and revolutionary in their effect." Mr. Montgomery,
from Pennsylvania, Douglas follower, moved to lay Mr. Bigler's

-462 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
resolutions on the table, for he "did not regard a Congres
sional slave code as a proposition of compromise, nor would
he consent to squint toward the reopening of the African slave
trade." The feeling of the Douglas men had grown resentful.
Mr. Cochrane, from New York, endorsed the substance of Mr.
Bigler's resolutions, and argued " there should be proper and
Constitutional protection to the persons and property of citi
zens, settling in the Territories." Mr. Walker, from Alabama,
moved that Mr. Bigler's resolutions be divided. The vote
was then taken upon that division which called for re-com-
mlttlng the reports, and It was decided in the affirmative by
one majority. Mr. Bayard, from Maryland, objected to any
instructions to the committee. He would leave It free to re
port at Its own discretion. Mr. Brooks, from Alabama, moved
to lay the instructions on the table, and this motion prevailed,
242^ to 56^. Mr. Miles, from Maryland, asked permission to
say that the representative from his State, on the Committee
on Platform, had denied, by his vote on that committee, the
authority upon which he had received his commission, and did
not represent the State.
The Committee on Platforra retired, and the Convention
took a recess until 4 o'clock. Reassembling at that hour, Mr.
Avery, Its chairman, took position on the stage, announcing
the majority report. Into which, he said, had been incorporated
the meaning of the resolutions of Mr. Cochrane, Mr. Bigler and
Mr. Bayard. THE MA.IORITY REPORT.
" Resolved: That the platform adopted by the Democratic party at
Cincinnati be re-affirmed, with the following explanatory resolutions:
"First: That the government of a Territory, organized by act of
Congress is. provisional and temporary ; and during its existence all
citizens of the United States have an equal right to settle with their
property in the Territory, without their rights, either ot person or
property being destroyed or impaired by Congressional or Territorial
legislation; "Second: That it is the duty of the federal government in all its
departments to protect, when necessary, the rights of persons and prop
erty in the Territories, and wherever else its Constitutional authority
extends; " Third: That when the settlers of a Territory, having an ade
quate population, form a State Constitution, the right of sovereignty
¦ commences, and, being consuramated by admission into the Union,

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 463
they stand on an equal footing with people of other States ; and States
thus organized ought to be admitted [into the Federal Union whether
its Constitution prohibits or recognizes the institution of slavery;
" Foiirth: That the Democratic party are in favor of the acquisi
tion of the Island of Cuba, ou such terms as shall be honorable to our
selves and just to Spain, at the earliest practicable moment;
"Fifth: That the enactments of State Legislatures to defeat the
faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law are hostile in character,
subversive of the Constitution and revolutionary iu effect;
"Sixth: That the Democracy Of the United States recognize it as
imperative duty of this government to protect the naturalized citizen
in all his rights, whether at home or in foreign lands, to the same extent
as its native born citizens;
" Whereas, One of the greatest necessities of the age in a political,
commercial, postal and military point of view, is a speedy communi-
-cation between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, Therefore be it
" Resolved, That the Democratic party do hereby pledge them
selves to use every means in their power to secure the passage of some
bill, to the extent of the Constitutional authority of Congress, for the
construction of a Pacific Railroad, from the Mississippi River to the
Pacific Ocean, at the earliest practicable moment."
Mr. Samuels, from Iowa, was charged with the duty of
reading the minority report. The points of agreement be
tween majority and rainorlty reports of the committee Avere
found to be: (1) Reaffirmation of the Cincinnati platform;
(2) the acquisition of Cuba ; (3) protection abroad of natural
ized citizens ; (4) denunciation of the nullification acts of
the free States; (5) the duty of the federal government to
build a trans-continental railroad.
The points of difference shown in the reports were set
forth in the preamble and one resolution of the minority as
follows :
"Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the Democratic party
as to the nature and extent of the powers of a Territorial Legislature
and as to the powers and duty of Congress under the Constitution of the
United States over the institution of slavery within the Territories:
Resolved, That the Democratic party will abide by the decision of
the Supifeme Court of the United States on the questions of Constitu
tional law."
The minority report avoided the question at Issue. The
minority report was, in eff'ect, a surrender of the principle
upon which the party of Jefferson was founded. It was
manifestly impossible to relegate the present "questions of
Constitutional law " to the Supreme Court, in advance of the

464 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
action of the party upon those questions. The Court Itself
must, in the nature of the federal system, be the creature
of the party. The party now in convention had rescued the
government. Including the Court, from the policies of John
Adams. This party, alone, could Instruct the suft'raglsts In
sound principles and methods necessary to uphold the Court
itself. For example, should the Court be created by the Re
publican party It would reflect the favorite doctrine of that
party — that the Declaration of Independence, and not the Con
stitution, was supreme ; that rights could not rise above their
source ; that, under the Constitution, derived frora the Declar
ation, the rights of huraan nature were Inalienable, and slavery
irapossible. Mr. Seward held " all coraproralses to be radically
wrong and essentially vicious." Mr. Suraner, referring to the
Dred Scott decree as an insult to the age, declared he knew
"too rauch of the history of judicial proceedings to regard
them with superstitious reverence."
The delusive character of the minority report, in its point
of difference with the report of the majority, became apparent
with the least attention to the structure of the government
itself. The Supreme Court was not competent to act upon
the party question at issue until the Legislative Department
of the government, chosen by the parties, should act. The
question of protection to slave property, in the Territories,.
could not become a judicial question until a Congress, elected
by parties, should pass a law protective of that property-
The Court raight review the law, to pass upon its constitu
tionality, but it must have remained powerless and, even,
voiceless in this emergency until, first, the party and, next,
the Congress and tbe Executive should precede it in action.
Legislation, even within the Constitution, was a matter of
sound discretion with Congress. The Court, in the nature of
its power, could not inquire Into the motive of Congress In
refraining from legislation, nor compel that body to legislate.
Therefore, protection to slavery In the Territories could not
become a judicial question, until the enactment by Congress
and the approval by the President of a protective statute for
that kind of property. The " abstract " question, avoided by
the minority report, could not be avoided by the. people or
the party. Perhaps slavery might not desire to enter any of ,

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 465
the common domain, then owned; by the government, but both
reports called for the acquisition of territory in serai- tropical
regions, where slave labor was iraperative.*
Nor was the minority report in any raeasure educationary
of public opinion on the vital question fully set forth in the
majority report — the right of Congress to determine the
domestic institutions of the States. The question of the day
was, the preservation of the federal system, regardless of any
relations which the protection of slavery, at a future time,
might bear to that system.
Mr. Butler presented, the second time, his substitute for
the minority report. The day before no State had sustained
him. Now, besides speaking for Massachusetts in his own
person, he received the support of the committeemen from
three other States — New Jersey, Indiana and Minnesota.
"You say, gentlemen of the Convention, (he said), you want an
interpretation of the Cincinnati platform. * * Do you desire to send
us home to be subjected to the sneers of the Black Republicans, telling
us we have gone and laid down our honor at the feet of the South and
pointing at us as they pass us on the streets? Tou say a distinguished
Northern gentleman has given a wrong interpretation. Well then, get
some equally distinguished Southern eentleman to give a right inter
pretation and then legislate without waiting for the Supreme Court.
The Senate last year passed resolutions of Mi-. Jefferson Davis, upon
which we can all stand, interpreting this question."
Saturday, all day, and almost until midnight, the Conven
tion sat, irresolute. Angry debate prevailed. Mr. Burrow,
from Arkansas, said he was unable to perceive why the small
States should be recognized as the equals of the large States,
each having a single representative on the Committee which
reported the platform, and yet when the platform came before
the Convention for determination the principle of States equal
ity was to be destroyed in the vote about to be taken. He
hoped 'Southern men would stand firm. The narae of the
Republican party was " Black Knight " ; the narae of a faction
of the Deraocracy was " Squatter Sovereignty." The first.
came with bold front, defiant, even, with disloyalty and treason
emblazoned on his crest ; the latter came in the name of a,
*In 1867, a Republican party Administration acquired Alaska, equal in area to-
ten large States, thus indicating that the united call of the factions of the Democ
racy, in 1860, for more territory was consistent with the American spirit.

30

466 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
brother but, to him, was the most dangerous, because the most
insidious of eneraies. The chair said it was physically impos
sible for him to control the Convention when half the members
were on their feet at the same moraent — that he could not go
into a contest with six hundred men, as to who should cry the
loudest. As to himself, unless gentlemen would come to order
he would vacate his seat.
Hopeful, few were. None, perhaps, contemplated the dis
solution of the party which had controlled the government,
with little Interruption, for more than half a century, save
with emotions of profound solicitude. Sunday night, Mr.
Richard Taylor, son of the soldier-President, a delegate from
Louisiana, and a young gentleman of persuasive address,
resolved to make a flnal effort to restore harraony. He set out
to flnd the Alabaraa delegates, in their places of abode, and to
bring thera Into conference, where he would, himself, appear as
peacemaker. Long after midnight the conference was assem
bled — twenty -five gentlemen to decide the fate of the Conven
tion, certainly — possibly to decide the fate of the party and of
the Union. Yancey made a calra review of the situation. He
would unite In any equitable policy of harraony. He did not
consider the delegation bound, except by the intent and spirit
of the instructions they had brought with thera. To preserve
the party, with a party policy substantially based on the prin
ciples of the Alabama Platform, was the meaning of the
instructions. Hearing Yancey, and others, after him, Taylor
hoped his missionary labor had not been fruitless. Winston
at last spoke. He had not been a meraber of the State Con
vention, and had been appointed a delegate without his
consent. He proceeded to answer his own speech, at Bal
timore, of 1848. He accepted appointment and would execute
his instructions as they came to him along with his com
mission. He did not approve the instructions. He IJiought
they had been originally conceived to pull one man (Douglas)
down and set another man (Yancey) up. He thought it was
too late now to object to squatter sovereignty. The North
was determined to enforce it. He had come to the Conven
tion resolved to force those who had brought the trouble
from Alabama to stand by their work. He would with
draw from the Convention under his instructions. Winston's

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 467
speech dissolved the conference, just as the first rays of
morning light broke the horizon. Claverhouse, the fiercest and
sternest of the race of Graham, forced his unlucky captive
rival, the great MacCallum More, to march on foot, bare
headed, through the -^v^hole length of the most splendid street
of Edinburgh, with the hangman in the lead ; and the deed of
compulsion was accouuted heroic.
Mr. Butler's substitute carae to the vote flrst, on Monday.
Received with ridicule on Friday, it now coraraanded raore
than one-third of the votes of the Convention. The minority
report was called up for consideration and here Mr. Butler
urged that the Convention should raake haste to adjourn. The
minority report, howcA er, was considered, section by section.
The first section, re-affirming the Cincinnati Platform, was
adopted, 237^ to 65 — the cotton States casting most of the
negative votes. The preamble and section binding the party
to " abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United
States on questions of Constitutional law," was next consid
ered. Mr. Winston argued against the proposition; Mr. Bed
ford Brown, from North CaroUna, warned the Convention that
the proposition would sweep off every barrier of the reserved
rights of the States. This section was rejected with practical
unanimity — 238 to 21 — Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas refusing to vote. The same
States refrained from voting on any of the remaining separate
sections, all of which were adopted with practical unanimity.
The minority report, except the preamble and resolution
relating to the obligation of the party to abide by the decisions
of the Supreme Court on questions of Constitutional law, was
then adopted, 165 to 138. The disastrous effect of the " addl
tional rule" became manifest. ' The vote stood :

Maine 

For
Minority Report.
 8

Against
Minority Report.

New Hampshire 
Vermont 
Massachusetts 
Connecticut 
Rhode Island

 5

 -3
 7
 6
 4

New Tork 

.  .35

New .Jersey 

 6

2

468

THE LIFE OF YANCEY.

Pennsylvania . . .
Delaware 
Maryland 
Virginia 
North Carolina.
South Carolina.
Georgia 
Florida 
Alabama 
Mississippi 
Louisiana 
Texas 
Arkansas 
Missouri 
Tennessee 
Kentucky 
Ohio 
Indiana 
Illinois 
Michigan 
Wisconsin 
Iowa 
Minnesota 
California 
Oregon 

12 1

4 1 2i
23 13
11 6
.5 44

165

15 3
4^
10 11 8
10 3

44
8
11 9J

4 8
138

A minority of a committee, representing a minority of
States, were enabled by chicanery to force the Convention
into a destructive act. Had the delegates cast their votes as
individuals, the majority report would have been accepted by
the Convention. Had the common law of the party, requiring
the States to vote as units, and which had been acknowledged
in the Pennsylvania case, of 1856, and the Virginia case of
1852, prevailed the votes would have stood, 154 for the ma
jority report to 149 for the minority report. The " additional
rule" interfered, to put the Convention in control of the free
States and particularly the Western States, who, it was rea
sonable to suppose, would not be able to cast even one elect
oral vote for the nominees of the Convention.
The situation was painfully considered by the friends of
Constitutional LTnion. Had not the party been dissolved?
And by whora ? Should not the party be instantly reorgan
ized to execute its ancient principles? Brave leaders were

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 469
ready to undertake the last named alternative. It was known
that the Whigs of the border States, who had supported
Buchanan, were preparing to revive the Whig party, while a
large voting population in the free States demanded a Consti
tutional party. The Douglas faction seemed to be strong,
only in the West, where the vote was hopelessly Republican.
So soon as order was restored, after the announcement of
the vote on the report, Leroy Pope Walker rose and in an im
pressive manner read the Alabama Protest against the action
of the Convention, read also the Alabaraa Platforra and the
report just subraitted to the Convention, by the majority of
its Committee on Platform. The docuraent recapitulated the
fact that the declaration of principles deraanded by Alabama
had been made by " a majority of a Committee on Resolutions,
representing not only a majority of the States of the Union
but also all the States at all likely to be carried by the Dera
ocratic party in the Presidential election." The closing sen
tence announced :
"Instructed, as we are, not to waive the issue, the contingency
therefore has arisen when, in our opinion, it becomes our duty to with
draw from this Convention. We beg, sir, to communicate this fact
through you, and to assure the Convention that we do so in no spirit of
anger but under a sense of imperative obligation, properly appreciating
the responsibilities of our course and cheerfully submitting to the con
sequences." The signatures attached, in the order here given, were, L.
P. Walker, Chairman ; F. S. Lyon, John A. Winston, Robert
G. Scott, A. B. Meek, J. R. Breare, H. D. Sraith, John Erwin,
W. L. Yancey, D. W. Balne, N. H. R. Dawson, R. M. Patton,
W. C. Mclver, D. D. Harper, Lewis L. Cato, John W. Portls,
F. G. Norman, W. C. Guild, Julius C. B. MitcheU, W. C. Sher
rod, G. G. Griffin, J. T. Bradford, T. J. Burnett, A. G. Henry,
Wm. M. Brooks and R. Chapman, representing 9 votes. Pro
found silence ruled. The Alabama delegates retired and the
Convention sat as if dazed with the scene. Mr. Barry, from
Mississippi, rose and read in clear tones the Protest of his
State, announcing the "Avithdrawal" of its delegation. Rapt
urous applause now broke forth frora the floor and the gal
leries, as if the raembers had awakened to the occasion. In
quick succession. Governor Moulton, from Louisiana, General

470 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Jaraes Siraons, from South Carolina, Mr. Milton, from Florida,
and Mr. Bryan, from Texas, read the Protests of their respect
ive States and announced, araidst ever recurring applause,
their withdrawal from the Convention.
The Convention again sat, for moments. In silence. Mr.
Merrick, from Illinois, rose, excitedly exclaiming : " Mr. Presi
dent, and gentleraen. In what crisis are Ave called to act ! Star
after star madly shoots frora the Deraocratic galaxy. Why is
it and what Is to come of it? Does it presage, that, after now,
star after star will shoot madly from the galaxy of the Repub
lic and the American Union become a fragment — a parcel of
sectional Republics? No, sir; no." Mr. Merrick moved an
adjournment. Mr. Saulsbury, from Delaware, announced that
two of his colleagues, being a majority of the delegation of his
State, had Avlthdrawn, Informally, from the Convention. He
was in full sympathy with their principles, but would retain
his seat until further reflection should determine his course.
With the opening of the Convention, on Tuesday, the next
morning, the Georgia delegation withdrcAv — four of the twenty-
six delegates protesting the act. Immediately following, the
majority of the Arkansas delegates formally withdrew. The
delegations of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland
separately retired for consultation. In the Interval, Mr. B. F.
Perry, from South Carolina, who had refused to follow wheu
the majority of the delegates from his State withdrew, rose to
address the Convention. He was a well known Unionist, a
gentleman of ability, of comraanding appearance and a fluent
speaker. The galleries received him with shouts of derision.
The raotion was raade on the floor that he should go upon the
stage to speak. The presiding officer ordered the galleries
cleared, but Perry objected. He desired his countrymen
should hear his argument, he said. Mr. Perry was quite con
vinced the withdrawing delegates would all return, the har
raony of the Convention be restored and a candidate acceptable
to all be nominated, should the body simply re-affirm the
Cincinnati platforra, annexing a resolution endorsing "the
principles enunciated by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred
Scott decision." Judge Douglas, at home and In the Senate,
however, had industriously cultivated a sentiment of resist
ance to the principles of that decree, and Democrats of his

THE CHARLESTON CONVEyTION. 471
following, at horae and In the Convention, had renounced
them. Mr. Perry's position as to doctrine was, in truth, an
endorsement of the Alabama Platform. He diff'ered with his
colleagues only in his view of methods and measures necessary
to maintain a principle, upon which all were agreed. At the
conclusion of Mr. Perry's short speech Mr. Howard, from
Tennessee, offered two resolutions, both objectionable to the
Douglas raen. The first affirmed the Dred Scott decree. The
second required :
"The chair shall not declare any person elected as the candi
date of this Convention unless he shall have received Pwo-thirds
oftheiohole number of votes in the Electoral College.''''
Mr. Russell, chairman of the Virginia delegation, thereupon
announced that action taken upon the second resolution would
determine whether his State would remain In the Convention
or not. The first resolution, offered In accordance with the sugges
tion of Mr. Perry, was ruled out of order. The second
resolution was then offered by Mr. Howard, as privileged. An
excited discussion followed, lead by Senator Stuart, from
Michigan, opposed to it. Mr. Stuart contended that, " two-
thirds " of the Convention, meant two-thirds of a quorum
only ; and that a motion to change the rules must lie over one
day. The chair held Mr. Stuart's objection untenable. The
Convention had no legal authority. It was the representative
of the opinion of a party, and the members were the party. A
nomination by the Convention was a Constitutional necessity,
but a nomination by a fractional part of the Convention which
attempted to bind the people of the United States, would be a
vastly greater Inconvenience than the Inconvenience Avhlch
might arise from the fact that a secession of one-third of the
Convention had prevented any nomination at all. An appeal
was taken from the ruling of the chair, which had declared
" two-thirds of the votes given " meant two-thirds of a full
Convention, and the chair was sustained, 144 to 108. Stuart,
thereupon, moved that all individual delegates should be bound
by the nomination. The motion was ruled out of order.
Howard's second resolution, put upon its passage, was
adopted by 141 to 112 ; the customary motion to reconsider
was made, by Mr. Bigler, and was, on his motion, also laid on

472 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the table ; and thus Douglas' nomination was raade impossible,
under the rules. The rules were never changed, at Charleston
or elsewhere. Mr. King, from Missouri, whose State Conven
tion, in giving him his commission, had passed resolutions
condemning Douglas, placed Douglas' name in nomination
for the Presidency. Balloting began. Douglas, Guthrie, of
Kentucky, Hunter, of Virginia, Toucey, of Vermont, Dickinson,
of New York, Lane, of Oregon, Davis, of Mississippi and
Pearce, of Maryland, received the votes cast. In two days,
fifty-seven ineff'ectual ballots were taken, Douglas leading each.
On the tenth day of the Convention, a resolution of adjourn
ment passed, which appealed to " the Democratic party of the
several States to make provision for all vacancies," preliminary
to re-assembllng at Baltimore, the next month. The chair, in
dismissing the body, reminded it that it "held in Its grasp the
fortunes of the Constitution." The Convention adjourned
with 55|- votes from the free States opposed to Douglas, all
but seven being frora the East.
Mr. Cessna, of the Douglas rainorlty in the Pennsylvania
delegation, and Mr. Winston, of the Douglas minority in the
Alabaraa delegation, are justly entitled to appear as deter
mining Infiuences on the current of the revolution. The one
fell upon an inglorious trick, the other upon a desperate
jealousy in a fearful crisis of civilizations at war.
There was no absence of purpose on the part of the with
drawing delegates and no delay allowed in their course. They
assembled at St. Andrew's Hall the evening of the day of
their withdrawal, to consult upon what steps to take to pro
mote Southern unity. A large concourse of citizens came to
the hall. " It Is a grave and Important crisis," said Yancey,
when he raoved to clear the hall of spectators, until the
raeeting should organize " with that dignity and moderation
becoming to so great an occasion." John S. Preston, from
South Carolina, was called to the chair, temporarily ; James F.
Bayard, from Delaware, was chosen President of the body.
Yancey feared the meeting would be called, to its prejudice,
"the seceded Convention." As the delegates had not seceded
from their party, he moved It should be known as the
"Convention of the Constitutional Democracy." The secession,
he insisted, had been on the part of those who refused to

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 473
follow party principles. His motion was Avlthdrawn, because
it had become evident it would provoke unprofitable discus
sion. Yancey, from the Committee on Resolutions, reported
the majority report, rejected by the original Convention. One
of these original resolutions declared Congress should Inter
pose, " when necessary," to protect person and property In the
Territories. It Avas here repeated. Winston rose, excitedly,
and denounced the words as covering " a delusion and a lie."
Alabama demanded absolute guarantees that slaves should be
protected by Congress In Kansas, wbei-e slaves already were.
To announce that Congress must act "when necessary " was
begging the question. He was ready to support an honest
man on any platform, as the very best thing the South could
do, but he would take no part in an attempted fraud upon
public credulity. " I am willing (he said) to fall fighting for
principle, but when you try to stab a man (Douglas) under the
fifth rib, with no hope of vindicating or establishing your
principle, I wash my hands of all such work." Mr. Winston
had, at the midnight conference called by Taylor„demanded the
Alabama delegates should withdraw from the original Conven
tion, because of the rejection of this report, and now, that the
withdrawing delegates proposed to adopt the rejected report,
he put on his hat and walked aAvay. It was not the purpose
of the St. Andrew's Hall raeeting to norainate candidates. It
continued to meet, so long as the original Convention held its
sessions, at Charleston. Both bodies adjourned simultaneously
— the St. Andrew's iHall raeeting, having passed a resolution
suggesting to " the Democratic party of the United States " to
meet at Richmond, Virginia, at a date naraed, one week before
the assembling of the Douglas raen at Baltimore.
Arduous public labors, from this time forward to the end
of his life, consuraed Mr. Yancey's time. In the last week of
the Convention, at Charleston, he addressed the citizens by
special request at the theatre. Returning to his law offlce, he
found his desk loaded with calls to speak in all parts of Ala
bama; many of which he accepted, promptly.
It had been provided by the Alabama Democratic Conven
tion, of the preceding January, that In the event of the with
drawal of its delegation, an Executive Committee should call
the party together, "to consider what Is best to be done."

474 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The Convention neither appointed an Executive Committee
nor prescribed how it should be appointed. The President,
Mr. Lyon, after due consultations, published the names, one
Executive Committee-man from each Congress District. The
Committee, so appointed, published a call for the re-assem
bling of the Convention.
The party in Alabama was now hopelessly rent in twain.
The Whigs, too, were active in restoring their lost party
organization. Fifty-five newspapers of the State supported
the Yancey division, or the organized party ; thirteen sup
ported the bolters, or Douglas cause ; sixteen urged the reor
ganization of the Whig party, on a platform condemning
squatter sovereignty. The contest between the rival divisions
of the Democracy opened with bitterness. Winston spoke at
Montgoraery, in censorious phrases of Yancey, as he passed, en
route, from Charleston to his abode at Mobile. May 14, the
Douglas men asserabled at Mobile, in raass raeeting, styling
themselves " National Democrats." James E. Saunders, from
the Valley of the Tennessee, presided. A large part of the
audience were Whigs. Mr. Winston spoke. His senses had
been quickened at Charleston ; nobody there cared anything
for the Democratic platforra ; the whole disturbance. In the
Convention, was a " cut and dried " scherae to " precipitate
the cotton States into revolution"; " Mr. Yancey walked the
streets with the air of a raan who saw the glittering object of
his ambition at last within his grasp; twelve years before
Yancey had bolted frora a National Convention,, solitary and
alone : now, with the same Issue, he had eight States already
at bis back." He thought the secession movement would not
develop much strength among the people. For hiraself, he
would not repudiate his party. Mr. Forsyth followed, and
resolutions were adopted calling a State Convention of all
" who saw In the Democratic party the only salvation of the
country," to meet at Selhia.
Five days later Yancey spoke at Marion, Perry County.
He replied to the printed speeches of Messrs. Winston and
Forsyth with fierce invective. He had known Mr. Winston
twenty years — seventeen of which he had found him in offlce
and the remaining three he had spent in vain labors preparing
to enter the United States Senate. A restless and consuming

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 475
ambition was not the best preparation for an adviser of the
people, in a great crisis. If ambition was crime, first among
criminals in Alabama stood Mr. Winston. Mr. Forsyth had
been on all sides of all questions, within the Democratic party.
Disappointed, he had returned frora a foreign mission, and
unable to destroy raen in the way of his own promotion, bis
self-conceit led him to attempt to overthrow the Deraocratic
party. The regular Deraocratic organization of the State raet in
special Convention in the Hall of the House of Representa
tives, June 4 ; and, on the same day, the Douglas men met in a
public hall at Montgomery. Both bodies appointed delegates
to Baltimore; the former via Richmond. Lewis E. Parsons,
the most able and consistent of all the Whigs of the State,
never before in sympathy with Democrats, was placed at the
head of the Douglas delegation, nominally, but in fact Mr.
Forsyth dictated its appointments, determined its course and
wrote all of its important docuraents. He was the recognized
head of the schism.
Full delegations from all the Gulf States, and Georgia and
South Carolina, with partial delegations from Tennessee, Vir
ginia, and an informal one from New York, raet at Richmond,
June 11. John Erwin, from Alabama, was chosen presiding
offlcer. Several hours on each of two days were consumed in
desultory discussion. On the second day the hall was crowded
with ladies and gentlemen, who sent a messenger to Mr. Yan
cey with a request that he should address thera. H^ bid a
friend go upon the stage to make his apologies. He Avas
resolved to allow no utterance of his to embarrass the restora
tion of the Convention at Baltimore. The meeting adjourned,
subject to the call of the President. All of the States present,
except South Carolina, proceeded by their delegations to Bal
timore.* The remaining days of the week Mr. Yancey spent at Wash
ington. He had received evidences, indirectly, at Charleston
that the strong personal attachment and confidence Mr. Doug
las had entertained toward hira, in past years, yet survived.
Now the Northern leader sent for the Southern leader to visit
*After the adjournment at Baltimore the Richmond Convention reassembled
and ratifled the nomination ol Breckenrldge and Lane.

476 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
him at his house at the national capital. A carriage came to
Mr. Yancey's quarters, at ten o'clock in the evening, and, with
a companion, he repaired to the parlors of Mr. Douglas, where
several gentlemen, Avith the host, awaited him. General con
versation occupied the time, devoted to the call, and the
friends parted. WhUe yet at Washington, Mr. Yancey re
ceived, through Mr. George N. Sanders, then in high standing
in the Democratic party, the formal proffer from the Douglas
Influence of second place on the ticket to be nominated at
Baltimore. The suggestion was raade in the apartments of
Representative James L. Pugh, where Mr. Yancey Avas a guest,
and where a number of gentlemen were assembled. Mr.
Sanders said four years before, Mr. Douglas as the defeated
candidate for flrst place had claimed the right of naming the
vlce-Presldentlal candidate. Would Yancey, now the con
fessed leader of a minority, very powerful, accept the second
place, with the assurance of the raajority that he should be
put forward for flrst place in 1864? Mr. Sanders even held
out the precarious state of Mr. Douglas' health as promise that
the vice-President, elected with him, would receive promotion
ere the term expired. Mr. Yancey disregarded the sug
gestion.* The National Democratic Convention re-assembled, Mon
day, June 18, in Front Street theatre, Baltiraore. The attend
ance from all parts of the Union comprised an enormous
aggregate of excited and alarmed politicians. Two hundred
reporters of the dally press of the country required tickets.
The Western partisans of Douglas returned with augmented
acerbity of feeling. No sooner had the body been called to
order than Mr. Richardson, the Douglas leader of the West,
moved that no delegate who had withdrawn at Charleston be
re-admitted. Mr. Loring, frora Massachusetts, replied. The
Convention, he said, had no power to go beyond the creden
tials of delegates. The course that duly accredited gentlemen
had pursued, before that moraent, could not be a subject of
legitimate inquiry on the part of the Convention. " Are you
about to make a parallel between a case in New York and one
•Speech of O. Jennings Wise, at Richmond, September, 1860;
Letter of M. W. Fisher, who was present in Mr. Pugh's room, in Louisville
Courier, of December 24, 1860 ;
Editorial of Charleston Courier, December 26, 1860;
Cradle of Confederacy, ii. 425.

THE CHARLESTON CONVEN'TION. ill
in the South ! (exclaimed a Pennsylvanian). Are you going
to insult, in that way, the Empire State!" "No," "No,"
shouted many voices. A letter was received from Daniel S.
Dickinson : " If the Convention reject those delegates I hope
my friends wiU go Avith the rejected — I shall go with them, if
I go alone," wrote the New York candidate. The West was
very resolute. Douglas wrote to Richardson a hasty letter
authorizing the withdrawal of his name, but refusing to con
cede anything of his doctrine. "There is no difference (he
said) between Northern and Southern intervention with slavery
in the Territories." So he wrote for the public eye, but,
secretly, he instructed Mr. Richardson to withdraw his name,
if that of Alexander H. Stephens would unite the party, in
lieu of his own. Mr. Douglas' followers, however, were too
well informed ot the state of Western feeling to consider such
counsel. Hardly had darkness set in, a violent rain storm prevailing,
the illuminations of lightning and peals of thunder fllling the
air, when the thoroughly earnest populace, defying the tem
pest of the elements, began to assemble at Monument Square,
with music and banners, to proceed in a body to the lodgings
of the various leaders. Crowded out of the Convention hall
In the morning, they resolved to hear from the mouths of the
orators somewhat of the portentous signs of the times. Lin
coln was already in the field ; his unique and startling forces
faUlng Into line, led by a " rail splitter," to the very verge of
revolution against the most free and happy institutions. The
first halt was called at the residence of Reverdy Johnson,
courteously opened as the headquarters of the Douglas man
agers. Frora the porch, Vallandingham and John A. Logan
spoke to the throng. Next the procession halted at the Gllmor
House, crying out for Yancey. Messrs. Fisher, from Virginia,
and Walker, from Alabama, presented his excuses and har
angued the callers.
Four days passed ere the Committee on Credentials brought
in their report. Meantime, the regular delegation from Ala
bama, through Messrs. Yancey, Brooks and Meek, presented
an Address to the Convention, inviting reconciliation.
"The Democracy of Alabama (it said) were influenced to send a
delegation to this body by assurances tha-t the platform of the party

478 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
had not been definitely settled. * ' The Democracy of Alabama are
anxious to preserve the integrity of the National Democratic party, if
it can be done on principle. They are assured by delegates, who are
yet members of the Convention that, actuated by the same anxiety,
they desire to have a re-consideration of the platform. Relying upon
these assurances and unwilling to perpetuate differencSs which arose at
Charleston upon a rejection of principles which Alabama deemed vital
to the existence both of the party and of the government, while there
is the least hope of adjusting them, the Democracy of Alabama now
submits to the National Democratic Convention the accompanying cre
dentials and respectfully claims seats for its delegates."
The Douglas men, from Alabaraa, had already presented
their appeal to the Convention. Mr. Forsyth wrote it for Mr_
Parsons to read aloud. It was less a plea for the legality of
their claims for recognition, than an arraignment of Yancey.
In the pithy sentences of the most accomplished paragraphist
of the South, Yancey's career was lead to judgment; the
Slaughter letter reproduced, bodily, conversations of Yancey's
adherents, in Charleston, repeated and the history of aff'airs in
Alabama, for twelve preceding years rehearsed to the dispar
agement of his party fealty and his wisdom.
The Parsons-Forsyth party was admitted. Forty -four votes
from the Eastern and Middle States and one vote and a half
frora the West were cast, nay. The Convention was pro
foundly moved, many delegates rising to protest, to be received
only by the jeers of the majority. Seeing the fate of the
Alabama Democracy and the Louisiana Democracy, on the
flfth day, the majority of the delegates from Virginia, North
Carolina and Tennessee withdrew. On the sixth day. President
Cushing resigned. Todd, Governor of Ohio, was put in his
place. The exciteraent in the city knew no bounds. The
great building where sat the Convention could not contain
one-half the throng who strove to enter. The majority of the
Massachusetts delegates joined the Southerners — Cushing,
Butler and Loring of the number. At night, a countless
multitude gathered on the street about Yancey's hotel. He
spoke briefly to them : " I am here (he said) to defend the
Constitution and the Union. Truer friends than the Democ
racy of Alabama never enlisted under your banners. They
have been steadfast in defense of your principles. It is sheer
slander that we are here as factionists and disruptionists.

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 479
But, faithful to their allies, the Democrats of Alabaraa are
true too to the Constitution, and will raaintain it at all
hazards. Fiercer men in defense of the right are unknown to
your country's annals. Damascus never yielded truer blades
or sweeter roses than Alabaraa."
One hundred and ninety -four and half votes, less than two-
thirds of the electors of the Electoral College, were left in the
original National Convention. Under the rule adopted at
Charleston, and not repealed, a nomination could not be made
for want of numbers. Several States protested against the
attempt to nominate without a quorum. Todd, the Chairraan,
decided the rule adopted at Charleston was not a rule, but a
resolution only, yet it had been enacted, after angry debate,
after a special ruling of the chair that it was a rule, and as a
stipulation of agreement between rival factions. Douglas
received, on the flrst ballot, 173^ votes — 284^ less than enough
to nominate ; on the second ballot, he received eight more. A
resolution was adopted, as in the exaraple of Cobb's election to
the Speakership, in 1849, and Bank's election to the sarae
office, in 1855, suspending the rules and declaring Douglas
• nominated. The hall was densely packed ; the delegates and
the galleries, already wrought to the highest tension of excite
ment by the uncertainties of the proceedings, gave vent to
their feelings in the wildest demonstrations. Men fell upon
each others necks in hysterical shouts and the floor and gal
leries mingled their occupants in unrestrained confusion.
Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabaraa, before noAV believed to be
opposed to the course of Alabaraa, declined the noraination for
Vice-President, writing frora his seat In the Senate. Herschel
V. Johnson was put in his place. In Georgia, a few weeks
before, Mr. Johnson had written resolutions condemning the
doctrine of Douglas. Douglas' letter of acceptance was a bold
avowal of his opinions, utterly irreconcilable with the Alabama
Platform. On Saturday afternoon, June 23, two hundred and forty
delegates, all bearing original commissions to the National
Convention, and all of whom had voluntarily retired before
Douglas' noraination or had been refused admission, repre
senting twenty States and 105 electoral votes, met at Institute
Hall. Caleb Cushing was chosen to preside ; on raotion of Mr.

480 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
B. F. Butler the majority report, at Charleston, was unani
mously adopted. The name of Breckenrldge was put in nomi
nation for the Presidency, by Mr. Loring, from Massachusetts,
and seconded by Mr. Denny, from Pennsylvania ; the names of
Davis, Hunter, Dickinson and Lane were proposed and at once
withdrawn. A ballot was . taken, and Breckenrldge received
all the votes in the Convention. Hardly had the demonstra
tions of joy over the event subsided, when " the whole hall
resounded with cries of ' Yancey for vice - President ' ! "
Yancey was iramedlately on his feet to check the motion,
when a delegate from North Carolina called out, " Joseph Lane
for vice-President ! " The nomination was given to General
Lane, then a Senator frora Oregon, by acclamation.
" After the noraination for vIce-Presldent (said the report
of the Baltimore American, of the following morning,) the
whole hall reverberated with cries ' Yancey ' ! ' Yancey ' ! "
Mr. Yancey came upon the stage, and, after silence had
been obtained, spoke :
"Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention :
" The storm clouds of faction have drifted away and the
sunlight of principle under the Constitution and the Union,
under the Constitution, shines brightly upon the National
Democracy. For a brief period, while the deep toned thunders
rolled along the horizon and the fierce lightning flashed in our
faces, some of the timid, perchance, thought the Democracy
and the Union alike must go down under the baneful influ
ences of that hour. But he who could have elevated himself
above the storm cloud raust have seen the sun in its bright
and brilliant and eternal sphere, shining resplendently in its
revivifying influences, even over that storray scene ; and now
that the clouds have lifted and drifted away into the far West,
it Is apparent to the timid, as well as to every true member of
the party, that the Democracy, the Constitution and, through
both, the Union are yet safe ! " (Great applause.) "
" I congratulate you, Mr. President, the representative of
the National State Rights Deraocracy, and you, venerable
gentleraen, who sit here as representatives of your several
sovereign States — you who are the stern and true friends of
the old-fashioned National Democracy — that there is yet in
existence an organization pledged to uphold! the Union. Accept

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 481
these congratulations at the hands of one, who, through the
assiduous wiles of our common enemy, has acquired the repu
tation of a factionist, disruptionist, disunionist. Accept that
congratulation from the hands of one who, some nine or ten
years ago, desired to obtain disunion because he beUeved then,
as he now believes, there was then existing cause why the
Union should be dissolved ; because the Constitution had been
violated in the admission of California, upon the doctrine of
squatter sovereignty, and because. In the destruction of the
slave trade between the States and the District of Columbia,
he saw the initial act of the general policy of abolition.
"I went before the people of the State of Alabama and
asked thera to secede from a Union which had forgotten its
pledges. Alabama, in her wisdom, saw flt to decline, and
voted down the seceding party. Frora that day to this, I
have urged no measure of dissolution, but I have bowed in
submission to the wUl of my State to whom I owe allegiance.
From that day to this, under aU these wrongs, I haA'^e not
urged them as sufficient cause why the Union shall be dis
solved. * * 'When it is said for the purpose of injuring
the cause with which I am connected, that I ara urging my
friends to disunion or to the disruption of the Democratic
party, that has been stated which is absolutely false as an
inference and false in itself. * * When the government
confessedly becomes a faUure, so far as the great rights of the
equality of the States and of the people of the States are
concerned, then! its organization becomes but an instrument
for the destruction of Constitutional liberty and, taking les
sons from our ancestors, we should overthrow it. * * The
Grecian patriot, who, when his great city was about to be
occupied by a hostile army, proposed in council that the walls
of Lacedemonia should be razed, spoke a stern, wise policy.
A young hero said : ' What ! strike the walls of Lacedemonia
to the ground ! These walls that so long have been our
defense; these walls to be deraoUshed ?' 'Yes,' replied Ther-
menes, 'in the same spirit in which they were built. For the
defense of the people let them be demolished.' * * The
delegates of eight States have been driven out of their party
by the rejection of Democratic principles. They went out for
no factious purpose. They went to their people and their

31

482 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
people said they had done well and indorsed their principles
and in a spirit of harmony and patriotism Instructed them to
return. They so acted because they did not desire the differ
ences prevailing at Charleston to be perpetuated and all
avenues forever closed to reconciliation, but that one more
effort might be made to bring about a sober second thought,
and thus they prepared the way to a reconciliation, to be
eff'ected on principle with the view that the country, the
Union, the Constitution might be preserved. We came here
in good faith for that purpose. We came here in a spirit of
prudent and conciliatory moderation. * * Against every
jusage and principle of the Democratic party, the bogus dele
gates from Louisiana and Alabama were admitted and the
regular representatives of the Democracy of these States re
jected. * * Douglas was the flrst man to raeet this question
(slavery) as settled by the people of Kansas, in their own
way, at the threshold of Congress and make war upon it. He
declared that the will of the people, as manifested in their
Convention, and their manner of settling that question, was
wrong and that the Constitution which they had made should
be submitted to the people as a whole, thus prescribing to
Kansas the will of Congress against her own will ! * *
"And who Is the leader of the State of Alabaraa in this
Douglas movement ? Lewis E. Parsons ! And who is he, that
he is foisted upon a National Democratic Convention as the
representative of the Deraocracy of Alabaraa ? I beg leave to
daguerreotype hira, politically. For twenty and odd years
have I known the leader of this Douglas Deraocracy of Ala
baraa, and known him as one of the most intelligent, one of
the most eloquent, active and influential enemies of Democracy
in whatever garb or under whatever name they presented
themselves. I found him a supporter of Harrison, of Clay
and of Scott. I found him a supporter of Taylor and of
Fillmore. So far as I am advised, there has never been a
candidate for a situation, not even for Constable, with a Demo
cratic appellation, that this man has not voted against down
to this day. Never by a vote, never by a public affirmation
has he to this day given assent to one solitary Democratic
principle. Aye, not even to-day, when he voted for the nomi
nation of that arch enemy of true Democracy, Stephen A.
Douglas. * *

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 483
" It was very noticeable that the Douglas eulogists were
•oppressed with images of historic death in their portraiture of
the political future of their chief. The eloquent declairaer
from Missouri paused over the story of the Lord James
Douglas, in the flight of his fancy and, nuAvittingly, continued
the simile to his death amidst the ranks of his foes. Lord
James, as Ave all remeraber, Avas a follower and won his spurs
under the lead of the gallant Bruce. That chieftain dying,
committed his heart to the Lord James to be buried near the
holy sepulchre. The young knight set out to execute the
trust, but on the way, forgetful of his object, led by a con
suming ambition, he invaded the territory of an unoffending
people, and, meeting a spirited resistance, cast the casket
containing the pulseless heart of his Chief far before him,
gallantly fought bis way to it and fell, covering it with his
OAvn dead body ! The story is a sad reminder of an honorable
ambition misdirected — an historic monument to warn all
others from an invasion of the territorial rights of a brave
people. It has a singularly strange appUcation to the story of
the modern Douglas — as strange as it was singular that a
Douglas man should have revived it in yonder theatre."
" (Applause.)" Mr. Yancey then stated that General Cass, the author of
the doctrine of squatter sovereignty, had surrendered his own
opinion to the Dred Scott decree. "The modern Douglas, the
warm supporter of this doctrine (he continued) has, even, like
the Douglas of Scotland, become custodian of this dead matter.
Like his ambitious prototype he has invaded the territory of a
brave but peaceful people, and like him, too, when this contest
is over, it will be found that his dead body covers his casket
of corrupted matter. "(Applause.)"
* * * " But frora the dead and dying (laughter) I turn
to the living. Though no prophet, yet ara I like the Scotch
seer who told his chieftain :
" Dark and despairing, my sight I may seal.
But man cannot cover what God would reveal."
"I pass, I say, from this painful scene of the dead and
dying to contemplate a healthful and cheering picture of the
living — (applause) — we who are here stand on the eternal
principles of Justice and the Constitution. If in this land of

484 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
freedom and public opinion — if in this land of highest equality
of citizenship we see a manifest desire in some to earn spoils
at the expense of their neighbors and through their neighbors,
then I say that in this land there Is yet a place for and a
duty to be performed by the lovers of Truth, Justice and the
Constitution (applause) and whosoever bears that banner in
the fleld, although borne down, will find a consecrated grave.
" (Applause)." * * * " But we will not go down. We have a standard
bearer whose manly eloquence, and pure principles and skill
in statesmanship entitle him to victory. Who is he ? He is
the grand-son of that John Breckenrldge who, in 1798, offered
in the Legislature of Kentucky what are known as the Resolu
tions of Kentucky and Virginia. At that early day was raised
the great standard of Deraocracy. Democracy is nothing more
nor less than a proper construction of the Constitutional char
ter that has been given to us for the guidance of government.
And that is the construction that has come from that day to
this. The very essence of It is in the equality of the States
of the Union and of the people in the States, a principle by
which you may test the truth or falsity of every measure that
government ever originated or that can be urged. (Ap
plause). * * The talismanic words, Breckenrldge and
Lane, will be inscribed upon our banners and we will bear
them oiiAvard to victory. If God wills it ; not as emblems of
party or personal success, but as words indicative of our
regard for and our determination to uphold, at all hazards,
what are far dearer to us and of far raore value to our whole
country — Truth, Justice and the Constitution." "(Loud and
prolonged applause)."
This was a typical carapaign stump speech in the cause of
Breckenrldge and Lane, as it was also the first. We shall see
that the preservation of the Union was demanded by four
parties enlisted in the campaign, two from clearly defined
positions, for specifically assigned purposes ; and two for the
sake of the Union and what it raight contain as a political
result, unknown and unknowable. The Breckenrldge Democ
racy proposed to preserve a Union founded on compromises
between sovereign States, in the letter and spirit of their
compact. This was one of the two positive parties. The

THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 485
other was the Republican party, that proposed to preserve a
Union under the " higher law." The other two parties pro
posed, in effect, to preserve the Union, by votes of citizens
unwilling to put the empire to hazard.
In the recess of the Charleston Convention, preceding the
re-assembling at Baltimore, the Whig party met in Convention
at Baltimore, May 9. The party now styled itself the Consti
tutional Union party. It adopted a short declaration of prin
ciples, announcing " that it is both the part of patriotism and
of duty to recognize no political principles other than the
Constitution of the Country, the Union of the States
AND THE enforcement OF THE Laws." Johu BcU, of Tcu-
nessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, were nominated,
respectively, for President and vice-President on the platform
adopted. The object of the movement was to throw the
election into the House of Representatives, where it would be
decided by a majority of States.
One week later. May 16, the Republican party re-organized
at Chicago for the campaign. David WUmot, the historic
Democrat, was chosen temporary chairman of the Convention.
The prominent candidates for the nomination for President of
the Umon— prominent before the people in the order here
named — were Seward, Lincoln, Chase, of Ohio, Cameron, of
Pennsylvania, and Bates, of Missouri. The original AboUtion
party were yet defiant, and important, in the free States. Since
the wonderful strength developed by Fremont in the cam
paign, of 1856, many individuals who sympathized with the
emancipation movement preferred the Republican party to
accomplish the result. At Chicago, Gerrit Smith, in the name
of his party, demanded as a condition of fusion of original
AboUtionists with the new party, the incorporation of a pro
vision nullifying the Dred Scott decree. In compliance with
his demand, the foUowings ection was adopted by that body :
" That the normal condition of all the territory of the United States
is that of freedom; that as our Republican fathers when they had abol
ished slavery in all our national territory ordained that, 'no person shall
be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law,' it
becomes our duty by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary,
to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to
violate it; and we deny the authority of Congress, of a Territorial Legis
lature or of any individuals to give legal existence to slavery in any
Territory of the United States."

486 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Another provision of the platform announced the devotion
of the party to the Union as the best means of enforcing the
" vital principles of free government," and requiring an " in
dignant people sternly to rebuke and forever silence contem
plated treason " — meaning secession.
Mr. Seward had formulated the doctrine of the "higher
law," on which the party was founded, and had lead the
Northern Whigs in a body to its support. He had conciliated
the Garrison school and amalgamated it with the new party.
He had given coherence to the theory of protective tariff,
adapted to the prejudices of the Eastern manufacturer, and
the free soil theory, adapted to the prejudices of the European
settlers of the common domain. He was a politician of experi
ence and a leader of audacity. He was learned and resourceful ;
thoroughly in earnest and capable. It had been expected he
would receive the nomination at Chicago. But the Western
Democrats, who had forced the dissolution of the Democratic
party, were typical of the tone and temper of Western politics.
The Western Republicans cast aside Seward to take up
Lincoln. Abrahara Lincoln, of Illinois, for President, and
Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, for vice-President, was the Repub
lican ticket sent out from Chicago.
Immediately after the adjournment of the two Democratic
party Conventions at Baltimore, Senator Jefferson Davis, at
the instance of Mr. Bell and Mr. Breckenrldge, waited on Mr.
Douglas to suggest in their name the retirement of all candi
dates opposed to the Republican party and the relegation to-
the people of the right to eff'ect a fusion of parties to defeat
Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Douglas declined, on the ground that the
mass of his constituency, in the free States, would, in that
event join the Republican party. *
* Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Vol. I, p. 52.

CHAPTER 23.

The People Decide.
' i860.

The first grand cyclic of the sectional conflict was closed
with the result of the Presidential campaign following the
organization of parties just described. Everywhere, in the
free States, that RepubUcan party orators spoke, their theme
was, the rights of an universal humanity ; license, rather than
measured and noble discipline ; tolerance for the darknesses,
,in which the theory of the "higher law " groped.*
The military spirit spontaneously broke forth at all points-
The Wide Awakes paraded in numbers and enthusiasm deci
sive of unquenchable ardor. Even more conclusive of war
was the Zouaves, uniformed in the most captivating insignia,
trained for public display in the most intricate and inspiring
tactics, passing from fleld to fleld in widely separated States,
the most popular nucleus of martial spirit any times ever
supplied. In aU Southern States, militia laws were revised
and enlarged and from exery stump a people, universally
trained in the more essential arts of war, were instructed of
the approaches of the conflict. The new party was a compo
site — made up of organizations and sub-organizations, white
people and black, both sexes and all degrees and conditions,
orthodox and infidel. The new party embodied an ardor
which no argument could temper and fixed its foundations
*" Anything more low, obscene, purulent than our politics the manifold bear
ings of history have not cast up," wrote Rufus Choate, of the elements prepamig
to organize this party.

488 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
upon an idea which no vexed question of political equity could
moderate. Would Breckenridge's election, failing to suppress
them, add fuel to the flames the new party had kindled? *
The acrimony of the campaign was intensified by the
re-appearance of Mr. Sumner in his seat in the Senate after
four years absence, following the attack of Brooks — "a pro
tracted seclusion enjoined by medical skill," he announced to
the body. He at once proceeded to deliver an oration of pol
ished invective four hours in length, on the "Barbarism of
Slavery," a campaign speech. Senators and Representatives
from the South were :
"As Polish aristocracy ascending in audacity, entering the halls of
Congress as they have raged at home. * '¦¦ A barbarous standard is
established; a duel is not dishonorable; a contest peculiar to slave-
masters, known as ' street fight,' is not shameful; and modern imitators
of Cain have a mark set upon them, not for reproach and condemnation
but for compliment and approval."
When the Massachusetts Senator resumed his seat Senator
Chesnut, from South Carolina, by previous understanding with
the Southern Senators, took the floor. The vice-President, Mr.
Breckenrldge, had already called Mr. Bigler, from Pennsylva
nia, to preside. Mr. Chesnut said :
"Mr. President, after the extraordinary, though characteristie
speech just uttered in the Senate, it is proper that I assign the reason
for the position we are now inclined to assume. After ranging over
Europe, crawling- through the back doors to whine at the feet of British
aristocracy, craving pity and reaping a rich harvest of contempt, the
slanderer of States and men re-appears in the Senate. We had Tioped
to be relieved from the outpourings of such vulgar malice. 'We had
hoped that one who had felt, though ignominiously he failed to meet
the consequences of a former insolence, would have become wiser if not
better by experience. In this I am disappointed, and I regret it. * *
Sir, we do not intend to contribute by any conduct on our part, to

*,A press telegram, of September 25, 1860, announced, from Tiffin, Ohio; "A
Company of Douglas cavalry, 1200 strong, all handsomely mounted, were present at
the speaking to-day."
The following is an extract from a Republican campaign song, taken from the
Cincinnati Com-mercial, of October 22, 1860 :
" Wide-A wakes, Wide-Awakes come out to-night
With our banners unfurled and our torches alight.
Our cause is a just one, our hearts are all true
And three cheers we will give the red, white and blue.
# *
" Wide-Awakes, Wide-Awakes come out to-night
The nionster, disunion, already to tight
And show to the country our hearts are all true
With three cheers we give to the red, white and blue."

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 489
increase the devotees at the shrine of this new idol. We know what is
expected and what is desired. * * These are the reasons which I feel
it d^b to myself and others to give to the Senate and to the country,
why we have quietly listened to what has been said and why we can
take no other notice of the matter."
Mr. Sumner's speech was published in pamphlet form, Mr.
Chesnut's reply comprising an appendix, and was eagerly
sought by committees and orators of the Republican party.
The occurrence and the sectional utterances attending it, are
important to the explanation of the times. Mr. Sumner's
assumption that, there was a peculiar disregard of human life,
growing out of the influences of Southern society, will, of
course, stand or fall upon evidence. The census supplies the
following facts bearing upon social custoras in Massachusetts
and Alabama, for example, in the year 1860, and these two
States are chosen here, because of the approximate equality of
their numbers of population, to stand in contrast :
Alabama. Massachusetts.
Died by neglect and exposure  1 17
Died by suicide  21 110
Died by murder  18 5
Died by homicide  7 14
Insane returned  217 2,015
Idiots returned  437 712
So active and skilled were the leaders of Bell's and of
Douglas' cause, in Alabama, that Mr. Yancey resolved to leave
nothing undone which would retain the devotion of his own
State to the cause of Breckenrldge. He entered upon a gen
eral canvass of the central and upper counties, speaking at
Cahaba, Selma, Marion, Livingston, Union Town, Eutaw, Cen
treville and other places. Passing to the Valley of the Ten
nessee, he was received with extraordinary demonstrations of
popular joy. Great audiences of gentlemen and ladles met
him at Huntsville, Decatur, Courtland, Tuscumbia, Florence.
It was determined that he should speak at Memphis, Ten
nessee. There are strategic points to be occupied by political as
well as military campaigns. The commercial position of Mem
phis, at a period when the Mississippi was the main artery of
communication between the NorthAvest and the Southwest,
brought no small political influence, of a peculiar kind, into

490 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the very heart of the slave States. True, also, that the terri
tory which supplied the bulk of tbe commerce of the towu^ up
and down the river and on either bank, was occupied by tens
of thousands of slaves and a few white men, their overseers.
The insalubrious climate of the plantations compelled the
owners, with families, to fix their horaes elsewhere, and many
were not even citizens of the States containing their planta
tions. It was desired that Mr. Yancey should deliver, at
Memphis, a speech which would interpret the national char
acter of the Breckenrldge carapaign.
The day was appointed — August 14. The Meraphis Breck
enrldge and Lane Young Men's Club took charge of the
arrangements. Far and wide the announcement went out
that Yancey and Henry A. Wise would speak from the same
stand the same evening. At the last moment. Wise declined,
writing : " I am a lover of the Union. Upon the efforts of
honest, bold and gifted leaders like Yancey must its defense
and perpetuity rest." Most active, too, were the personal and
political foes of Yancey in preparing for the event. News
papers at Memphis, at Nashville, at Washington City, at
Atlanta and the Confederation, under Seibles, at Montgomery,
labored ardently, in concert, to excite public prejudice for the
occasion. The Slaughter letter, now styled the "scarlet"
letter, was re-prlnted and re-Interpreted by hostUe minds;
Yancey, at Meraphis, would install a Chapter of the League
of United Southerners, yet the League had lived, even at
Montgomery, only three months and had been dead two
years ; Yancey would urge the African slave trade and imme
diate secession, yet he had never urged the trade and was
laboring for the Union.
Steamers frora above and below, railroad trains, wagons,
coaches and troops of saddle horses delivered upon the streets
of the town, on Tuesday and Wednesday, a concourse of citi
zens raore excited and more numerous than ever before had
been collocated there. Mr. Yancey arrived on the morning of
the 14th and was received by his friends with distinguished
honors while his eneraies frowned and, in coteries upon the
streets, spoke threateningly. He was forewarned of the pre
vailing teraper of the crowd and was even advised by discreet
persons not to meet his appointment for the evening. Bell

TEE PEOPLE DECIDE. 491
men, Douglas men and Breckenrldge men comprised the ex
pected audience and to his own, the minority, party must the
orator look for countenance.
At eight o'clock he took the place assigned him in a great
and boisterous procession. In a few minutes he ascended the
stand erected for him on a vacant lot brilliantly illuminated.
Hundreds of anxious faces of ladies peered from the windows
overlooking the four sides of the square. Jeers and cries of
derision greeted him as he rose. In perfect self-poise the
orator winged his opening sentence to the outskirts of the
surging mass. The mob vied with his tones for the mastery.
And in this contention, sentence followed sentence. Yancey
ncAfcr quailed before nor quarreled with an audience. The
hooting began to subside. "The country, my friends (he said,
at length) has for many years been alarmed for its fate under
this government. This grave, dignified and mighty issue has
driven statesmen and parties before it ; and no party, save the
Democratic party, has been able to stand before It. (' Bravo,'
cried a voice.) Whether that party shall exist longer and be
a barrier against sectional, unconstitutional aggression, shall
be my theme to-night. The unity of that party is interwoven
with the very safety of your institutions and your rights.
(' H-o-orah for D-o-o-glis,' cried a voice from the rear. ' Give
me two hours longer, my friend,' was the answer from the
orator.) It is due to frankness and to the truth of history to
state that Mr. Douglas has had designs upon the integrity of
the Democratic party ever since the Northern people failed,
under the Nebraska-Kansas act, to obtain the domlnancy of
the Territory of Kansas ; and when It became apparent that
the Southern men had obtained advantages under the act
(' You're right,' cried a voice) and that Kansas under those
advantages, if fairly dealt with, would be admitted into the
Union as a slave State, that he determined to war against the
principle of that act and to keep Kansas out of the Union as a
slave State ; and, if necessary, to dismember the Democratic
party and to rely for support in the controversy upon the
anti-slavery sentiment of the Northern people. This I shall
undertake to prove. * * It is common to say Alabama
attempted to dictate. It is no dictation for me to claim all
my Constitutional rights and to forbid others from trampling

492 THE LIFE, OF YANCEY.
on them. He who undertakes to deny my Constitutional
rights does dictate to me." The speech was a narration of
important facts, new to the discussions of the campaign,
giving highly interesting views of the acts and opinions of
the candidates and explaining the origin and philosophy of
tbe rupture at Charleston. It closed with impressive imagery,
defensive of himself : " The whole time refusing office, I have
given ray mind, heart, character and fortune to raise the
Southern ralnd to the full view of Southern rights, that we
may be men in the hour that tries men's souls. How hard
that for this a man should be denounced as a demagogue, an
office seeker and a traitor. * * There is a lesson In Holy
Writ that, when the temple which had been devoted to the
worship of the ever living God, to be kept free from stain pure
and clean, built without sound of hammer or chisel, was taken
possession of by a people forgetful of the truth pronounced
at Sinai — when hucksters, thieves, brokers and traders had
carried on their wicked and selflsh callings, a Savior came and
with a whip of scorpions drove them out."
At midnight the orator turned from the stand where, for
four hours, he had spoken with no Interruption after the flrst
few minutes, save the ejaculations of enthused individuals or
the sounds of vehement applause from the whole audience.
"Go on !" "Go on !" "It's not daylight yet!" greeted him
at the close. The once angry mob were now restrained from
unhitching the horses from his carriage and drawing it them
selves, only by his flrm refusal to permit the intended honor.
Mr. Yancey was now the most interesting character in the
turbulent politics of America. His speech was reported and
published in every part of the country, from Maine to Cali
fornia. Especially did it give heart and coherence to the
friends of the South at the North, and they were many. The
witty George D. Prentice, his resolute foe, read it and wrote :
"This is the party of William L. Yancey and his friend
Breckenrldge." On his way home Mr. Yancey spoke at Atlanta. Here too
he adapted his address to the environments. The BeU organ
said: "The celebrated Apostle of Disunion addressed a very large audi
ence here Saturday night. Mr.Tancey spoke Iavo and a half hours in

'THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 493
adroit argument, continuity of presentation, perfect mastery of his sub
ject, and masterly delivery, up to the expectations of all; but in double-
distilled bitterness of wormwood and gall, he surpassed the expectations
of his friends. * * The assault upon the squatter sovereignty candi
dates was the most terrible, Avell directed and well sustained of any we
have heard or read. A friend has just informed us Mr. Yanoey spoke
three aud a half hours instead of two and a half, as we had imagined,
an hour and a half of the time being devoted to a defense and glori
fication of himself ! The speech was one to be remembered and one
that will be remembered."
In Alabama, while Parsons and Prince, Whigs, joined
Forsyth and Seibles, Democrats, in support of Douglas,
Thomas J. Judge, Rice, Chilton, Gilchrist, Whigs of the flrst
rank, carae to the support of Breckenrldge by forraal resolu
tion. Watts and Clanton raised the Whig standard and took
the fleld for Bell. Thus, while three parties appeared in the
contest, the issue, as presented to the people of Alabaraa, by
each, was a policy of defense against the revolutionary pur
poses of the RepubUcan party.
Visitors at the national capital declared the Congress sat
as two bodies, each devising schemes of war against the
country of the other. The President and the Supreme Court
appeared as the comraon heads of two rival governments.
Thus it happened that long ere the carapaign closed, the
people of Alabama, hopeless of peace, were practically, if not
confessedly, united for defense. In September, Forsyth wrote
to Samford, that Lincoln's election would align him by Yan
cey's side, " halter or no halter." In September Watts, leading
the other wing of the opposition, spoke boldly for resistance to
Lincoln's election.
All the candidates for the Presidency were men sound in
body and mind. Bell was the oldest, while Breckenrldge was
under forty. Douglas and Lincoln, the one by personal traits
of generosity and audacity, the other by kindness of word and
deed, and facility of adaptation, had reached great influence in
the brave and ambitious population of the same new and
wonderfully prosperous State. Breckenrldge excelled all in
eloquence, and in a handsome person and polish of manners.
When Mr. Yancey reached his office, from Memphis and
Atlanta, he found invitations from Ohio and New York State
Committees, of th# Breckenrldge and Lane ticket, to canvass

494 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
those states. He declined. His pratice in the fall term of the
Courts demanded his presence. But his refusal was not
accepted. He was reminded that harm had been done to the
South in misrepresentations of him. It had been charged
against him that, he contended for reA'olution, in the event of
Lincoln's election, whereas he had declared that the lawful
election of Mr. Lincoln would not, of itself, be cause for revolu
tion. The States willing to accept hira would have no excuse
for revolt, while the States not willing had the right to change
their federal relations in an orderly way with or without
explanation to the others.
Yielding to the call of the Breckenrldge and Lane Commit
tee of the State of New York — where it had been determined,
under certain contingencies, to fuse the Bell-Breckenridge
tickets upon the Douglas contingent, hoping thus to carry that
State against Lincoln — Mr. Yancey set out upon the most
reraarkable oratorical tour known to Araerican history. He
delivered in the border States, in the Middle and Eastern
States and the Southwestern States, in seven consecutive
weeks of journeyings, more than twenty elaborate addresses.
Each speech was printed in the morning papers the day after
delivery, yet each was fresh, original and specially adapted to
the locality. In the largest cities of America the largest halls
were opened to him, and none afforded space equal to the
accommodation of those who came to hear.*
In the free States, as he reckoned, two-thirds of each audi
ence were bis political opponents ; in the slave States, the
whole population of the vicinity composed the audience. The
flrst speech of the tour was delivered, September 17, at King
ston, Georgia, where he paused a few hours. His progress
henceforward was as a triumphal procession. He resumed his
journey under the escort of a committee sent by the citizens of
KnoxviUe, Tennessee. Along the highways for many miles, in
all directions, leading to that point placards, announcing that
he would speak there, were posted. The town was the centre
of the influence of the notorious " Parson " Brownlow, whose
teachings from pulpit, stump and tripod had created a senti
ment in the adjacent mountain counties, the most radical

* It is believed Mr. Yancey delivered fifty speeches, eappli to a separate audience,
on political issues of the day, in the first ten months of I86(h

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 495
south of the Ohio. The people of all parties were quite sure
Brownlow was prepared to harass Yancey and equally con
vinced that Yancey would not shrink frora bearding the local
lion in his den. Several thousand people, of both sexes,
formed a procession lead by a band of music to escort the
orator to a grove, prepared for the occasion. In the afternoon
the speech was delivered. After three hours of delivery, the
peroration well advanced, a voice called out "Hurrah for Bell."
'¦ Hurrah for Greeley, too," interjected the orator. The end
approached, when another voice called out, " What will you
do if Lincoln is elected?"
Yancey: " Come upon the stand." Mr. Manley went on
the stand. Yancey : " I spent twelve years of my life in New Eng
land and there learned how to answer a question by asking
another." Manley : "Ask it."
Yancey : " Who are you in favor of for President ? "
Manley : " John Bell."
Yancey : " Will you endorse what John Bell has said on
breaking up the Union ? "
Manley : " I propounded the question at the request of
others." Yancey: " Give me their names."
A list of five naraes, Brownlow's included, was placed in
the orator's hand and he called each to come upon the stand.
The audience saw the good humor which he maintained and
Avere lead to anticipate an amusing denouement. The first
question, put to Mr. Manley, was now put to the whole class
before him, and aU answered " John Bell." The other ques
tion, relating to Mr. Bell's Union record, followed. Mr.
Brownlow, when his time carae to answer, said he would vote
for Bell with his record, adding : " I propose, when the
Secessionists go to Washington to dethrone Lincoln, to seize a
bayonet and form an army to resist such an attack and they
shall walk over my dead body on the way." Yancey remained
calm until all had answered. Turning then to the audience he
resumed his speech, saying at the close : " If my State
resists I shall go with her and if I meet this gentleman (point
ing to Brownlow) marshaled with his bayonet to oppose us, I

496 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
will plunge mine to the hilt through and through his heart,
feel no compunctions for the act, but thank God my country
has. been freed from such a foe." Apologizing to the audience
for an episode that had been forced on hira and uttering
eloquent remarks, complimentary of the ladies, he retired.
Mr. Brownlow rose, saying he would renew the subject in his
paper. " If you have anything to say speak it here, like a
man," retorted Yancey.
The next speech of the tour was delivered at Richmond,
Virginia. The following raorning, as the orator was about to
take his departure for Staunton to meet a similar appointment,
he received an invitation sent in the name of the hundreds
who could not gain admittance the evening before, to speak
again that night. He declined. Arriving at Washington, the
news soon spread and a large concourse of people, with music,
gathered, after dark, in front of bis hotel, cheering and de
manding his appearance. Walking out upon the balcony
facing the throng, he said :
"Fellow - Citizens : I am no party man and I do not address
you as a party raan to-night. I come before you this evening
as the friend of the Constitution [good], and the Union under
the Constitution [good and better] and as the enemy of any
other Union, coming from what source it may. [Vociferous
cheering and cries of ' that's right.'] * During my brief polit
ical career, my countrymen — [Here the speaker was inter
rupted by an intoxicated person, and cries went up, ' put him
out.'] Oh, no ; let him alone. No harm can be done to me
by any man of any party who listens to me. [That's so.] 1
hope men are here representing all parties, with the exception
of that party which is the enemy of the Constitution — the
Black Republican party. [ Loud and enthusiastic cheering.]
" It has been said the South asks you to trespass upon the
Constitutional rights of the other States ; it is said the South
seeks to aggrandize itself at the expense of the other sections ;
that we want this governme'nt to carry slavery and force it
upon people who do not desire it. With all proper respect for
those who say this I, as a Southern man, say it is false in

* Individuals now living who were wont to hear Mr. Yanoey speak will not need
to be reminded of the martial bearing, the suppressed emotion and the clear and
melodious tones which so enthused an audience, when their cries became as sponta
neous as the full risen orb of day coming out from the night.

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 497
every iota of utterance. [Good.] The South has aggressed
upon no section. She asks none to yield anything that is
theirs for her safety or her protection. All that we of the
South have ever asked of the governraent is to keep its hands
off of us and let the Constitution worh its oion way ! [Ap
plause.] * * It is easy for the North, with its majority in
the millions, to say they are for this Union any how. No
matter who may be elected, no matter what raay be done, still
they will stand to the Union as the great source of their pros
perity. Why ? Because with no Constitution at all the people
of the North can protect themselves by a predominant vote.
How is it with the minority — the minority States,? How
with the South ? Leave us to the preponderant vote in Con
gress, the North will seek the advancement of its power, will
seek selflsh aggrandizement, will raise as much money as it
pleases and disburse it to its own beneflt, at the expense of our
minority. Minorities, gentlemen, are the true friends of our
Constitution, becaus^ that Constitution is their shield and
their protection against the unchecked and unlicensed power
of the majority. * * The humble individual who addresses
you to-night has probably been more denounced as a disunion
ist than almost any other man in the Union. I tell you,
gentlemen, ray dlsunionism consists in this : I stand by the
Constitution. * * My friends, there is but one issue before
you, to all sensible men but one issue, and two sides to it.
The slavery question is but one symbol of that issue ; the
commercial question is but one symbol of that issue ; the Union
question is but one symbol of that issue. The only issue of
this campaign is the integrity and safety of the Constitution.
[Great applause and cries, ' good.'] He is a good Union raan
who stands by the Constitution Avith its checks and balances ;
he is a disunionist who destroys one single letter of that
sacred instruraent ! * * Now then, fellow-citizens, I beg
you to excuse me from saying anything further and for the
desultory character of the remarks I have at this time sub
mitted. I close them by telling you the South loves the
Union, respects the Union, has all respect for the Constitution
and will protect and preserve that instrument intact, with all
its checks and balances; and the South is now sternly re
solved that every other section shall so preserve it. The

32

498 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
South means to defend that Constitution against all attacks
from Wide-AAA-akes, the sleepy Abolitionist or anybody else."
" [Great applause and laughter.] "
Arrangements were made at Baltimore to celebrate Mr.
Yancey's appearance before a Maryland audience. Having re
mained at Washington, studying the prospects of parties and
diligently searching the records of the governraent frora Friday
until Tuesday, he was received on the last naraed day with
public demonstrations of respect at Annapolis. At that point
a large passenger steamer, flUed with citizens of Baltiraore, at
the head of whora was ex-Governor LoAve, was in readiness
to convey hira to Easton to speak. As the procession escort
ing the orator approached, the cannon on board the steamer
belched forth, Volandt's famous band performed inspiring airs,
mingled with ceaseless cheering of the multitude. At Easton,
a community noted for reflnement and culture, an hundred
private carriages were in line at the wharf. Amidst the noise
of cannon, music and shouts of three thousand people the
orator was escorted to the stand in the open air and spoke for
two hours. luAdtations to speak poured in upon him from an
hundred points. From Easton he went to Frederick and
thence to Wilmington, Delaware, to speak. October 9 he
passed through Philadelphia, en route for Noav York, as the
State election, which was generally accepted as the test of the
strength of the Republican party in the other free States, was
in progress. The next day, October 10, the news was confirmed in New
York that Foster, Democrat, had been defeated for Governor
in Pennsylvania by Curtin, once American, now RepubUcan.
The significance of the result was in the effect of Mr. Douglas'
personal canvass of the President's, Mr. Buchanan's, State, in
the interest of Curtin. Democrats of New York City had
sent large contributions in cash to assist Foster's canvass, but
the personal appeals of Douglas to the Democrats to defeat
Foster, whom Buchanan favored, overcame the argument of
the Breckenrldge orators. At length, anticipating Douglas'
success in Pennsylvania, the Breckenrldge and the Bell men
of New York had conferred with him, hoping to effect a
fusion of three parties to defeat Lincoln in New York. Doug
las declined, peremptorily, to consider the proposition of

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 499
iusion. Seeing that the outcome of the contest in Pennsyl
vania was only a repetition of the result in all other free
States, where the fall elections had been held, the New York
Herald exclaimed :
'' So here we are on the very verge of a new order of things, simply
involving the subjugation of the Southern States to the anti-slavery
spntiment of the North, or the revolutionary alternative of an independ
ent Southern Confederacy."
The arbitrary course of Douglas, in New York, and the
splendid success of Lincoln, in Pennsylvania, were in the
minds of all the people of the city when Mr. Yancey rose at
Cooper Institute Hall to deliver the first speech the people
had heard, since the assured consummation of those, the deter
minate results of the decisive campaign. The evidences were
unmistakable that a large majority of the overflowing audi
ence were Lincoln and Douglas men. Indications were not
less plain that the temper of the majority of the audience was
very unfavorable to the ordinary 'course of a public address
from that stage. A little after eight o'clock, Mr. Yancey not
yet arrived, a gentleman, seeking to try the crowd, came
forward on the stage, proposing " three cheers for the son of
the sunny South, nationality and Democracy blended into
one — our friend WUliam L.Yancey!" The audacity of the
motion captured every heart and while the vociferous response
yet rang out Mr. Gustavus W. Smith, Breckenrldge Democrat,
stepped to the front, naming Hon. James Green, of New
York, for presiding officer. The President and vIce-Presldents
Tanged themselves in order. A letter was read, from James T.
Brady, of regret that a previous engagement to speak at Troy
the same evening would prevent his hearing " Mr. Yancey,
whose eloquence has Avon him, a reputation as extensive as our
territory." Araidst cheers of welcome, shouts of derision,
cries of " order," " order," ani hisses the orator came forward.
He said :
"Fellow -Citizens of New York: I trust an Alabamian may
yet speak to the citizens of New York in a spirit of fellowship.
I trust that hour has not arrived when an Alabamian, speak
ing to his brethren of the city and State of New York as
brothers, he will be received with jeers and hisses. We ought

500 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
to be brothers if we are not, there ought to be a brotherhood
of citizenship throughout this vast country that would knit
together its social and business relations in bonds so strong
that the fanatics of the whole world cannot burst them asun
der ! " These frank and bold sentences were uttered so rapidly
and feelingly that a profound silence was captured and wrested
from the startled throng and no sooner had the last word of
this appeal fallen from the speaker's lips than the house broke
forth in rapturous applause. The power of the magician had
been suddenly, and most unexpectedly revealed to all who
heard, and his victory was complete. The trouble was over ;
the orator's mein, voice, action was instantly adapted to the
change before him. " I am not unaware, gentlemen, (he con
tinued) of the delicate position which a speaker from the far
South occupies who, in this hour of an excited political can
vass, undertakes to speak here. In one of the Northern States,
words of truth and justice for his section. But, I believe, my
countrymen, that truth, at ^U times, wUl win its way to hearts
that are swayed by the love of truth, generosity and justice.
I do not disguise from you — I would not have it otherwise —
that I speak to you here to-night as a Southern man. I speak
to you here to-night for the horae I love better than any other
home, for the State I love better than any other State, for the
section I love better than any other section — ray oavu home
and State and section. And certainly it will not be amiss to
speak these words in this spirit, to a brave people who love
their own homes, and their own State, and their own section,
better than they do others, and who, I trust, ought to have,
what I desire to-night to Inculcate in their bosoms. They
should have a respect, and loyalty and allegiance to the
common law and bond which binds us together in one Union.
I feel, too, the difficulty of addressing a popular audience in
this cauA^ass in any other strains than as the advocate of the
the election of Breckenrldge and Lane, whose friend I am.''
"[Applause]." The speech proceeded to explain that the wires were
then bringing the disastrous news from Pennsyh^ania ; "a
sectional candidate upon a sectional issue " would carry that
great State in November; the good men of New York had
resolved to fuse their strength. "I address you to-night in

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 501
behalf of that union of good men whose influence will extend
widely, I trust, over this vast State, until it rolls up a con
servative majority in favor of the Constitution and the Union."
« [Great applause]."
Mr. Yancey said there had been alleged ultra movements
and extremists in the South, but history proved no raoveraent
and no leader of the South had desired or demanded more than
the Missouri compromise. The Nashville Convention, sup
posed to be a body of extremists, had declared for it and had
unanimously endorsed it. Finding this compromise unac
ceptable to the North, and repeatedly rejected, the South, as a
last resort, recurred to the Constitution and asked that the
judgment of the federal courts on her Constitutional rights be
accepted. These were the circumstances under which the
Republican party had risen, and these were the rights of the
South the Republican party was pledged to overthrow.
The South, he said, maintained peculiar institutions. At
the formation of the Constitution, Virginia desired to prohibit
slavery, but New England refused, and in the last year, 1807,
which the slave trade continued. New England had landed on
the Southern shores 100,000 fresh Africans. Mr. Yancey said
it was a great mistake to contend that the institutions of the
South were inimical to the highest attainments of civilization
or that the realized prosperity of the slave States was one
whit below that splendid thrift acquired by the free States.
Left to the benign Infiuences of the organic law of their
Union, the sections would move in conjunction, each in its
own appointed sphere, to the achievement of a common destiny
unparalleled in the annals of time. Here he brought forward
an elaborate array of commercial statistics. Proceeding, he
said society had a dift'erent foundation in the sections, society
was properly considered the foundation of government, but so
wise and comprehensive was the Constitution that each sec
tion, and each State might pursue its own normal social
development without impairing its value to the Union of States
and sections. Here he spoke at length of the North, its pros
perity and the happiness of its people, and his profound admi
ration for all it had achieved in material and moral ways. The
merchant of the North, or the business man, employed a clerk,
but the employer labored harder than the salaried man. This

502 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
fact was very significant. It proved that climate and economy
co-operated in the North to Increase the variety of pursuits
and the number of workers. Climate and economy were the
law, also, in the South. The Southern field hand, like the
eagle, could look the sun in the eye, but the white master
must raise his umbrella to screen his health from its rays.^
" These glorious sons of toil (he said) satisfied in their estate,
loving their masters, multiply the prosperity of the civilized
world and are the happiest people under the heavens, when
your philosophers let them alone." "(Great laughter and ap
plause.)" But Southern whites were not unoccupied. Their
contributions to the wealth and fame of the Union put to
blush the speculative theorists who would disparage thera. He
would not defend the South by showing the advantages of the
Union to the North. " We aid each other (he said) with a
proper sense of brotherhood, with a proper sense that we are
citizens of the sarae country, that we have alike common
protection, and should deal out justice to each section, not
raising up one at the expense of the other — knowing, in this
sense, no section, but dealing with all in the spirit of justice.
That spirit should exist throughout the land. But the cry of
the assailant resounds throughout your borders, from the rock
bound coast of Maine to the golden sands of Oregon — this cry
of the assailant, which it is said comes from a majority of your
people, that this great institution, incalculably more involved
in the social welfare of the South than Its mere value in
dollars represents, must go down — the cry of the assailant
presents an issue. I ask you, gentlemen of New York and of
this Northern section, I ask you, as an integral portion of the
eighteen million that has been held up, in terrorem, by one
unwise, braggart son of your soil to our eight million [sensa
tion] — I ask you, my countrymen, what benefit will come to
you from the destruction of the vast industrial and social
relations of the races of the South." "(Applause.)" He would
not speak against the navigation and revenue laws. He was
willing to admit revenue and all methods of collecting it, as
of the necessary evils of government. But how did the
despised institutions of the South stand toward the vital func
tion of taxation for the beneflt of the Union ? He offered the
official data to prove that the exports of the South, upon which

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 503
imports paying duty depended, were more than two dollars
frora the South to one from the North. The cotton, rice and
tobacco of the South, which employed nearly all Its labor,
received no protection and asked for none. But the industries
that employed the boasted labor of the North, both manu
factures and commerce, were protected, to say the least, most
generously. The South knew the tax, felt it and bore it
without a murmur. When he went with his 1 50 bales of cot
ton to Mobile to flnd a A'essel to take it to New York, he found
some ships willing to carry it for $1 and others for $1.50. The
low charges were made by foreign ships, therefore, under the
law protecting the coast trade, he was forced to choose the
American, or New England ships, with their high charges.
He had nothing to say against the coast trade laws, but he did
demand a law to protect his labor against the robbery of the
agents of the Abolitionists. "(Great cheering.)" Mr. Seward
sneered at the $40,000,000 trade of the masters of slaA'-es with
the North for goods to clothe the slaves. Why did not
Mr. Seward off'er a bill to prohibit it ? Messrs. Seward and
Lincoln held certain notions of religion and morals, which they
proposed to enforce upon all the land by acts of Congress.
" (Laughter.)" " WeU, I hope, gentlemen (he said), as you are
known to be a very conscientious people, descended from the
Puritans — and, also, from the Dutch — a very conscientious
people (laughter) — I hope you will entrust legislation upon
morals and religion to the great Ruler of the Universe and
wont let Lincoln and Seward have anything to do with it.
(Great laughter.) They scoff at the merchants of New York
who talk about fusion for the purpose of saving the country
and Its industry. I may be mistaken, and I am willing to
sit at the feet of philosophers who will teach rae better, but
my idea is, that the government of the United States was
instituted expressly to protect material interests alone, that it
is not a school of ethical theories, that we are all to worship
as we see proper and that our morals are to be In no ways
meddled Avith, except that we be required to act with decency
and order."
He went into an analysis of the theory of the government
to prove that, it was not founded on the principle of the
numerical majority, but on justice to the people. The rights

504 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
of the minority were the obUgations of the majority to abide
by the compact of Union. If the majority rule were the
correct principle, there could be no advantage in any law.
Passion, prejudice and lust would answer the ends of govern
ment. " If so, then I say this is a most despotic government
of ours, a most tyrannical government, a government of a
million kings instead of one and, for my part, I prefer one to
many. You may alter the Constitution, you may change it by
your superior force, but there Is a certain feeling in the breast
of every Southern man; that feeling is loyalty to the funda
mental institutions of this land; loyalty is the pride of the
Southern heart ; to this very hour and its perils, to that loyalty
and those fundamental principles she appeals her cause. * *
The right of revolution is the right of the serf : it is no right
at all : it is only the last expiring throe of oppressed nation
ality. [ Tumultuous cheering.] Poor Italy is to-day, bleeding
and bruised, lifted, perchance, on one knee, with hands yet
manacled, striving to rise to the right of revolution. [Cheers.]
Have our fathers provided only this for us? Governments
should not be changed for light and transient causes, but
when the whole property of an entire community is ready
to be swept away by a policy of government, that undermines
it or deals the death blow direct ; when the social relations of
an enlightened, virtuous. Christian people are to be utterly
destroyed ; when their rights are touched upon and the people
see the coming collision, they will not wait to be clinched
upon." There was no want of evidence, the orator said, to
show the character of the " irrepressible conflict " which a
Republican administration would have to deal with, and the
people of the South were exceedingly anxious to know how
they would fare under it. The emissaries of the Abolitionists
would penetrate between master and slave, as water penetrates
the crevices of rocks. [ Laughtet, hisses and applause, with
a cry, "Put that Abolitionist out."] The presiding officer:
" The house will come to order ! Proceed, sir, if you please."
"Gentlemen (said Yancey), there are various modes by which
we express our ideas. Men with tongues are expected to
speak reason ; adders with tongues to hiss, and so with geese."
A voice: " But how about that strychnine? "

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 505
The orator : " Well, as I was saying. In Texas it is proven
beyond all doubt that there were men, some of them reverend
gentlemen of the clergy, as they claimed to be, who were
taken up for this offense, and the drug was found on them in
immense quantities. Arms have been sold and distributed ;
arrangements to burn towns were exposed; weapons were
discovered concealed, and strychnine enough to poison the
whole world — so rauch, indeed, that the wonder was where it
all could have been manufactured. If a man is elected Presi
dent of the United States who sympathizes with incendiaries,
not openly countenancing their acts, but believing they are
aiding God's cause, he assists the ' irrepressible conflict.' * *
It is said the South should submit ; some people think so. I
do not. [ Loud cheers.] We thank God we are men who dare
maintain our rights."
Mr. Yancey held in his hand a slip of paper, which he
explained had been sent to him that afternoon, containing two
questions : (1) Would Lincoln's election be cause for secession
of the South ? (2) Would he assist the federal government to
subdue a seceding State ? He said the questions were specula
tions on the future. What would be done if something else
was done which he had left his horae, his family and his pro
fession to attempt to prevent? In the flrst place, he did not
know how the "South" would set about seceding! ["Cries of
* good ' and loud cheers."] He did not know how it could be
done, and he did not believe it would ever happen. Alabama
might flnd a way to secede, and he was called a State Rights
man, but as the question referred only to the secession of the
" South " he did not feel bound to answer it. He believed in
the right of secession. There were precedents for its exercise.
The old Confederation had been dissolved by the separate State
secession of Massachusetts, Virginia, New York and the other
States. He believed the new Union was not a more perfect
consolidation of government, but was, what the preamble
claimed for it, a more perfect Union of sovereign States, for
purposes specifled in the organic law.
A voice: " Let us have an answer to the question."
The orator : "You are getting impatient, my friend ! What
is the matter with you ? " Cries of " question," " question,"
" order," " order," filled the air. " Be quiet, gentlemen (said

506 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the orator), and, above all, keep your temper. This is a time
to vote ; at any rate, it is not a time to fight ! "
"But what will you do if Lincoln is elected?" cried a
voice. "I hope to God that something will not happen. I am
doing my effort to avert the awful calamity contemplated in
this question, the election of Abraham Lincoln, the author of
the 'irrepressible confiict.' I am showing my fealty to the
Constitution and ray fealty to the Union, my alliance with
conservative men, by expending my time and my labor, to the
abandonment of ray own private affairs, leaving the comforts
of ray faraily, going over the country in uniform at the invita
tion of my friends who beUeve ray feeble efforts may be of
importance to ray country at this time. I am doing all of this
to prevent that election ; and if others will but labor as faith
fully as I do in this cause, Abraham Lincoln will never be
President of these United States. Now, I am asked if his
election would be a just cause of the secession of the Southern
States. That is a matter to come up after the ballot box."
But the audience refused to be put off without an answer.
"Question," "question," was shouted from all parts of the
Hall. Quickly and adroitly enlarging the therae, the orator,
for full fifteen minutes, charmed the excited throng with a
glowing apostrophe to liberty, bringing forth ever and anon
tumultuous applause. "It is a grave question; one that I
hope God, in His providence, will hold me from considering in
the election of some man who does not teach the ' irrepressible
conffict.' But when the time comes for me to make up my
mind, it will be in consultation with ray fellow citizens in
Alabaraa. You in New York have nothing to do with that."
" [Applause]." A gentleman, seeing the skill of the orator in
parrying the attempt to lead him from his purpose, advanced
to the edge of the stage, calling for "three cheers for the
answer ! " The enthuslasra of the response of the audience
knew no bounds. "And now, my friends, (was the peroration),
let me close. [" Go on "; " go on."] The event of yesterday
presses heavily upon me. I have no exultation ; I feel none.
I feel that the Constitution is weighed down beneath those
heavy majorities. * * In the hands of New York is the
decision of the question. A raore weighty question was never

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 507
before you. One freighted with the safety of societies and
nationalities is on your mind. Peace, prosperity, the Consti-
tlon, the Union, the blessings of Christian liberty may depend
upon the vote of Ncav York. That vote may crush all these
things. That vote may perpetuate these blessings. That you
may be equal, gentlemen, to the responsibilities of this occa
sion is the prayer of hira who addresses you, and who now
bids you, respectfully, farewell."
" Loud and continuous cheering saluted Mr. Yancey as he
retired." *
The city papers of the following raorning contained the
speech in full. The Herald'' s editorial coraraent termed it, " the
very able speech, the argument of which the commercial m6n
of this metropolis are called upon to consider ": " Whatever
may be thought of Mr. Yancey's notions on secession, his
views on the commercial relations of the question are entitled
to serious and grave consideration. We commend them to the
merchants of New York." The WorlcVs comment said: "He
spoke like a sincere man and a gentleman — with boldness,
but with urbanity and dignity, leaving a general irapresslon
decidedly favorable." The Times, Republican, declared the
speech both able and conservative in teraper.
Two days later, Friday, October 1 2, Mr. Yancey arrived at
Boston and two hours and a half after stood before one of the
greatest audiences ever seen at Faneuil Hall. In the early
hours of the evening fire works were displayed in different
parts of the city, in great profusion, houses in the vicinage of
the Hall were illuminated, processions formed on ' the streets
and an undisguised excitement prevailed on every side. As
the orator appeared, under escort, uppn the streets " incessant
cheering and deraonstrations of applause unlimited raade the
scene one of great interest. The Hall was as thoroughly
packed as it was possible for it to be and the reception by the
audience of Mr. Yancey was unsurpassed in cordiality and
enthusiasm," said the Boston Post. Impromptu meetings
were held on the street by that part of the people debarred
admittance. The Charlestown Breckenrldge ahd Lane Club
came in long procession, bearing at its head a transparency
*Thg reference by Mr. Yancey to his "uniform" is explained in the suit of
Southern manufactured gray he wore on the occasion at the request of the Brecken-
ridg'e and Lane Committee of New York.

608 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
with two views of Boston Monument, with a patriotic inscrip
tion on each. General James S. Whitney, the presiding officer,
delivered a feeling address appealing to the ancient love of
State Rights in the hearts of the people of Massachusetts.
That was the question on trial, and praying they would hear
" the defender of your own liberties and rights, William L.
Yancey." There were forty vice- Presidents on the platform,
from all parts of Massachusetts ; Caleb Cushing, of Newbury
port, B. F. Butler, of Lowell, George B. Loring, of Salem,
among thera. The band playing " The Star Spangled Banner,"
araidst tumultuous applause Mr. Yancey took the stand. He
referred, in the exordium, to the wholesome lessons he had
received from New England teachers and Massachusetts schools
in his youth and declared he had not forgotten them. The
crowd swayed, and confusion and noise compelled him to
pause. "And I propose to-night to speak calmly, coolly,
dispassionately, I trust, respectfully to all parties in this
State, and to the Issues involved in this canvass." (Another
long pause, in which the presiding offlcer rose and appealed
for order.) Mr. Yancey said he had no idea that any disre
spect to him was intended. There were raany without seats
and the confusion was due to the overcrowded space. The
address then fairly began, and for some minutes, now every
two or three sentences, next each succeeding sentence brought
forth vehement cheers. Massachusetts, he said, would un
doubtedly vote in November for a candidate dangerous to the
South. What position was it that the South occupied so
adverse to the expected vote of Massachusetts? Why had
differences arisen that would make the designs of the fathers
of 1776 impossible of fulfillment in 1860 ? Massachusetts had
put in raotion the spirit of Araerican liberty. The orator
proceeded to explain what was raeant by all the States in the
Declaration of Independence. " If there js a Lincoln man here
who thinks I have not stated the question fairly, I will give
way and let him make his own statement (he said). It is not
questioned. Now I am going to provfe my side of the ques
tion." The argument here took up the Territorial dispute, for
Massachusetts had chartered the Emigrant Aid Societies. It
was argued by Lincoln men in Massachusetts that the -fathers
intended to prohibit slavery in all the territory of the Union,

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 509
because they had passed the Ordinance of 1787. But history
stood out against that construction. The fathers had refused
to extend the Ordinance south of the Ohio and Kentucky ; the
first new State admitted to the Union, was a slave State ; and
Tennessee, soon after, came in as a slave State. He argued
that the Ordinance of 1787 was passed involving the territory
only which Virginia and other States had ceded. Mr. Jeffer
son had purchased the Louisiana slaveholding Territory, a
few years later, with a slaveholding population, stipulating,
by solemn treaty, that with their property they should come
into the Union. "Did our fathers believe the Constitution
originated in an irrepressible conflict between free and slave
labor, and design to get slave labor out of the way, by these
acts of enlarging the Union by slave States and adding an
immense empire of slave territory ? Now, my friends of the
Lincoln party, I urge this against you, not of course to offend
you ; it is urged not merely as polemic triumph or in a mere
tut of intellectual gladiatorship. I can get plenty of that
amusement at home; I need not come flfteen hundred miles to
tilt with the people of Massachusetts. Think on these facts ;
try to reconcUe your theory to thera ; but, if you cannot do it,
then give up your position that there shall be no more slave
States. * * Do you shrink from honest competition with
the slaveholder ? [Cries of "No."] Then take your hands off
the slave labor and let us fight it out with you on our common
property in an honest way." " [Loud applause]."
He then described, in very pleasing and lucid style, what
he had seen on his journey through Massachusetts. He had
never seen poorer soil. There was much pasturage but very
little fertile meadow. Sand banks with little vegetation, sur
rounded by flne rock fences, enclosing excellent apple orchards,
a small patch of Irish potatoes, some buckwheat, some pump
kins and very handsome private residences. " [Great laugh
ter]." He was familiar with pumpkin pie, but he knew that
man could not Uve on pumpkin alone and his thoughts
struggled with the enquiry, on what do these people live?
"[Renewed merriment]." Thus his journey had passed on,
soon to bring him in full view of the smoke stacks of innu
merable factories and in hearing of the buzz of the water
wheels lining every stream. Coming near the harbor, he

-510 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
found the wharves covered with cotton and the water with
ships. " There was the anwer ! " " [Loud applause]." Once
again general confusion prevailed. Mr. Yancey said he hoped
he had said nothing to irritate the audience ; he presumed the
inconvenience gentlemen suffered from the crowded state of
the hall, was the real cause of the disturbance.
" Webster (he said) exclaimed, ' There stands Massachu
setts — look at her ! ' I say of the South, ' Look at her —
there she is." " [Great applause]." Mr. Yancey now pre
sented an elaborate argument, supported on many statistics,
going to prove the sources of prosperity of the sections and
their inter - dependence on the basis of the integrity of a
Constitutional Union. " You say (he continued) we are equals
in this governraent, but is it right to say we shall not carry
our slaves into the Territories ? [' Yes : ' ' Yes : ' - No : ' - No '].
You go where you please with your labor."
A voice: "No, sir, we can't go South."
The orator : " Yes, sir, you can go South. There is not a
man among you who is not welcome, if he don't come to steal
our 'niggers'." "[Good! Good!]." He went on to say
there were many Northern men engaged in various occupa
tions in his town, respected and prosperous. Three years
before, when the panic of 1857, caused by Western land specu
lations, swept the North, Southern merchants paid their com
mercial paper, not due, to millions of dollars to help their
Northern friends and saved many a one from ruin. But if a
had man went South "to light the match to the magazine
under us, the people there would be less than men should he
not be swung to the highest limb." " [Great applause]."
A voice : " How Is it that twenty-three signers of the
Constitution voted, before that, in Congress to restrict slavery
in all the territory the United States held at that time ? "
The orator : " The gentleman was not here when that
branch of the argument was considered, and I reaUy can't go
hack." The questioner : " I was not, sir. I meant no insult."
In a few words, Mr. Yancey recapitulated what he had
said, about the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, at the
demand of Virgmia, and not as the expression of the inde
pendent will of Congress.

THE PEOPLE DECID'E. < 511
Mr. Yancey argued that the slave States, thus far members
of the Union, had not given any indications of being sources
of impoverishment to the other States, and there was nothing
to sustain the objection to more slave States. " Therefore,
when you cut off the natural increase of slave States in the
Union you strike a blow at your own prospective prosperity,"
he said. A voice : " We have a right to do it, have n't we ? "
The orator : " Certainly ; a man has a heap of rights, but
he would be a big fool to undertake to exercise them, under
all circumstances." Mr. Yancey said, no matter what might be the views of
individuals on the theory of slavery, a citizen of the LTnited
States was bound to respect and obey the Constitutional guar
antees of rights to slaveholders. Any other policy would end
in civU war. Instead of the Constitution, securing the rights
of both prosperous and powerful sections, the " higher law "
alone would prevail, while the sections devoted themselves to
strife. As a matter of humanity, of self-interest and law, the
South treated the black servants well. The master disposed
to be oppressive was restrained by public opinion and the
statute. As property, the slave was very valuable, each man
commanding $1,500, in the market. " Suppose you have two
horses (he said), one worth $500, the other $1,500. I tell you
I know a New Englander and the $1,500 horse will not suffer.
[ Laughter and applause.] You are allowed to whip your
children ; we are allowed to whip our negroes. There is no
cruelty in the practice. There may be no Solomons, but there
are good parents, here. Our negroes are but children. The
bird that can sing and wUl not is made to sing. The negro
that wiU not work is made to work. Society tolerates no
drones. Society gains by our discipline of our negroes ; we
punish them, reasonably, for the law says unreasonable pun
ishment subjects the person infficting it to legal revenge. You
have a very mistaken notion about what you term ' property
in man.' The Romans held property in man. A Roman
master could slay any number of his slaves and the law would
not interfere. Property in man, in my country, does not exist
in the Roman sense. The State regards my negro in two
lights — he is a man and he is property. As a man, the negro

512 • THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
is protected by the State in life and limb. The laAH' admits the
master's right of property in the labor of his black servant,
but the law compels the master to feed and clothe his black
servants and to infiict no cruelty upon them. The care the
masters have given their slaves explains the value of slave
property and the great increase in value which has overtaken
it. My negroes are well clothed, and bathed at least once a
week. I walk out among their cabins, sometimes, as late as
midnight. I hear them clustered about a fiddler, singing and
dancing, and they keep it up until near daylight. No laboring
people on the face of the earth are so happy, so uniformly well
fed and clothed and provided for, in sickness and in health, as
the slaves of the South. Your policy is not likely to free the
slaves, but it does tend to drive the master to measures of
discipline more severe as you encroach on his lawful au
thority." Mr. Yancey here said he would close. " Go on ! " " Go on ! "
shouted the audience. " What more can I say (he rejoined).
If you receive not the reasoning I have already laid before
you, if it makes no impression, how can I hope to add more ? "
A voice: "Give us some popular sovereignty."
The orator : " That idea of Douglas' is the wUdest hum
bug ! But, Douglas wont hurt anybody. I ara ' dead against '
Lincoln." Great confusion followed. Three cheers were called for,
and given, to Douglas, accompanied with hissing ; also three
for Breckenrldge.
Mr. Yancey : " I call for three cheers for the Union and
the Constitution," and these were given heartily.
Quiet regained, the orator entered upon his peroration.
This was a chaste and touching eulogy on Daniel Webster.
So impressive was the deUvery that profound silence ruled,
except a slight ripple of applause in the early sentences.
Concluding, he said : " If you have not paused, but advanced
in that career against which your great statesman expostu
lated with you, vain are my words. But, my countrymen, I
wish, as an Alabamian, to leave with you the words of sober
ness, the words of justice, the words of truth I have spoken
to-night. They are with you."

*"^^PS[rtoB

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 513
The audience rose, cheering, and, waving hats, stood in
long continued demonstrations. It had been expected that
Caleb Cushing would follow Yancey, with a short speech, but
the attempt to restore order was evidently hopeless, and the
surging mass dissolved of its own impulse.
Before leaving New York for Boston, Mr. Yancey, in cora
pany with other Alabamians, Mesdames Smith, Mathews, Le
Vert and Miss Le Vert, accepted an invitation to the grand
ball given in honor of the visit of the Prince of Wales.
On the evening of October 15, he spoke at Albany, New
York ; in the forenoon of the next day at Syracuse, and at
night the same day at Rochester. The occasion was observed,
at each town, as a holiday. Hundreds of people came from
the territory adjacent to hear him. At the railroad stations
the waiting crowds received him with distinguished courtesy.
The stage was everywhere occupied by a large number of the
foremost citizens. The speech at Albany was delivered at the
Capltol. As the hour approached for the speech at Rochester,
as the orator afterwards confessed, he became apprehensive
that he was too exhausted to undertake it. Going upon the
stage, however, he saw in the audience. Immediately before
him, a burly black negro man. The negro presently began to
ply him with questions, in a supercilious tone. The ennui was
dispelled by the novelty of the situation, and this, the last of
four speeches in the State of New York, proved to be not the
least interesting. He said :
" We are not more selfish at the South or more avaricious
than other people, and perhaps we are less selflsh than most
people, for we have an abundant prosperity. We can afford
to lose largely for the sake of the Union, but we cannot afford
to lose honor and equality and be treated with injustice. To
the conservative men of the North, no matter what your party
relations may be — whether Bell, Breckenrldge or Douglas, or
neither — I make an appeal as a Southern raan to Northern
men ; as a representative of the people of that section to the
people of this. Deal with us in the spirit of justice and we
wiU ever remain with you in the interchange of all kindly
civilities ; we will ever support you as you have need of our
services ; and we both will be mutually benefited and en
riched by the interchange of the products of our respective

33

514 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
industries. * * It is not for me to predict and prophesy ; it is
not for rae to hold up to this intelligent community anything
that is calculated to act save on their judgment and their
better feelings, but I beseech you, my friends of the Lincoln
party, in the narae of all that is valuable in our institutions,
stay your hands. Do not destroy our self respect ; do us not
that Injustice, which, when done to a worra, it turns on the
heel that crushes it ; which, when done to the brute creation,
gives evidence of some sort of resistance. Do not overtax our
manliness ; let us settle all these points of dlft'erence and deter
mine what is right from man to man ; there let us reason
together in the spirit of Washington, of Virginia, and Adams,
of Massachusetts, and confer together as to what was the com
pact of our fathers and the best mode of perpetuating it ; then
let us try to keep down and beneath us and under the rein of
reason, good faith and loyalty to each other and to the whole
government, that unworthy part of our natures which would
make us grapple with each other."
Referring his allusions at Albany to certain events in
history, the correctness of which had been assailed by the
leading Republican organ, the Albany Journed, he replied, at
Rochester, as follows :
" I have been contradicted ni this by one of the leading
men in this State — by your ablest Republican editor, Mr.
Thurlow Weed. If I am wrong in my statements on such a
point you will turn frora me with contempt. If that grave and
reverend seignor, that old and experienced editor, who has
ransacked political history, and is con<'-ersant with facts — if he
happens to be wrong, what then ? The Idea of arguing about
Thurlow Weed as an ignorant man will not be entertained for
a moment, at least not from one who comes from the benighted
South. (Laughter.) But if he is not an ignorant man, aud
makes statements that are wrong, Avhat is he? I cannot say.
(Laughter.) I hold in my hand a slip from the Albany
Evening Journal, dated 16th instant. In it is a column or part
of a column headed ' Some of Yancey's Misrepresentations.'
Some of them. That intimates that there are more back of
these. (Laughter.) If these are what he calls misrepresenta
tions, he and I have not studied the same doctrines, have not
read the same lessons in history, and have not been taught by

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 515
the same sort of instructors as to what men should say of each
other when they make assertions. Here is one of his specifi
cations :
"Ho said that the provision in regard to the slave trade Avas not
subject to amendment or repeal. This assertion is unwarranted. It
standsexaclly on a par with every other provision" [of the Constitution],
" Now, let us see. I have here a book which Is called the
' Manual of the Legislature of the State of New York ' — the
* Red Book,' — which contains the Constitution of the United
States -and I may say that if your legislation was more gov
erned by this Constitution, I am inclined to think it Avould be
much better than it is. (Laughter and applause.) Let us get
along slowly, and we may raake the raore haste. Thurlow
Weed has run fast in his statements ; I shall be deliberate.
This book is printed, I believe, at his offlce. Now, in Article
V of the Constitution we find this clause :
"Provided, That no amendment which may be made prior to the
year one thousand eight hundred and eight, shall in any manner affect
the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and
that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage
in the Senate."
" I refer back to see what Article I, Section 9, clause 1 Is :
"1. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the
States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall, not be prohibited
by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and
eight; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation not exceed
ing ten dollars for each person."
" Now, who stands corrected ; Thurlow Weed or WilUam
L. Yancey ? I recommend Thurlow Weed, before he under
takes to correct me again, to kiss this book (laughter), and if
he does, he avUI have more of the Constitution on his lips than
he has ever had before. (Laughter and applause.) * *
" I have said that the first State admitted into the Union
was Kentucky, a slave State, February 4, 1791. Thurlow
Weed says that Vermont and Maine were both admitted as
free States before that time. And this is another of his speci
fications in charging rae with misrepresentation. We shall see
how that is — who is right this time.
" I went with a friend in Syracuse this morning, after I had
read Mr. Weed's article, to the library of the Court of Appeals

516 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
in that city. I found there one of the judges of your courts,
who said that he was Republican, but conservative. He
treated me with great civility, and showed me at once the
books I desired to flnd. They were Brightly 's Digest of the
Laws of the United States and the United States' Statutes at
large, t found that Maine was adraltted on the 3d day of
March, 1820. Thurlow Weed only raade a raistake of thirty
years. If such a difference between statement and fact Is
habitual, he will be a long time in catching up. (Laughter.)
But this is a fast age. We have the telegraph and railroads
now, and truth travels faster than it used to.
"Another State, the good old State of Vermont, was ad
mitted. Mind, I say the good old State. She was rauch better
in the old days than she is now. (Laughter.) She used to
understand and hold to corapacts between the States ; but I
think from the majorities she now gives, that she does not
understand and tries to disregard them. When was the act
passed to adrait Vermont? February 18,1791. I have then
got fourteen days the start of Thurlow Weed in this instance.
That is coming little nearer the truth, and if he progresses a
little longer in that direction he will catch up. (Laughter.)
"I am charged with misrepresentation. That is not an
agreeable thing to hear by a person coming among strangers.
I do not say Mr. W eed misrepresents ; but I do say that he is
either grossly Ignorant ox he misrepresents. I have no quarrel
with him on that. I am willing the people shall judge be
tween him and myself, when they have looked into Brightly's
Digest, and not before."
" Mr. Yancey resumed his seat araidst most enthusiastic
and deafening applause."
The Increase of mail facilities, the cheapening of postage
and the spread of education had raised up the modern news
paper, in the year 1860, as never before, to divide with oratory
its ancient prerogative as counsellor and guide of the people.
The strong Republican party organs in the West were domi
ciled at Cincinnati. I incorporate, therefore, in this narrative
the account of the Cincinnati Commercial, Republican in poU
tics, of Mr. Yancey's speech at Pike's Opera House, in that
city, and editorial comments accompanying it, in illustration

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 517
of the temper of the West. The speech was deUvered October
22. The editor wrote :
"The splendid audience which listened on Saturday night for two
hours and a half to the persuasive eloquence of the Alabama states
man, was in itself a tribute of which any orator might well have been
proud. The opera house was packed full — men standing in ,tlie aisles,
and occupying every available foot of sitting and standing room — and
there were a considerable number of gentlemen on the stage. In the
second tier was a large representation of ladies.
"Mr. Yancey made his appearance in due season, fresh and smiling
as usual. He was cordially greeted by a number of gentlemen on the
stage, among them Senator Pugh — the famous encounter of our Senator
and the Southern Champion at Charleston, being entirely without per
sonal feeling. Dr. Vattier introduced Mr. Yancey to the audience,
remarking that Mr. Y. had been speaking that day over in Kentucky
until his voice was somewhat impaired, and it would be necessary, in
order to hear him, to preserve profound silence. This was unnecessary,
for there is no danger when Yancey speaks, but the people will be still.
Mr. Yancey commenced in a very quiet, earnest, persuasive sort of way,
saying that he proposed to address himself to the reason of his audi
ence. He did not propose to employ the arts of the rhetorician or
declaimer, but to reason soberly and truly. It was soon evident that
the speaker was thoroughly at home before an audience; that he had
been a close student of the history of the country; that, indeed, he had
studied so well as to know what to omit to mention, quite as well as
that which should be named, to help his case. It was also apparent
that he (as most of the Southern politicians of the higher grade) had
been indefatigable in investigation of the Cpnstitution of the United
States, and was perfectly familj^- with our political history, the statis
tics of our industry at home, "d our commerce with the world, and
the laws of the States. It is probable we will not do injustice to the
extreme men of the South, when we say that their case has never been
presented more strongly than in this effort of Mr. Yancey. * *
" There were before Mr. Yancey many Irish and Germans, and he
was speaking to men of two continents, descended from half a dozen
nations, and Southern as well as Northern States. He, therefore, mis
took his crowd — a capital error in any speaker — in considering it was
made up of New Englanders and New Yorkers and their descendants.
He did command the sympathies of his audience, after a time, notwith
standing, but if he had been less an orator, he would have lost every
thing.* "Mr. Yancey did not tell why Virginia had excluded her own
children from the lands she ceded with their slaves. He should have
*The editor's error is in happy illustration of Mr. Yancey's appreciation of his
audience. The editor had denied the purposes ol the Kepublican party. Mr. Yancey
so explained them to " men of two continents, descended from half a dozen nations, '
as to command their sympathy. The speech at Cincinnati was, thus far, peculiar to
the locality.

518 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
given the reason for the discrimination. -* * We agree with him in
his general propositions as to the unfairness of the tariff system. But,
Mr. Yancey, suppose we abolish the tarifi: altogether and, trading freely
with all the world, abolish our unsightly Custom Houses, and our
standing army of politicians that infests them — and raise the revenue
by direct taxation, will you gentlemen of the South, consent that your
slaves shall be taxed according to their market value? Shall we have
slave property listed at four thousand millions of dollars and taxed
accordingly; or will you insist then that slaves are persons and that the
tax must be per capita and not according to federal enumeration?*
* * " The interruptions from the audience had been invited by
Mr. Yancey, but they resulted in some excitement. There were loud
cries to put out those who were making the interruptions; and the
police, we believe, did seize one man. Mr. Yancey said he did not
object to interruptions. He was willing any gentleman should ask him
a question. And he hoped no gentleman would cry ' put him out.' He
further complacently assured the audience that in any controversy with
objectors he would not be wanting, a self-assertion that produced great
manifestations of approbation. He assured the audience that it was
their duty to stand by the Constitution, and defend it from all assaults.
That was the only way to continue the common prosperity of the North
and South. He referred to that which had been said of the capacity of
the eighteen millions of the North to overcome the eight millions of the
South. But the battle was not always to the strong, nor the race to the
swift. He prayed God that there never might be war between the
North and the South. But the policy of the Eepublican party could
not be carried out in peace. He was for the Union under the Constitu
tion as ordained by our fathers — and he was against any other Union.
He would stand by the Union our fathers made, if need be, in blood.
He would resist, however, the destrudWon of the rights of the South.
The rights the South fought for in the Revolution — the rights declared
in the Declaration of Independence, and consolidated in the Constitu
tion — were not the rights of the worm, to turn when crushed, or of the
mule, to resist when over-driven — not the right of revolution — but the
same rights our fathers declared in the Declaration of Independence —
to withdraw from the Government and form a more perfect Union;
establishing order, and securing equality elsewhere. He was for resist
ing the overthrow of the Constitution by mere numbers. The North
had the power of numbers. The South held up the Constitution our
fathers had made, against the arrogance of majorities, the prejudices
and passions of numbers. The Constitution was the shield of the
South, of the minority section against the majority. Mr. Yancey
drew the usual parallel between the Southern States and the thirteen
?Mr. Yancey's State taxed slaves pel- capita, on a property basis. There is no
reason to suppose the SouthM-n people would have objected to a tax per capita on
slaves, on a projierty basis, fdr the purpose of raisins an equitable share of federal
revenue. It is not probable the Northern people would have favored a direct tax on
the property of all the people of the United States so long as the chief item of
property in the slave States, as to three-fifths of it, was represented in Congress,
while no kind of property in the free States was so represented.

TIIE PEOPLE DECIDE. 519
colonies, and England and the Northern States, in the days of the
Revolution, with unusual force of expression, and then declared that
if the North was resolved to make the Union an instrument of oppres
sion, and proposed to coerce those who resisted, that if they of the
North would hold as England held, that resistance to her power was
treason, theu he, Mr. Yancey, stood before them a traitor, and they
might make the most of it! There was a wild scene in the house at
this sensation point. Mr. Yancey folded his arms and looked defiance,
and there Avas alternative bursts of applause and hisses for some
minutes. Tlie hisses were finally drowned out. Then Mr. Yancey
very solemnly referred to the scene in the House of Burgesses in
Virginia, when Patrick Henrj^ was hissed by the minions of power.
The minions of power had that night hissed a sentiment similar to that
uttered by Patrick Henry. There was still more appl-ause, but the
suggestion of a correspondence between Patrick Henry's 'if this be
treason make the most of it,' and Mr. Yancey's announcement of him
self as a traitor, in a contingency, and the information which he volun
teered that the most might be made of it, did not produce a very
profound impression. The fact is, Mr. Yancey narrowly escaped being
guilty of a bit of gasconade, of the most ludicrous character. Only
the earnest character of the man saved the tragic scene from being
farcical. As the case stood, the general impression made Avas, that
Mr. Yancey was rather chivalrous than otherwise, and had taken an
imposing attitude. The scene would not, however, bear rigorous
analysis. * *
" When Mr. Yancey concluded, he was warmly congratulated by
friends on the platform, and the public curiosity and excitement about
the individual were greatly enhanced. The impression made upon the
audience was remarkably great. There were few, indeed, who did not
recognize the potent spell of the orator.
"The meager and imperfect abstract which we have been able to
give of the speech, is, we are aware, entirely inadequate to indicate the
force of the effort. Many Republicans declared they never had heard
the case of the South so well presented. Some expressed surprise at
the effect produced upon themselves. This speech will be the talk of
the town for some days, and we ofter in this place some observations
which seem to us pertinent and calculated to improve the occasion. * *
"* * Mr. Yancey certainly has nothing to complain of in the
treatment which he received at the hands of the people of Cincinnati.
¦yye have, however, to complain of him, that there was something offen-
sive-perhaps it was unconsciously so — in the tone in which he spoke
of negro thieves, and the imputation of dishonesty which he seemed at
times to cast upon this community. This is, however, a subject, upon
which we have no disposition to dwell. It is a question of taste and
manners that may be safely left to the popular understanding, Avithout
argument. We are glad to meet in Mr. Yancey a man capable in these
times, at this stage of a Presidential campaign, to make a political
speech, in the two hours and a half time covered by which, there was

520 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
hardly a minute, when it would not have seemed stooping from a high
argument, to have named the current controversies, about Douglas and
Bell, Lincoln and Breckenrldge. The only living politician named by
Mr. Yancey was Mr. Seward, and he as the author of the 'higher law.'
Tbe dignity of the orator in abstaining from all personal twaddle, and
maintaining his attitude so constantly on the higher level of Constitu
tional argument and historical disquisition, is compensation for his erro
neous estimate of the character of his audience, and his Southern
provincialism in the employment of terms respecting those whose opin
ions are in conflict with his own.
"We are pleased to give him credit for having spoken, in a time
most provocative of partisanism, not as a partisan, but as a represen
tative man of the South, to a representative assembly of the men of the
North. He has doubtless stimulated much thought in this community;
and if he is a wise man, he has seen and heard that in the North, which
should cause him to reconsider some of the nai-row and rash propositions
which he advances with so much eloquence."
The peroration was :
" I am no prophet. ¦ I make no prophecy. It does not be
come me to indulge here in gasconade. But, my countrymen,
you cannot carry out the policy of the Black Republican party.
You cannot carry it out and expect the South to remain sub
missively, bowing down to your supremacy. We are for
Union. What Union ? For the Union, gentlemen, contained
between these two lids. (Holding up the Constitution.) * *
May that spirit of justice and truth which prevailed among
our common ancestry be ours, to prevail in the loyal bosoms
and great hearts of this people ; and may they respect each
other as our fathers respected each other. * * They met in
comraon councU, respected each others rights, only knowing
that there was a North and a South, in order that the North
might do justice to the South, and that the South might recip
rocate In a friendly feeling the justice of the North. That
was the noble feeling of our ancestors. Why cannot it prevaU
now ? Are we better than they ? Are we wiser than they ?
Have we higher objects to attain than they had? Can you
obtain anything, gentlemen, by destroying, even if you are
able, my section, save the meraory of a great wrong that would
haunt you through eternity ? * * But, if you have power,
exercise it like men. If you have intelligence, show it in the
manner in which you administer this government. If you have
justice, let justice prevail though the heavens fall. (Cheers.

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 521
Eut do not, do not, my friends of the North — I say it before
JOU in no spirit, gentlemen, of servile submission to your
power or servile acknowledgment of that power, for, as God
rules, I have no fear of it as much as I respect It — but do not,
merely because you feel you have the power, do not wreathe
your arms around the pillars of our liberty and, like a blind
Samson, pull down that great temple upon your heads as well
as ours." "(Tremendous cheering.)"
The last of the series of speeches in the free States had
now been delivered, when Mr. Yancey re-entered the slave
States to continue his labors. It is now profitable to consider,
somewhat, the utterances of other orators, laboring for other
parties. Did the South fear the Republican party because of
its revolutionary instincts, and the Democrats of the North
quail before the marvellous rapidity of its growth, because of
the same reason ? In the month before Mr. Yancey spoke at
Cincinnati, Mr. Lincoln spoke there. He said it was the duty
of Congress to provide for the general welfare of the United
States ; that the institution of slavery was irreconcilable with
the general welfare of the "Nation," and that it became the
duty of Congress, therefore, to extinguish it. With more'
eloquence, but not with greater emphasis, Mr. Sumner spoke,
in the same season, at New York. He said :
"All that the Republican party now opposes may be found in the
' opinions of John C. Calhoun. All that the Republican party now main
tains may be found in John Quincy Adams. * * And now, fellow
citizens, what is slavery? That is no question merely of curiosity or
philanthropy; for when the National government, which you and I at
the North help to constitute, is degraded to be its instrument, and all
the National Territories are proclaimed open to its barbarism, and the
Constitution itself is perverted to sanction its pretensions, the whole
subject logically and necessarily enters into our discussion. [Applause.]
It cannot be avoided; it cannot be blinked out of sight. Nay, you must
pass upon it at the coming election. Futile is the plea that we at the
North have nothing to do with slavery. Granted that we have nothing
to do with it, in the South, we have much to do with all its irrational
pretensions under the Constitution, and just so long as these irrational
pretensions are urged slavery must be discussed. It must be laid bare
in its enormity, precisely as if it were proposed to plant it here in New
York. [Loud applause.] Nor can such a wrong, foul in itself, and
fouler still in its pretensions, be dealt with tamely. Tameness is sur
render; and charity, too, may be misapplied. Forgiving those who
trespass against us, I know not if we are called to forgive those who

522 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
trespass against others; to forgive those who trespass against a race; to
forgive those who trespass against the Republic; to forgive those who
trespass against civilization; to forgive those who trespass agaiust a
whole race ; to forgive those who trespass against the universal human
family; finally, to forgive those who trespass against God. [Tremen
dous applause, lasting for several seconds.] Such trespasses now exist
among us, possessing the organization of party, possessing the control
of the National government, constituting, at this moment, a colossal
poAver — and 'what seems its head, the likeness of what a President has
on.' [Laughter.] Surely, if ever there was a moment when every
faculty should be bent in the service and all should be invigorated by
an inspiring zeal, falsely rejected by the heartless diplomatist, it is now,
while the great battle between civilization and barbarism is still unde
cided and you are summoned in the name of freedom to resist the last
desperate shock [Great enthusiasm.] To this work I am not equal;
but I do not shrink from the duties of my post. Alas! human language
is gentle, and the human voice is weak. Words only are mine, when I
ought to command thunderbolts. [Renewed applause.] ^ * * And I
might proceed to show how this barbarous influence, beginning on the
plantation, diffuses itself throughout society, entering into official con
duct, and even mounts into Congress, where, for a long time, it has
exercised a vulgar domination. But 1 shall not open this chapter, for
time does not allow mc. But there is one frightful circumstance,
unhappily of frequent occurrence, which proclaims so clearly the char
acter of the social system bred by slavery, that I shall be pardoned for
adducing it. I refer to the roasting of slaves alive at the stake, an
instance of which has lately occurred in Georgia; not after a public
trial, according to the forms of law, as at the fires of Smithfield, but by
a lawless crowd, suddenly assembled, who, in this way, make them
selves the ministers of a cruel vengeance. This barbarism, which seems
to have become a part of the customary law of slavery, may well cover
us all with humiliation, when we reflect that it has already been
renounced by the copper-colored savages of our continent, from whom it
was originally derived; while duringthe present century, more instances
of it have occurred among our present slave masters than we knew of
among our savages since that early day when Captain Smith was saved
from this fate by the tenderness of Pocahontas. Perhaps no other usage
reveals with such fearful distinctness the deep-seated, pervading influ
ence of slavery, offensive to civilization, hostile to law itself, by virtue
of which it pretends to live, insulting to humanity, shocking to decency,
and utterly heedless of all rights, forms or observances, in the main
tenance of its wicked power."
Mr. Douglas began a personal canvass at the South, at
Norfolk, while Mr. Yancey canvassed at the North. He was
received everywhere with distinguished honors — the Bell
Unionists vying with his own wing of the Democracy in
pubUc and private courtesies to him. At Norfolk he said :

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 523
"This proposition, for Congressional intervention for slavery, comes
from the State of Alabama miuI from the pen of William L. Yancey. It
came from the State of Alabain.i and the pen ot the same William L.
Yancey who, in IS-'ifi, insisted upon non-intervention as the only con
dition upon which Alabama would stay in the Cincinnati Convention.
[Applause.] Alabama presented this doctrine of non-intervention as
the sine qua non — the only condition upon Avhich she would consent to
act with the Democratic party, because, she said, the honor, the rights
and the safety of the South depended upon the principle. We of the
North, to whom this principle was then dictated by Alabama, after
examining it, said that we did ourselves believe the demand was just,
and hence we accepted it, notwithstanding the rude and ungracious
mode in which Alabama had dictated to us."
In the midst of M>-. Yancey's speech at Cincinnati a sealed
letter, addressed to him, and the card of Mr. St. Clair M.
Morgan, of Tennessee, were handed to Dr. Vattier, on the
stage. No explanation was raade at the tirae and after the
meeting had adjourned the card and letter were placed in the
orator's hand. He slipped both into his pocket and did not
examine the letter until he reached his apartments for the
night. The letter contained what had been known as the
" Douglas questions," propounded to Mr. Douglas at Norfolk,
during his speech there. In the midst of Douglas' argument
an open slip of newspaper was handed to him, taken from a
morning paper published there. The speaker read it and
proceeded as follows:
"I am not iu the habit of answering questions propounded to me
in the course of an address, but on this occasion I will comply with the
request and respond, very frankly and unequivocally, to these two
questions. "The first question is, if Abraham Lincoln be elected President of
the United States, will the Southern States be justified in seceding from
the Union. '• To this I emphatically answer ' no.' [Great applause.] The elec
tion of a man to the Presidency by the American people, in conformity
with the Constitution of the United States, would not justify any
attempt at dissolving this glorious Confederacy. [Applause.] Now I
win read to you the next question and then answer it.
"Question ~lf they (the Southern States) secede from the Union
upon the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, before he commits an overt
act against their Constitutional rights, will you advise or vindicate
resistance by force to their secession? [Voices — "No, no."]
"Mr Douglas — I answer emphatically that it is the duty of the
President of the United States, and all others in authority under him,

524 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
to enforce the laws of the United States as passed by Congress, and as
the courts expound thera. [Cheers.] And I, as in duty bound by my
oath of fidelity to the Constitution, would do all in my power to aid the
government of the United States in maintaining the supremacy of the
laws against all resistance to them, come from what quarter it might.
[Good ] In other words, I think the President of the United States,
whoever he may be, should treat all attempts to break up the Union by
resistance to its laws as Old Hickory treated the nullifiers in 1832.
[[Applause.] The laws must be enforced, but at the same time, be it
remembered, it is the duty of every citizen of every State, and every
public functionary, to preserve, maintain and vindicate the rights of
every citizen and the rights of every State in the Union. I hold that
the Constitution has a remedy for every grievance that may arise within
the limits of the Union. I am very frank in answering these questions.
I am not in favor of any policy which would tend to give rise to com
plaints or murmurings, much less to such as would call for resistance
:from any quarter. I acknowledge the inherent and inalienable right to
revolution whenever a grievance becomes too burdensome to be borne.
I acknowledge the right of every man to repel and change the form of
government under which he lives, whenever it proves destructive to the
ends for which it was established. That is a right, however, never to
be resorted to until the operations of the government become more
grievous than the consequences of revolution. And therefore I say
that the mere inauguration of a President of the United States whose
political opinions were, in my judgment, hostile to the Constitution and
safety of the Union, without an overt act on his part, without striking
a blow at our Constitution or our rights, is not such a grievance as
would justify revolution or secession. [Cheers.] Hence I say, whoever
may be elected President of the United States, he must be sustained in
the exercise of all his just Constitutional prerogatives and powers.
" Lincoln has no hope of being elected except through the efforts of
the Secessionists, who have divided the Democratic party — supposing
that Breckenrldge would carry every Southern State — though it now
seems he is not going to carry a single one by the people. Still, by
- dividing the North, he gives every one of the States to Lincoln, thus
allowing him to be elected by the popular vote. Why, what was the
true aspect of the contest before the secession? Lincoln had no show
whatever for more than two States till the Breckenrldge division took
place, and I would have beaten him iu every State, but Vermont and
Massachusetts. As it is, I think I will beat him in almost all of them
yet. [Cheers.] But should Lincoln be elected, the Secessionists, who
nominated and now support Breckenrldge, will be entitled to the credit
of it, and upon them will rest the responsibility of having adopted the
fatal policy; and dreading the result of their own rash and unpatriotic
acts, which gives to Lincoln a chance of success, they come forward and
ask me if I will help them to dissolve the Union in the event of Lincoln
being raised to the Presidential chair. I tell them, no — never on earth.
l[Cheers and cries of 'Good.'] I am for putting down Northern

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 525,
Abolitionism, but I am also for putting down Southern Secessionism, and
that, too, by the exercise of the same Constitutional power. [" Good."];
I believe that the peace, harmony and the safety of this country depend
upon destroying both factions. [Cheers.] Both parties they can be
called, are allies in a common cause; for however hostile they may be
to each other, however opposed in purposes and objects, yet their course
of action tends to the same deplorable result; and without meaning any
disrespect or personal unkindness, I believe that, in tlie event of the
success of either party, the success of the Northern Abolitionists or that
of the Southern Secessionists, tbe Union and our glorious Constitution
are alike put in peril and danger. Northern Abolitionism could not
exist for any length of time, except there was a counterpoise demanding
the intervention of the South. The Republicans demand Congressional
interference against slavery, while the Secessionists demand that Con
gress shall interfere to protect and extend slavery. This is the pivot
upon which both parties turn; this, my friends, is the whole state of
the case; those are the dangers to be apprehended, and thus it devolves
upon you to rally to the rescue, and by voting the National Democratic
ticket placed before the country by the Baltimore Convention, to pre
serve this glorious Union."
The argument of the three principal contesting parties and
the methods of the leading orator in each may be ascertained
with some measure of satisfaction to the reader, frora the
examples of oratory just cited. Where the argument lay, and
which orator was most candid, are questions of historical in
quiry. Mr. Sumner appreciated the superstitious mind of a
large part of his audience and pandered to it in the fable-
related of " usage " at the South in burning negroes at the
stake ! The delivery of Mr. Toombs' speech at Boston, in
1856, was interrupted by a question from one of the audience^
demanding to know if slaves were not used to draw the plow
in Georgia. The orator replied by offering a problem in arith
metic for answer. If a mule at $150 would perform the work
at the plow which would require the strength of ten negroes
at an aggregate cost of $15,000, should negroes housed to draw
the plow ? In my childhood a relative returned from a sum
mer tour in New England. In relating his experiences, to the
amusement of the juvenile members of the family, he gave the
answer he made to a question put by friends at Boston, who
asked if negro skins in the South were not turned over to
the tanner. The answer was in the afflrmative, coupled with
the assurance that no planter would wear calfskin boots if

526 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the negro skin article could be bought ! Mr. Sumner's narra
tive of " slave masters " customs was doubtless derived from
sources corresponding in dignity to the burlesque of this gen
tleman upon the fanaticism of his Boston envlKonments. The
narrative was arguraent, however, contributing its part to an
awful sequel. Mr. Douglas' tax upon the credulity of his
Southern audiences was of the necessity of his situation. His
doctrine of squatter sovereignty was, itself, derivative from
the authority and will of Congress. It was not. In its essence.
Congressional non-intervention, but rather Congressional inter
vention of the most arbitrary character. His later speech at
Atlanta expressed those sentiments which so endeared him to
his Southern following. Touching the fugitive slaA^e provision
of the Constitution, he said :
" I will quote it that you may know exactly what it is: ' No person
held to service or labor in oue State under the laws thereof, escaping into
another, shall be released by any law or regulation therein, but shall be
delivered up,' etc. A person held to service in one State under the laws
thereof. Not under the laws of Congress ; not under the Constitution of
the LTnited States; not under any federal authority. In a State under
the laws thereof!"
A voice : "Do you allow negro suffrage in Illinois?"
Mr. Douglas : "No, sir; we do not have any negro voting there.
[Cheers.] * * Why did we abolish slavery in Illinois? Not because
we were Abolitionists. There was not such a description of animal in
the whole of Illinois as an Abolitionist. [Applause and laughter.]
There was scarcely a Yankee to be found in the whole State. [Renewed
laughter.] Why did our people adopt a system of emancipation?
Simply because they had ascertained, by experience, that our climate,
with our soil and our productions slavery was not profitable. They
could not make any money out of it, hence they turned philanthropists
and abolished it." " [Laughter and applause.] "
Mr. Douglas explained in this speech that, in 1852, so soon
as General Pierce received a majority of votes in the Balti
more Convention, he directed his name to be withdrawn, and,
in the Cincinnati Convention, so soon as Mr. Buchanan re
ceived a raajority, he repeated the sarae instructions. By
holding out in either Convention he could have prevented the
choice, under the two-thirds rule, of the noraination made. He
said :
"There were, at Charleston, twenty-flve or thirty men, each a can
didate for the Presidency, some of them publicly and others confi
dentially, some standing evil in the light of heaven where you see them

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 527
and others hid in the bushes and behind the trees, watching to see how
the tide would run. All these competing candidates formed a combina
tion to crush me, intending to fight it out among themselves after
wards. In this connection he would reveal a part of the history of
the contest in the Conventions of that year, which he had, up to that
time, kept secret. When the battle was warmest at Baltimore he had
telegraphed to Mr. Richardson to withdraw his name and substitute
that of Alexander H. Stephens." " [Tremendous applause.] "
Mr. Yancey passed over Into Kentucky from Cincinnati.
The Louisville ./oumal, a Bell paper, edited by the famous
wit, George D. Prentice, so soon as it became known that
Yancey would visit the West, urged the people not to hear
him. In this appeal it was joined by some of the country
press. The friends of Yancey were in undisguised apprehen
sion that trouble might be fomented by the intemperate course
of Prentice. At Lexington two thousand farmers and citizens
congregated on the green at the rear of the Court House,
where a stand for the speakers was erected, to hear the Ala
bamian. Their Representative in Congress, Jaraes B. Clay,
introduced him. The effect of Prentice's counsel manifested
itself in some rude conduct, but the orator soon overcame it
Four or five speeches were delivered to very large audiences
In Kentucky, the last at Louisville. Prentice there stood im
mediately in front of the orator, absorbed in what he heard, for
three hours. All along the line of travel, from point to point,
in this State, crowds of people assembled at the stations. At
Paris and Cynthiana ladles and gentlemen thronged the sta
tions, aud the demonstration was so eager that Mr. Yancey
appeared on the platforra to acknowledge the honor paid to
him. In those days such occurrences were rare.
As Mr. Yancey turned his course southward Mr. Douglas
entered Tennessee. Both leaders spoke, on diff'erent hours, at
Nashville, Friday, October 26. Senator Henry S. Foote was
the active partisan of Mr. Douglas at that point. Mr. Douglas
spoke in the forenoon on the Court House grounds. The
train from Louisville, on which Mr. Yancey was expected, was
due to arrive in the time appointed for Mr. Douglas' speech.
Therefore, the friends of Mr. Yancey, anxious to preserve the
dignity of the occasion, decided to forego a public reception of
him, which, in a sraall city, might be expected to interrupt,

528 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
measurably, the proceedings at the Douglas meeting. " Never
theless, the excitement of Mr. Yancey's arrival was of the-
wUdest and raost enthusiastic character, a portion of the-
crowd endeavoring to unhitch the horses and theraselves draw
Mr. Yancey's carriage through the streets. They were pre
vented by his firm refusal. At the Sewanee House he was
compelled to appear on the balcony and bow his acknowledg-
raents of the continuous cheering."
At eight o'clock in the evening fifteen thousand people had
asserabled on Capltol Hill, about a stand erected near the east
porch of the State House. The upper portico and terrace,
reserved for the ladies, was densely packefl. The night was
frosty and the wind high. The orator, escorted by the Breck
enrldge Guards, the Lane Guards, the Union Guards, music
and a long procession of citizens, appeared and "the scene of
tumult defied description." As he came upon the stand a
preconcerted cry rang through the throng: "To the Court
House to hear Foote ! " repeated again and again. The lights
were almost extinguished by the high wind; yells, hisses,-
groans, filled the air. Yancey quietly resumed his seat.
Rising again, he expressed regret that he had not been in
formed of Judge Douglas' appointment to be in the city on
that day, knowing nothing of the presence of that gentleman
until he himself left the cars in the morniug. A lady here-
sent him a -wreath of delicate flowers and he hung it about
his neck. He had not come to impugn the motives of others,.
he said. He would pass, without comment, the fierce and
malignant assaults made on himself. In the time of Andrew
Jackson the question of squatter sovereignty had come up in
Congress and had been disposed of. Tennessee could safely
follow the principles of her greatest leader. The Territorial-
Legislature of Florida had placed a special tax upon the slaves
of non-residents. The Garnetts, of Virginia, owned a large
number of slaves in Florida. They appealed to Congress
rather than to the Courts and Andrew Jackson signed the act
of Congress forbidding the tax assessed by the Florida Terri
torial Legislature. Congress, in that day, considered itself
bound to protect the property of all the people on the common
domain. Mr. Douglas sometimes likened the doctrine of squat
ter sovereignty to the right of the marital relations, to be-

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 529
exempt from Congressional interference. The ladies would
be interested to know that, a Territorial Legislature could not
even grant divorces ! In Florida four married couples, in a
moment of passion, applied to the Territorial Legislature for
divorces and received them. By and bye, amiability and
reason returned and they applied to Congress to annul the
decrees of the Legislature. The necessary proceedings in that
body were established and four happy homes restored. Had '
Mr. Douglas been a Senator then, those eight people and their
children must have remained in disquiet and misery, all for
the sake of a political abstraction and heresy. After speaking
two hours, he said : " If I have antagonized Mr. Douglas, it
is because he has tied the brand of discord to the tall of the
party fox to be turned loose on our Southern fields. If I
uphold Mr. Breckenrldge, It Is because he upholds the stan
dard of principle and has about thirteen chances for election
to one for Mr. Bell. When the ballot is told, I hope we shall
have a united people. Asking your indulgence, I bid you
farewell." "(' Go on ;' ' Go on,' shouted the audience.)"
" I have been heralded among you by calumnies and abuse.
I would mention this thing only to invoke the charity of for
getfulness. I have had some words of kindness in your city.
I am thankful. I ask not charity, but justness in your judg
ment. If, in this canvass, I have uttered some words for truth
and my country, on that I rest. Ladies and gentlemen, good
night ! "
Mr. Douglas pursued a southernly course; Mr. Yancey went
direct toward New Orleans. Few were the orators, of the least
importance in the North or the South, who were not now, in
the closing days of this historic carapaign, before the people.
The three Georgians, Toombs, for Breckenrldge, Stephens, for
Douglas, and Benjamin H. Hill, for Bell, next only in rank
below Yancey, were the favorites of the South.
The Sunday, Mr. Yancey passed in quiet at Magnolia, In
the vicinity of New Orleans. Early the next morning a com
mittee of the city received him there. Within the city, the
most intense interest in his approach prevailed. At dawn, the
gathering of the uniformed mUitla and ununiformed semi-
mUitary organizations began. A public holiday was informally
proclaimed. Flags and banners were run up in every quarter.

34

530 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The streets were packed with people, thousands of whom were
from the interior of two States, along the line the procession
would take to the railroad station. At nine o'clock the train
bearing the orator and his escort rolled into the station amidst
prolonged cheering from the multitude in waiting. Bands
played, cannon fired and hundreds of ladies and children from
windows and housetops waved banners and pocket handker
chiefs. Drawn up in full ranks at the station were the gaily
uniformed soldiery, and there too, in uniform, were the Breck
enrldge Guards, the Chalmette Guards, the Yancey Guards, the
Southern Guards, the Lane Dragoons. An open coach, drawn
by four richly caparisoned bays, stood in the centre of pro
cession. Mr. Yancey, in his suit of gray, stepping upon the
platform of the car, was cheered with uncontrolled enthusiasm.
Down Camp street, the line moved, greeted from every house
top with the utraost demonstrations of joy. Passing LaFayette
square, the ancient Washington Artillery, stationed there, fired
thirty-one guns. Arrived at the St. Charles Hotel, the orator
imraediately sought the repose of his charaber, but the crowd
remained on the street, cheering incessantly. Appearing upon
the porch, he bowed his thanks, saying merely tha^ "the
scenes of the morning could leave no doubt of the devotion of
New Orleans to the Constitution, and the Union of the Con
stitution." At sunset, the procession, with augmented numbers, began
to form ; at twilight it was in motion, with music, banners
and innumerable transparencies passing through the principal
streets, where every house was illuminated and the utmost
display of public rejoicing ruled the hour. The stand was
erected about the Clay monument, and a stand of equal archi
tectural beauty, or so capacious or so beautifully ornamented
had never been seen before in all America. An illuminated
arch spanned the entire front. In large letters of light, formed
by burning gas, the device shone forth :
" The Constitution and the equality of the States ;
THESE AKE the SYMBOLS OF EVERLASTING UnION. LeT THESE
BE THB RALLYING CRY OF THE PEOPLE."
Canal street, from wall to wall, the entire distance from
Camp to St. Charles, was one solid, crashing mass of ladies
and gentlemen. Five hundred gentlemen from the city and

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 531
the interior parishes were selected as vIce-Presidents, and sat
on the stand. " One outburst of applause went up from the
multitude and was repeated over and over again, until the
entire city seemed to echo it back again and again, as William
L. Yancey came to the front of the platform. He stood there,
as the waves of rejoicings enveloped him, evidently deeply
touched, and well he might have been." (Report New Orleans
DeUa, October 30.)
The exordium of the speech was a graphic description of
the relation of New Orleans to the social and industrial life
•of America. There the navigable waters of a great empire,
covering a variety of climate aud the home of limitless pros
perity, entered the sea. New Orleans, of all American cities,
had the most practical interest in the government of the
Union. Like the apple of discord thrown among the Grecian
goddesses, the city would be contended for by the North, the
West and the East, while the South would hold fast to it as
"the gem of purest ray serene." Mingled with the general
applause which followed, carae a determined attempt at dis
turbance. The orator indignantly rebuked it, and decisive
measures were about to be taken to expel the fomentors when,
at his request, the matter was allowed to drop. Resuming his
discourse, he said : " Free and slave labor are surely in no
conflict here. The grain, meats and manufactures of the West
meet here the cotton and sugar of your plantations. You are
Interested, therefore. In maintaining the bond of the Union.
What is that bond that holds the States, like the planets
coursing through their orbits, rivalling each other in beauty,
yet never falling into disastrous contact ? It is the principle
flxed by our fathers in the origin of the Union — the Consti
tution." He had been much at the North ; he had striven to
shake off the shackles of party and to speak with a single eye
to the salvation of the country. He had told the people of
Few York that New Orleans was superior to their city in
promise, because it could not be a sectional city. New York
had raised two mUUons of dollars to defeat Lincoln. Lincoln
deserved defeat and the use of money was what, was termed
there, "practical politics." He had been elected twice to
Congress and both canvasses had not incurred an outlay of
five doUars. He heard, in New York, that a seat in Congress

532 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
from that city cost fifty thousand dollars ! There was a great
difference between the people of the two sections. The North
was far better organized than the South, to accomplish a result
at the polls. He had been gratified to find in the North many
true friends of Constitutional government. The only question
was, could their good wishes avail to relieve the South ? He
did not recomraend a Southern Confederacy, except to preserve
a Constitutional Union. This question was now about to be
decided at the ballot box. Douglas had issued his orders :
"Make no fusion with the Breckenrldge men," and thus it was
that Pennsylvania had gone for the Republicans. He had
received an anonymous letter that evening from "a friend."
He had never had a concealed friend before. This friend
wished to know how slavery would be safer out of the Union
than in it. He would say, as to himself, that he had devoted
much time and labor to save the Union. If the necessity for
Its dissolution should arise it would come from the effort to
preserve liberty itself.
"And now, (he said), as to this reserved right of secession, ¦
this right which is attempted to be confounded with a revo
lutionary right, it involves the theory of our government.
If we feel, in duty bound, to adhere to the government, we
are prepared to examine the doctrine of State sovereignty.
When the Constitution was formed it was a Constitution
'for' the United States and not a Constitution of a nation of
people. It was flrst sent to Congress to see, not whether it
was suitable to be submitted to the people of the nation, but
to the people of sovereign States. It was provided, that if
nine States should ratify it, it should be a Constitution 'for'
them but not for the remaining four. North Carolina did not
come in until after the election of Washington, as President.
Were bayonets sent out to compel North CaroUna and Rhode
Island to corae in? No. They came of their own sovereign
act and nothing can be found to prove that they surrendered
the right to go out. Suppose South Carolina should withdraw,
can force be exerted to elect her Senators and Representatives
in Congress, or can the State be held a subjugated province?
Is power to be found in the Constitution to coerce or subjugate
a State? Each State maintains its government, collects its
own taxes, supports its mihtia. Each State has the right to

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 533
demand the allegiance of its own citizens. I went to the
North impressed with the belief that should Alabama, South
Carolina or any Southern State be forced to withdraw, force
would be used to compel her return. I ara now satisfied the
border Southern States will never permit a hostile army,
marching on the cotton States, to pass over their territory.
Our prosperity is equal to the prosperity of the North, not
withstanding Mr. Seward has canvassed the West decrying
the South and its institutions. The North is devoted chiefly
to manufactures and commerce by land and sea, and enterprise
in these channels is protected from foreign competition by
twenty-five per cent, import tax. The North would be the
loser by the failure of the Union and its free trade with the
South. England needs our cotton and must have it. Our
treaties would protect our slaves, where the power of the
Constitution is in vain appealed to. [' Hurrah for Dug,' from
the crowd.] My friend, hurrahs such as yours in this hour of
our country's danger are senseless. In traveling through the
North 1 was impressed with the unity of purpose, the single
ness of motive and, consequently, the success of the people.
These things make the North haughty, daring and arrogant.
* * I traveled through New York and the Bell men were
working faithfuUy for the Union (fusion) ticket, while the
Douglas men stood by with folded arms. Although I used all
my Infiuence to favor the Union (fusion) ticket and to carry it
for Douglas, if it would defeat Lincoln, yet the Douglas papers
flung Parthian after me, denouncing me with grossest cal
umny. * * We cannot resist the inauguration of Lincoln,
conducted according to the forms of law. It is said we ought
to ' resist,' as the phrase goes. But let me say, it is a wrong
phrase. If, therefore, the phrase to ' resist ' means resistance
to the inauguration of a President, conducted according to
law, I repeat, it would be wrong. It would be rebellion and
treason. The phrase has done a great deal of harm, whUe it
has, probably, not expressed the meaning of those who use it.
But there remains the right of self-preservation. This does
not involve the right to injure others. It is the right to
save ourselves from despotism and destruction — the right to
withdraw ourselves from a government which endeavors to
crush us. It is the right, expressed in the Declaration of

534 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Independence, to do this thing, whenever the government
under which we live becomes oppressive, and erect a new gov
ernraent which raay promise to preserve our Uberties."
A committee of the people of MobUe, lead by Mr. Percy
Walker, arrived at New Orleans to escort Mr. Yancey to their
city. Taking a steamer, over Lake Ponchartrain, the party
arrlA-^ed at JMoblle at breakfast hour. A great throng met the
boat at Its wharf. A committee of the municipality met the
distinguished guest there with an open coach, drawn by six
white horses. As the company proceeded to the Battle House-
the people on sidewalks and from house tops greeted him with
acclamations of welcome. At the hotel the mayor, .lones M.-
Wlthers, received him with a formal speech, abounding with
patriotic sentiments. Thousands of strangers came to partici
pate in the occasion. All the morning the apartments of the
orator were filled with ladles and gentlemen paying their
respects. At twilight the streets were alive with the organ
ized companies repairing to a comraon rendezvous. With
music and transparencies, bearing patriotic inscriptions, the
procession, after marching through the principal streets, halted
in front of the Battle House, where the orator took the posi
tion assigned to him, and was escorted to the meeting assem
bled on the widest of the thoroughfares. Government street.
A platform, one hundred feet long and very deep, had been
erected for the use of the ladles, by their special request. The
speech was more than two hours long. By uni\'ersal consent,,
the demonstration was confessed to have been the most im
posing ever witnessed in the city.
At noon, on Monday, November 5, Mr. Yancey arrived at
Montgomery. He repaired iramedlately to his residence.
Judge Douglas was speaking in the city then, and would leave
on a steamer for Mobile the evening of the same day. A large
crowd of people attended the Illinois orator to the river land
ing, and while he stood on the passenger deck, with his Avife
by his side, and many others, observing the people upon the
shore, the deck suddenly sank, precipitating the whole com
pany in confusion, but with no serious results, in its fall.
At dusk the people began to assemble at the Artesian
Basin, in the centre of the city. Messrs. Culp, Gaston, Phelan,-
Cheney and others were of a Committee of Arrangements.

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 535
Captain Boyle was Chief Marshal, assisted by J. T. HoltzclaAv,
Martin, DiUard and others. The constant firing of cannon and
the strains of music proceeded while the procession formed.
At length the column raoved, bearing many transparencies,
upon some of Avhlch were expressions taken from Yancey's
speeches, proceeding up Perry street to his residence. A
special coraraittee there waited on him and conducted him to
an open carriage, drawn by four white horses, while the people
greeted hiui with most enthusiastic and prolonged cheering.
By circuitous route the procession marched, receifing the
acclamations of the people on every side. At the corner of
Perry and Market streets the procession opened ranks and Mr.
Yancey's carriage drove through a wall of excited and most
demonstrative men. Already the large new theatre was
packed with ladies and gentlemen. At least two" thousand
flve hundred persons were left without about the doors. By
request of the ladies, they had been permitted to decorate the
stage, so that it was transformed into a gorgeous bower.
Upon the stage sat the Justices of the Supreme Court, tbe
Mayor, some grey-haired friends of the orator, Mr. Peachy
Gilmer, Dr. Wilson, Dr. James Taylor among thera, and the
Breckenrldge and Lane Club. On the appearance of Mr.
Yancey the audience rose, the ladies throwing gay bouquets
" until the floor about him was literally carpeted in their
prodigality, whUe the men vied with each other in vociferous
demonstrations." No sooner did the excitement lull than a
gentleman stepped on the stage, calling : " Three cheers for
the greatest orator of the world." A fresh outbreak of enthu
siasm prolonged the wonderful scene. Without, at the " bank
corner," Sanford, Chilton, Judge, and the eloquent Gresham
spoke, while the cannon at the basin continued to fire and the
overlooking balconies and windows were crowded with ladles
waving their handkerchiefs.
The friends of Mr. Yancey were quick to perceive an un
wonted languor of deUvery at the theatre. None had ever
seen him with the demeanor of weariness about him until now.
The speech was not a failure, but it was not lighted with
Yancey's familiar genius. None suspected that the seeds of a
fatal malady had been planted in his system and that his
career was nearly spent.

536 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
A nation's unparalleled ovations to a private citizen, offer
ing nothing to the people save his advice in troublous times,
thus closed. Whether the fourteen years of Mr. Yancey's
unofiicial activity in politics was, in eff'ect, a precipitation of
avoidable sectional collision, or was, so far as It had any effect,
the only available policy of avoidance of sectional collision, is
a question of evidence. There was never a time when any
appreciable part of the Southern people denied their attach
ment to the fundamental theories of goA'^ernment advocated by
him. There was never a doubt in any part of the Union that
all apologies for the politics he condemned, were apologies for
centralization of the powers of government.
Mr. Yancey's political judges taunted hira with inconsis
tency in accepting the policy of fusion of the enemies of the
Republicali party, at the North, in the autumn, which he had
rejected, at Charleston, in the spring. His speeches at the
North, upon which the criticism was based, were far less
urgent for fusion there than they were earnest in warning the
North of the resolution of the South. His raission there was
undertaken in full faith that a separation of the sections was
the probability of the situation ; and, in honest anxiety to ¦
moderate the possible collision, he devoted there his labor.
"A statesraan (says Burke), not losing sight of principles, is to
be governed by circumstances." Did the spring and the
autumn, of 1860, contain the same circumstances? The fact
of crisis In federal affairs is proven, (!) by the message of Mr.
Breckenrldge, approved by Mr. Bell, and borne to Mr. Douglas
by Mr. Davis, proposing the retirement of the three candidates
in order to allow the parties opposed to Lincoln to fuse, and
rejected by Mr. Douglas on the assumption that his own fol
lowing in the free States would. In that event, ally itself with
Lincoln ; (2) the election of Lincoln by a majority of the pop
ular vote in the States which controlled the Electoral College.
Yancey's philosophic interpretation of the conditions was
contained in a few direct and simple utterances. At New
Orleans he said:
" Discarding party, I favor that man on whom the South
can unite to defeat Lincoln. As rauch as I would deprecate
the election of either Bell or Douglas, I would hail either as
far preferable to Lincoln, if for nothing more, to give the South

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 537
a moment of respite. Some think Douglas is in secret combi
nation with Lincoln. I fear indeed that is the case. I wish to
God it were not so. Yet If that fusion ticket should elect
Douglas, let it be so ; not for his sake, but for the little good It
might do the country. The Bell papers throughout New York
received me with respect and parted with me with cordiality :
the Douglas papers received me with calumnies and parted
with me with lies."
A full vote was brought out, for the number of candidates,
each representing a phase of the question of the day, offered to
every voter an inducement to express his will.
THE POPULAR VOTE.
LINCOLN.
Slave States, 26,436. Free States, 1,834,995-.
Some votes for Republican electors were cast at the polls in
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, but in
no other slave State. Three-fifths of all so cast were cast In
Missouri. DOUGLAS.
Slave States, 163,526. Free States, 1,202,451.
The vote in Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey,
•originally favorable to Bell or Breckenrldge, consented to fuse
on Douglas. There were some Douglas men in South Caro
lina, but the Legislature of that State cast the electoral vote,
and the popular vote does not appear.
BKECKENBIDGE.
Slave States, 672,871. Free States, 277,082.
The Breckenrldge vote, credited to the free States came
almost wholly from the Atlantic States, even as the record
stands. There was a large vote in New York and New Jersey
favorable to Breckenridge's election, which, being fused on
Douglas, does not appear. The vote for Breckenrldge, in the
free States west of the AUeghenies, was about the vote Lincoln
ireceived in the slave States. BELL.
Slave States, 524,973. Free States, 65,658.
The Southern Douglas and Bell vote, if accepted as a
Union vote, shows there was a majority of 5,627 Unionists in
the slave States, provided the Breckenrldge votes be accounted

538 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
as by disunionists. Did the record show the voters friendly
to Breckenrldge, In New York and New Jersey, doubtless It
would appear that quite one-third of the popular support
elicited for the Southern side of the contention, by his candi
dature, came frora the free States.
The aggregate of the votes cast in the slave States on the
issues of the election was, 1,387,799. The aggregate in the free
States was, 3,480,186.
The males, of voting age in eighteen free States were,
tives, 5,387,980 ; foreign born, in the same States, 2,514,769-
THE ELECTORAL VOTE.
The Republican ticket received a majority of the popular
vote, over the combined vote for the opposition tickets, in six
teen free States, and the same States had a raajority of 17^
votes in the Electoral College. In addition, the RepubUcan
party carried California and Oregon by pluralities. Mr. Doug
las ^sserted, as has been shown in his Norfolk speech, that
Lincoln had no " showing " in any free State, save two, but, at
that moment, every free State actually maintained a Repub
lican party government of its own, and, voting for the Repub
lican Presidential ticket, in November, it merely confirmed Its
political position. Mr. Douglas also asserted, in his Norfolk
speech, that the "Breckenrldge Democracy" had dissolved the
party, whereas the election returns proved no State was safely
Democratic save the Breckenrldge States.
Missouri, of the slave States, and New Jersey, of the free
States, alone cast their electoral votes for Douglas — the former
by a very small plurality over Bell, the latter by a fusion with
Bell and Breckenrldge. Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky aud
Tennessee cast their electoral vote for Bell. All the other
slave States voted for Breckenrldge and all the other free
States for Lincoln.
It is thus placed beyond dispute that, the rupture of the
Democratic party in the campaign did not elect the Repub
lican ticket, nor in any manner disturb the pre-existing causes
which led to the success of that ticket. Lincoln gained, in
1860, the State of Pennsylvania, and success, as Fremont lost
the same State, in 1856, insuring his defeat. The result of
the election contained no apology for t'ne Western men at

THE PEOPLE DECIDE. 539'
Charleston nor for their conduct in banishing the Alabama
and Louisiana delegations at Baltimore.
The Breckenrldge and Bell vote of the South, comprising
seven-eighths of the vote cast in this section, was to maintain
the theory laid down by the leader of the Bell men, Benjamin
H. Hill, of Georgia, in 1860 :
"Protection to the person and property of the citizen is the
first duty of every government and it is the whole and sole
power of the government of the United States."
The Lincoln and Douglas vote of the North was cast in
full sympathy with the counter proposition, announced by Mr
Lincoln in a speech at Cincinnati, September, 1860 :
"This government is expressly charged with the duty of pro
viding for the general welfare. We believe the spreading and
perpetuity of slavery impairs the general welfa,re. * * To
repress this thing is, -we believe, providing for the general wel
fare." '
Mr; Yancey was sumraoned to attend a meeting of citizens
at Estelle Hall, Montgomery, the evening following Lincoln's
election. Distinguished men of all parties were there, some
from distant parts of the State. Anxiety, chagrin and deter
mination sat on every face. Governor Moore spoke in fervid
tones ; N. H. R. Dawson spoke most eloquently ; Pettus fol
lowed ; Clanton spoke bravely ; Watts said, " We (the Southern
States) will go out together "; Goldthwaite said, " We will act
together ; " Yancey said :
"In the contingency that consultation shall not produce
concert, what then ? Shall we, too, like the delaying States,
linger in the portals of the government? Shall we remain
and all be slaves? Shall we wait to bear our share of the
common dishonor ? God forbid! (Tremendous applause.) Let
us act for ourselves. I have good reason to believe the action
of any State will be peaceable, will not be resisted under the
present or any probable future administration of public aff'airs.
I believe there will not be power to direct a gun against a
sovereign State. Certainly there will be no will to do so
during the present administration.* If the action of the State
*" Erring sisters go in peace" was the ordinary ejaculation ol the free States
press. The New York Tribune ol November 9, 1860, said : " We hope never to live
m a Union whereof one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets.'^' November 16,.
the same paper said: "If the flfteen slave States, or even the eight cotton States.

-540 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
be resisted, bloodshed will appeal to blood throbbing in South
ern hearts. Our brethren from every Southern State will
fiock to defend a sister State threatened by mercenary bayo
nets. To do one's duty is the highest aim in life :
" 'Tis uot the whole of life to live.
Nor all of death to die."
"(Tremendous applause.)"
" Better far to close our days by an act of duty, life's aims
fulfilled, than to prolong them through the years weighed
down with corroding remembrance that we tamely yielded to
our love of ease, or our unworthy fears, that noble heritage
which was transmitted to us through toil, sufferings, battle,
victory, to go down, unimpaired, to our posterity. As for my
self, rather than live on subject to a government which breaks
the compact at will and places me in a position of inequality,
of inferiority to the Northern free negro, though that life be
illustrated with gilded chains, by luxury and ease, I would in
the cause of my State gather around me some brave spirits
who, however few in number, would find a grave which the
world would recognize, ray countrymen, as a modern Thermo
pylae." " (Vehement and prolonged applause.) "
alone, shall quietly, decisiveljr say to the rest, ' We prefer to be henceforward sep
arated from you,' we shall insist that they be permitted to go in peace." November
30 the same paper said : " If the cotton States unite with South Carolina in seceding,
we insist that they cannot he prevented and that the attempt must not he made. '
The New York Herald said, November 23 : " Coercion, in any event, is out of the
-question. A Union held together by the bayonet is out of the question."

THIRD DIVISION,
1861-1864.

CHAPTER 24.

Secession of Alabama.

1861.

Demosthenes appealed to the assembly of the whole people
of Athens : " Philip has violated the treaty ; he is in a state of
hostility with you ; unless you shall affirm that he who pre
pares to besiege a city is still at peace, until the walls be
actuaUy invested. The man whose designs, whose whole
conduct tends to reduce me to subjection, that man is at war
with me, though not a blow hath yet been given nor a sword
drawn." Yancey had now entered upon a fresh plane of
leadership. He had been speculative and persuasive ; he had
prompted and compelled ; now he must lay the plans and
point out the way for the vigorous pursuit of his policies.
He had already put before the people of his State the fact of
the invasive course of the Republican party, as the Athenian
had put before the assembled power of his city the evidence of
the conquering march of Philip. Before the progress of the
Republican party, every Constitutional guarantee, coveted by
the South, was swept away ; along the advance of the Mace
donian toward Athens, conquered cities alone remained.
An account of Mr. Yancey's oratory does not require an
analytical exposition of the peaceful right of secession from a
Confederacy of sovereign States, voluntarily formed for specific
objects, because, as has already been said, he did not devote
much argument to that aspect of his policies. He never left a
¦suspicion, however faint, upon the minds of his hearers, of his

544 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
own firm reliance upon the abstract -right of secession, but his
public utterances were devoted to the evidences of approaching
subjugation of the slave States by the free States and to
appeals to the imperiled society to awaken to its duty of self-
defense. In theory, no political reform was ever less revolu
tionary than the act of secession by the several States, who
resorted to the policy, in 1860-61. When Pennsylvania
appointed Deputies to the Continental Congress, of 1774, they
were Instructed to forget not " the sole and exclusive right of
the people of this colony to regulate the internal government
and police of the same." When Virginia, first of colonies in
the movement, instructed her Deputies to the same Congress,
in 1776, to vote for Independence, she attached the protocol i
"Provided, That the power of forming government for and
regulations for the internal concerns of the colony be left to
respective colonial Legislatures." It is instructive to remera
ber, furthermore, that these and many other evidences exist to
prove that the theory of federation of sovereign States, under
written corapact, was not " struck off' at a given time." It Is
quite certain that the delegates to the Convention, of 1787^
" struck off' " an instrument, not so much in accord with their
individual preconceptions of an organic law, for a nation, as in
concession to their appreciation of the will of their several
States. There is abundant evidence that, could they have
hoped for success at home, they would have created less of a
Union and more of an Empire. The Convention, having been
called at the Instance of Virginia, the leaders of the movement
In Virginia, being delegates, felt „the obligation resting on
them to lay the foundation of Its work at the outset. Accord
ingly, as the result of nuraerous suggestions raade by General
Washington, Mr. Madison wrote, in advance, what is known as
the Virginia " plan," off'ered to the Convention by the eloquent
Edraund Randolph. This plan was substantially founded on
the declaration of Washington when laying down his sword, at
Annapolis, four years before, that he would devote the re
mainder of his life to assist the people to establish the
Confederacy, which he did not believe could be maintained.
Hamilton, avowedly in favor of a Umited monarchy, introduced
a "plan," following the failure of the Virginia plan to pass.
These two plans, advanced by the men of greatest weight in

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 545
the Convention, were supported by tbe raen of widest reputa
tion, notably by Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and Charles Cotes
worth Pinckney, of South Carolina.* The plans of Virginia
and of Hamilton, and the debates in the Convention, on the
various motions made, show that a sincere attachment to the
centralized theory of government prevailed among Individual
members, and was restrained from expression, in the Consti
tution, only by a well grounded fear that, rejection by the
separate States would be the fate of the organism, founded on
that theory. Among many examples of motions, of a corre
lated character, one came frora Mr. Charles Pinckney, from
South Carolina, the correspondent of Jefferson and the most
advanced of the Southern advocates of a federal systera, in
contradistinction to a national or centralized system. Mr.
Pinckney argued that Congress should have tbe power of veto
over State legislation. Mr. Madison supported Mr. Pinckney's
motion ; Mr. Pierce Butler moved that the State judiciary
should exist only as inferior tribunals of a federal judiciary,
and Mr. Butler, too, was of the Southern federal, or antl-
natlonal school. The Eastern delegates were consistent and
resolute opponents of centralization. Nor had the leading
men of the East looked without suspicion upon the Convention
and the motive of Virginia in demanding it. Several years
before, when the Legislature of Massachusetts, annoyed by the
Inefficiency of the commercial regulations of the several States,
requested its Deputies in the Congress to demand a Convention
of all the States to rcAdse the commercial powers of the
Confederation, the Deputies returned the letter of instructions,
refusing to obey, and alleging, for cause, that " the Southern
aristocracy would ask for no better opportunity to destroy the
States and erect an empire than a Convention of States."
The two plans for a strong national government having
failed, in convention, Mr. HamUton, Mr. Jay and Mr. Madison^
fearing the refusal of the States to accept the Seven Articles,
wrote, in concert of understanding, the exhaustive letters to-
the people known, in their collected form, as " The Federalist."'
The name of the volume was intended to explain the character
* A confidential correspondence between Gouverneur Morris, a member of the
Convention, and General Nathaniel Greene, published by Sparks, quotes Morris as
saying ; " I have no hope that our Union can subsist, except in the form of an abso
lute monarchy."

35

646 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
of the letters — federal In argument, rather than national.
They were written, not to vindicate the preference of the
authors for a federal form of government, but to explain truth
fully and to advise the people to accept the federal form the
Convention had fraraed. Hamilton wrote the introduction,
recommending the Constitution, among other reasons, because
of " Its analogy to your own State Constitution ; and, lastly,
because of the additional security which Its adoption will
afford to the preservation of that species of government," etc.
But the States yet remained jealous of their autonomy. By a
majority of one only, after three days debate, did the South
Carolina Legislature consent to call a ratifying Convention.
Eawllns Lowndes, one of the three colonial Justices of the
Court of Oyer and Terminer, declared in the Convention that
he asked for but one epitaph on his tomb, and that was :
" Here lies a man who voted against the Constitution of the
United States." Protocols were attached to the Ordinance of
ratification, araong others, declaring. In substance, the necessity
of " an alteration" of the Constitution, to confoi-m to the Ninth
and Tenth araendments finally adopted ; also, that the "rights
of prescribing the manner, tirae and place of holding elections
to the federal Legislature should be forever inseparably an
nexed to the sovereignty of the several States." The hesitancy
of Pennsylvania was protracted and earnest. Not until Judge
W ilson, a pronounced nationalist, who sat in the Philadelphia
Convention, had succeeded in persuading the State Convention
to hope that " instead of placing the State governments In
jeopardy, this federal system is founded on their existence,"
did the latter body consent to an Ordinance of ratification.
Massachusetts hesitated and argued with greatest anxiety.
She ratified at last " a corapact," demanding " the following
alterations," all founded upon the principles contained in the
Ninth and Tenth amendraents. The Virginia Convention, 168
delegates, Washington, Marshall, Madison, Lee, Henry, Mason,
Wythe, Randolph, indeed, all of the great men of the State,
deliberated three weeks and consented, by a majority of ten, to
ratify, attaching protocols to the Ordinance demanding altera
tions ; and even then, on the demand of Patrick Henry, laying
down the proposition that the powers granted, being derived
from the people, " may be resumed by them whensoever the

' SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 547
•same shall be perverted to their Injury or oppression." New
York deliberated long and anxiously, and finally attached to its
Ordinance of ratification, protocols demanding alterations ; and
repeated, in effect, the proposition of Virginia, that " the
powers of government may be re-assuraed by the people when
soever it shall becorae necessary to their happiness." The
thirteenth State in order of ratification, Rhode Island, consent
ing only after the government, under the Constitution, had
gone into operation, attached eighteen protocols to her Ordi
nance, one of which declared : " That the powers of govern
ment may be resumed by the people whensoever it shall
become necessary to their happiness ; * * and that those
clauses in the Constitution which declare that Congress shall
not have or exercise certain powers, do not imply that Congress
is entitled to any powers not given by the said Constitution,"
etc. "A so-called Republican" had been elected to the Presi
dency ; and this was the provocation which the Legislature,
with a practicaUy unanimous vote, had determined should
place upon Governor Moore the duty of calUng a sovereign
Convention of Alabama, In forty days after the fact. But how
was the Governor to know of the election? That the Gov
ernor understood the calling of a Convention meant secession
— that the act of the Legislature requiring him to call it meant
secession — there could be sraall roora for doubt. The Gov
ernor had cheerfully approved the act and had declared his
concurrence in the policy of secession. Yet the Secessionists
were anxious. Unionists suddenly cropped out everywhere.
Would Governor Moore decide that a " so-called Republican "
had been elected to the Presidency when the electors were
chosen, in November? Or would he decide that the actual
casting of the vote of the electors in College, in December,
would alone elect a President ? Or would he decide that the
counting of the votes of the College, by the vice-President, in
February, alone would give that validity to the election which
the act of the Alabama Legislature contemplated ? A meeting
of prominent Secessionists promptly assembled at Montgomery
to consider the duty of the Governor, under the authority
Tested in him. Pettus, Dawson, Phelan, GUchrist, Clarke,
Watts, Clayton, Yancey and many others attended. Lead by

548 . THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
John A. Elmore, a Coraraittee of Twenty-one was appointed
to wait on the Governor to ascertain his purposes. Saturday,
November 12, was the day the call was made, and the Gov
ernor's answer was promised the following Monday. The
answer came, promising that the Proclamation summoning a
sovereign Convention of the People would be issued two days
after the vote of the electors in College had been cast, should
it be ascertained a " so-called RepubUcan " had received the
majority. The secession campaign opened with the Mont
gomery meeting. The Governor issued bis Proclamation,
December 7, calUng on the counties to elect delegates on
December 24, to assemble January 7, In the hall of the House
of Representatives. A canvass of two weeks might have been
extended to one of three weeks, to have brought the election
for delegates and the meeting of the Convention, within the
limit of forty days prescribed by the act of the Legislature,.
even upon the Governor's Interpretation of the time at which
the " so-called Republican " had been chosen President.
The campaign, of 1860, for President, had planted a domi
nating Union sentiment in the free States and had awakened
in the slave States a wide spread belief in the indissoluble
nature of the Union. Public appreciation of the effects of the
campaign or, at least, of the revelations of the Union senti
ment, as a result of the campaign, was very marked in
Alabaraa. The superb eulogies of Mr. Yancey, wherever he
had spoken. South or North, upon a Constitutional Union^
were grateful to the people, even to minds most appreciative
of his notes of warning of approaching, yet, possibly, remote
danger to our beautiful and complex form of government.
There was, doubtless, no alternative for the orator. In 1851
he had made the issue direct, and had failed. Then he had
said : " What folly to cover up — to try to conceal — this
mighty issue. Whoever attempts to crush it will himself be
crushed by the march of events. It is time to avow what
you mean by resistance." Now, Mr. Robert Jemison, under
whose lead the Legislature, only ten months before, passed
resolutions declaring the Charleston Convention should be
disrupted under the very conditions which had effected its
disruption ; and had passed an act to be construed only as

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 549
summoning a secession convention, was a candidate for a seat
in the Convention as an unconditional Unionist.
The Unionists of Alabama entered the brief campaign for
delegates to the Convention, substantially, on the following
propositions : The day of small governments has passed :
Disintegration of social forces is counter to the spirit of the
times : If secession succeeds, the road to success will require
the sacriflce of slavery : If secession fails, anarchy will follow.
Replying, inversely, to these propositions, the Secessionists
said : Revolution is accomplished in the election of the can
didate of a revolutionary party : If slavery is to be abolished,
the property of the country, the lives of the women and
children, reqtiire that emancipation shall be executed by the
masters : Secession is not disintegration, empire Is disinte
gration : Secession preserves the atom, the unit, the State,
and when the State remains free and prosperous and happy. In
the nature of things, it will seek Union, and disintegration
becomes possible only when sovereign States have been con
solidated into an empire destined to be broken Into fragments
by the contention of forces generated within Itself : Secession
does not contemplate numerous sraall governraents, but one
powerful Confederacy, whose Avealth, already attained, and
whose undeveloped resources surpass. In present value and In
promise, the possessions of any one of the greatest nations of
modern times.
Considering the meaning of the November elections of
President and raembers of Congress, the two parties, in
Alabama, drew opposite conclusions from thera. The Union
ists argued that General Taylor, when elected President,
entertained the same views on slavery and State Rights that
Mr. Lmcoln was known to entertain, and that the vice-Presi
dent, Mr. Fillmore, was an avowed Abolitionist who succeeded
to the offlce of Chief Executive and held it for three years, yet
at the next election, General Pierce, a State Rights Democrat,
favorable to every asserted right of the South, in the Union,
had been chosen by a Northern vote so large that the vote of
the South was not necessary to eff'ect the result. The Union
ists recurred, with hope, to the fact, that, in the House of
Representatives, coming into power with Mr. Lincoln, there
would be a majority of thirty against the Administration.

550 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
There could be no objection to the tariff laws, from the South
ern standpoint, for they were below the revenue standard.
The Unionists would wait to see what these things, that had
occurred, really meant.
The Secessionists replied. Inversely, that the Republican
party Avas pledged to repeal the low tariff laws and to-
establish an unconstitutional system of protection to the
sectional industries; that the alleged raajority of thirty, or
any other, in the House, was a Northern raajority, opposed
to Southern rights, whether chosen on the platforra upon
which Mr. Lincoln had come into offlce or upon the plat
form of Mr. Douglas ; and, moreover, that in every instance
where a majority in the House had appeared, since 1846,
friendly to the Constitutional rights of the South, it had been
swept away by the revenge of the Northern voters at the next
ensuing election ; that Mr. Lincoln was a Whig, the sympa
thizer of Mr. Seward, the originator of the doctrine of the
irrepressible conflict of the social systems of the sections and
the supporter of the " higher law " theory, as contradistin
guished from the obligatory nature of the compromises of the
sections, and that, as President, he would control Congress, if
necessary to the supremacy of his party, in legislation hostile
to the South ; that the support given to General Pierce, by the
free States, not applying, logically, as the Unionists now
applied it, had been followed, nevertheless, by a vote for
Fremont almost great enough to elect hira, at the next oppor
tunity — a vote now brought to its logical completion in the
election of Lincoln. The Secessionists argued that, history
supported their announcement of revolution actually accom
plished. History vindicated secession. History repeated itself.
Free and independent States fell, one after another, before the
march of Philip. Yet there were favorite orators at Athens,
who assured the people there was no danger. In this con
dition of feebleness of public opinion, Demosthenes began the
delivery to the convention of the citizens of Athens, which
made their laws, those immortal orations appealing to reason
and love of glory, by which Athens was aroused to resist^
even if too late, the crafty policy of the Macedonian king.
"It is only our conduct toward Philip, not Philip's conduct
toward us (he said) that Is to be termed a peace ; and this

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 551
is the peace which leaves him the liberty to carry on war
against you while you make no war against him. * * He
would, indeed, be the absurdest of mankind If, Avhlle you
suffer his outrages to pass unnoticed and are AvhoUy engaged
in accusing and prosecuting one another, he should, by de
claring war, put an end to your private contests and warn you
to direct all your zeal against him."
The polls, for the Convention, were opened in inclement
weather, in the Christmas holidays. The vote cast was not
heavy — 25,000, perhaps, less than the hot campaign of the
months before had brought out. The full number of delegatesj
one hundred, were chosen. Fifty-four per cent, of the whole
vote, cast in November, had been for Breckenrldge and, singu
lar enough, fifty-four of the delegates chosen were found to
be Secessionists. Yancey and Watts were elected by Mont
gomery county.
The hotels, at Montgoraery, were filled a day or two before
the time fixed for the opening of the Convention. It soon
appeared that the forty-six delegates, not classed as Secession
ists, were nearly equaUy dlA/ided between Co-operationists, or
those favoring a conference of the slave States, before decisive
action by Alabama, and unconditional Unionists. The two
factions, of the opposition, met on Sunday in joint caucus, in
the hotel, uncertain whether their strength was sufflcient to
control the organization of the Convention or not. The caucus
count of heads exposed the minority of eight in their ranks.
Seeing how strong they were, one of the Unionists exclaimed ;
" Mr. Yancey can save the Union by the wave of his hand."
While the delegates were en route they heard of the capture
of the United States forts, Morgan and Gaines, and the Mount
Vernon arsenal, all on Alabama soil, by Governor Moore for
the State. They heard, too, that Associate Justice John A.
Campbell, of the federal Supreme Court, privately denounced
the (Tovernor's act as treason, declaring he should be arrested.
General W. .0 Butler, of MobUe, even in advance of the Gov
ernor's orders, acted an important part in the capture of the
forts. The Convention was called to order in greatest solemnity.
The galleries and lobbies were crowded with gentlemen and
ladies. Mr. Yancey rose, immediately, to move that, on that

552 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
day, and each day thereafter, the session of the body should
be opened with prayer, and that Rev. Dr. Basil Manly, former
President of the University of the State, be invited to perform
the office for that occasion. Among the special petitions of
Dr. Manly's prayer was : " Lord of all the families of the
earth, we appeal to Thee to protect us in the land Thou hast
given us, the institutions Thou hast established, the rights
Thou hast bestowed."
The counties being called, for enrollment of the names of
delegates, at the call, " Montgomery," Messrs. Yancey and
Watts advanced to the Secretary's desk, arm in arm. Loud
applause rang out, from all parts of the flooi and galleries.
Mr. John T. Morgan, a delegate from Dallas, rose to protest.
The demonstration was untimely. It detracted from the sol
emnity of the occasion. It must Impress delegates unfavora
bly, who were anxious for the utraost harmony. A delegate
repUed, that the demonstration of feeling was just and proper
for the occasion. Two distinguished leaders of the people,
lately opposed to each other, were now reconciled upon a
single course. When Alabaraa could behold two such raen,
hand in hand, swear to defend her honor, the whole State and
the whole world might well consent to applaud. This was
the first of those severe jars between the raost eloquent
Secessionists of the body — Yancey and Morgan — which, as
the sessions advanced, becarae a feature of its deliberations.
Williara M. Brooks, of Perry, Secessionist, a distinguished
lawyer, a graduate of the South Carolina College, was chosen
President of the Convention, over Robert Jemison, LTnionist, a
gentleman, as I have already said, of extraordinary ability in
politics and In practical enterprises.
The chair appointed a Committee on Ordinance, thirteen
members, with Yancey chairman, six Co-operationists and
Unionists and seven Secessionists. A. A. Coleman, of Sumter,
a graduate of Yale, and one of the ablest of the Judiciary
officers of the State, took rank next after the chairman among
the Secessionists of the Committee ; Jere Clemens, of Madison,
an ex-Senator, an author and brilliant orator, lead the oppo
sition in committee.
Mr. Yancey entered the Convention with a perfect appre
ciation of what was expected of him by friend and foe. He

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 553
knew the strength of the Co-operationlsts and knew what
" co-operation " meant, with some individuals of the faction,
and what it meant with others. He did not forget that "a
trial of the strength of the militia with the king's troops "
had been advised, before declaring Independence, by sorae
good men in Congress, and that some had voted against the
Declaration. He resolved to draw the line, wide, between
Secessionists and Co-operationlsts, at the outset, well con
vinced that a vigorous pursuit of this policy would ultimately
draw from the Co-operatlonlsts a considerable number who
were, at heart. Secessionists. '
Debate was quickly opened by a resolution from a delegate
from Calhoun County, pledging Alabaraa " not to submit or be
a party to the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President
and Hannibal Hamlin as vice-President of the United States
of America." The mover explained his object to be, " to ascer
tain definitely the sense of the Convention on submission or
resistance." The more pronounced Co-operationists protested
there were no " submisslonists " in their ranks, but they would
not be driven into a net. Mr. Jere Clemens spoke earnestly
against the resolution. He Avas no believer in peaceable seces
sion. No Uquid, but blood, had ever filled the baptismal font
of nations. Whoever believed a new nation could be born
without an appeal to the god of battles knew Uttle of tbe
springs of human nature. Yancey spoke for the resolution,
and endorsed the avowed object of the mover. All who could
not vote against submission " could have no feeling or princi
ple in common with him"; all who were ready to vote for
resistance " would be to him friends." The resolution, with
an immaterial amendment, was passed, unanimously, at an
other and near day.
On the second day, the Comralssloner of South Carolina,
Andrew P. Calhoun, was introduced to the Convention and
deUvered his raessage. A reorganization of the federal Union,
he said, was the desire of his State, which he had been author
ized to convey to Alabama. The unparalleled mineral and
agricultural resources of Alabama needed only the encourage
ment of a Constitutional Union of congenial sister States, to
elevate her, in their common prosperity, to a commanding
position in the Confederacy. Among the first acts of the

554 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Convention was^the commissioning of gentlemen, of the high
est character, to each of the slave States to invite their
co-operatlon In a Southern movement of resistance to the
usurpations of the Republican party. Intense excitement pre
vailed on the floor and in the lobbies. Telegraphic messages
from Alabama raerabers of Congress to the Convention, or to
the Governor or to prominent delegates, were received at
all hours. Indicating the course of the government and the
opinions of eminent raen at the national capital. The Com
missioners to the several States were watched with greatest
anxiety and the tone of their dispatches increased the con
fldence of the Secessionists. Arthur F. Hopkins and his
co-Comralssloner, F. M. Gilmer, to Virginia, reported Virginia,
through her Legislature, had declared no array, bent on South
ern subjugation, should pass over her soil. " Go out promptly
and all will be well," closed the message of these Commis
sioners. The Governor, in advance of the action of the Con
vention, requested the banks to suspend specie payments,
holding their coin for any possible emergency of the State.
He ordered the Cadet Corps of the University, under Com
mandant Caleb Huse, to appear at the capital, in full uniform,.
to parade before the Convention, persuaded that the whole
white male population of the State might be turned into an
army, the moment trained officers could be found to command
thera. Following the exaraple of the Alabama Governor, Governor
Perry, of Florida, ordered the forts of the United States, In
the vicinity of Pensacola, to be seized by State troops, before
the Florida act of secession had been consummated. To sus
tain his orders. Governor Perry called on Governor Moore for
troops. Mr. Yancey moved, in Convention, that five hundred
volunteers be placed under the orders of the Governor of
Florida and that $10,000 be appropriated to defray the neces
sary expenses of the force. Mr. Clemens resisted the raotion, as
he knew of no necessity for an arraed expedition from Alabama
to Florida. The Secessionists voted yea and the Co-operation
ists and Unionists nay, so the troops were sent. The ranks
were instantly filled with the fiower of the population. James
L. Pugh, Representative in Congress, E. C. Bullock, State
Senator, Henry D. Clayton, later President of the University,.

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. bbb-
of Alabaraa, took their places, with muskets on their shoulders,-
in the force which marched to Pensacola.
On the third day, the Committee on Ordinance not having
reported, a resolution was offered in Convention to submit the
final action of the Convention to the vote of the people. The
Secessionists voted the motion down. Messrs. Yancey and
Morgan opposed it, on the ground that the " people " of Ala
bama were then assembled In Convention ; that the question
of secession had been determined by the election of delegates ;
that a heated canvass of the State would divide and distract
the public mind, with no good result. Resolutions were passed
in quick succession confirming the act of Governor Moore, In
seizing the federal property, and pledging the State to defend
its volunteer soldiery against any proceeding of the United
States government. Mr. Coleman Introduced a resolution
committing Alabama to resist any attempt of the United
States to coerce a seceding sister State. This last raotion
brought out an extremely acrimonious debate. The more
resolute Co-operationists saw, in the whole series of motions
offered by their opporients, the skillful plan for forcing demor
alization of their ranks. Mr. Ernest, of Jefferson, was quite
willing to support the conduct of the Governor in seizing the
forts, but he would go no farther ; he considered the motion
to commit Alabama to resist the federal authority, beyond the
limits of Alabama, an attempt to commit the State to treason.
Mr. Morgan declared the motion before the Convention not
debatable, so imperative did the duty devolve on the State
to adopt It. When Alabama entered the Union, Congress
accepted her Constitution, declaring all power inherent in the
people — " that they have, at all times, an inalienable and
indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish their form of
government in such manner as they may think expedient." In
the Union, or out of the Union, Alabama raust accept war
against South Carolina as war against her. Her people, south
of the mountains awaited secession with anxiety ; her people
north of the mountains, were united not to submit. He would
wait a month to reconcile these currents of conflicting opinion,
but he would pass the resolution as notice to a comraon eneray
that Alabama was not deceived. Mr. Dowdell read a dispatch
announcing that the United States steamer Harriet Lane,.

556 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
attempting to provision Fort Sumter, had been fired upon by
South Carolina batteries and forced to retire. Messrs. Jemison
and W. R. Smith entered the debate. They regretted to see
the disposition of the majority to force the minority. They
would acknowledge the appeal to the hearts of the Convention
in the motion before it, but the judgment should resist it. Mr.
Smith said a delay of a day was asked for and was about to
be refused. It would do Uttle to exalt the pride or comfort the
feelings of South Carolina to know that a small raajority of
the Convention had pledged Alabaraa to her support. It
would be rather an insult ; the apple of gold without was,
indeed, ashes to the core. He believed firmly that this ma
jority which bound the Convention represented only a minority
of the people of the State.
Mr. Yancey rose, his countenance showing the utmost
animation. He spoke for thirty minutes in raost veheraent
invective. The Issue presented by Mr. Coleraan's resolution
was not to be disguised by soft words. Alabama would secede.
A majority of one in the Convention was sufflcient to express
the fullness of the power and the majesty of the sovereign
State. Henceforward, the people would know no majority and
no minority. State sovereignty would be the recognized unit.
Whoever opposed the State must throw oft' the garb of citizen
ship. There was a law of treason that defined treason against
Alabama. Whoever opposed the State were traitors, rebels
against constituted authority, should be considered accord
ingly and treated according to their deserts. There were
Tories in the old revolution and, although the Tories of to-day
might find aiders and abettors ih the AboUtionists, the God of
Battles and of Liberty would give Alabaraa the victory over
the unnatural alliance. The Convention was thrown into an
alarming excitement ; the merabers gathered in coteries and
business was, for the moment, suspended. Mr. Watts rose.
His feelings were deeply moved, for many of the delegates
upon whose heads his colleague had poured out a terrible
wrath, had been his political and personal supporters and
friends. " I regret extremely (he said) the tone of the speech
that has just been made by my colleague, Mr. Yancey. This
is no time for the exhibition of feeling or for the utterance of
denunciation." Mr. Jemison followed : " Sir, when the great

.SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 557
leader of the majority calls the minority Tories, denounces us
as traitors and pronounces upon us the doom of traitors, were
I to pass it in silence the world, properly, would consider me-
worthy of the title and the doora." Mr. Yancey said he had
referred to the unfounded allegation of ]\Ir. Sraith that the
majority of the Convention represented a minority of the
people and had argued that resistance to the Ordinances of the
CouA^entlon would be treason. Mr. Nich Davis replied at
length to Mr. Yancey. If the majority of the people were
found to be opposed to secession, an Ordinance taking Alabama
out of the Union " will be and ought to be resisted." For the
time, Mr. Coleman's resolution was passed over and the excited
body resumed its customary habits.
Mr. Watts' mortification was in the opportunity of Mr..
Yancey. The speech was not an ebullition of meaningless
temper. More than one-fourth of the delegates were avowed
Co-operationists. It was to them Mr. Yancey specially ad
dressed his invectlA'e. Mr. Coleman's resolution applied to
States, only, which might desire the co-operation of Alabama
as against other States. If Co-operationists were sincere, if
they were not masquerading behind a narae, the resolution of
Mr. Coleraan adapted Itself to their position in the Convention.
The speech was of Yancey's method of leadership, unchanging
for fourteen years ; It was " logic on fire," addressed in the
present instance to a select and limited body of raen, three-
fourths of whora confessed the necessity of action, iraraediate
or remote, positive or negative, while quite one-fourth were
disposed to linger on the perilous verge of public exigency.
The speech was, doubtless, the raore vehement, because Yancey
felt his influence in the Convention impinge against Morgan's
influence. The methods of the two potential men, whose aim-
was one, were at variance.
South Carolina passed an Ordinance, on December 20, I860,,
in a few sentences, revoking the Ordinance, of May 23, 1788,
ratifying the Constitution and consenting to the Union. Jan
uary 9, 1861, Mississippi passed an Ordinance resuming her
sovereignty, and the day following Florida passed a similar
Ordinance. On Thursday, January 10, the fourth day of the Alabama
Convention, the Committee on Ordinance, through its chair
man, Mr. Yancey, reported :

558 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
"An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the
State op Alabama and other States united under the
COMPACT STYLED : ThE CONSTITUTION FOR THE UnITED StATES
OU' America :
" Whereas, The election of Abrahara Lincoln and Han
nibal Haralin to the offlces of President and vice-President of
the United States of America by a sectional party avowedly
hostUe to the domestic institutions, and to the peace and
security of the people of the State of Alabaraa, preceded by
raany and dangerous infractions of the Constitution of the
United States by raany of the States and people of the North
ern section, is a political wrong of so insulting and raenaeing
a character as to justify the people of the State of Alabaraa In
the adoption of prompt and decided measures for their future
peace and security ; therefore
" Section 1. Be it declared and ordained by the people
OP THE State op Alabama in convention assembled. That
the State of Alabama uoav withdraws and is hereby withdrawn
from the Union known as the L^'nited States of America and
henceforth ceases to be one of said United States, and is and
of a right ought to be a Sovereign and Independent State.
" Sec. 2. Be it purthee declared and ordained by the
people op the State op Alabama in convention assembled.
That all powers over the Territory of said State and over the
people thereof heretofore delegated to the Governraent of the
United States of Araerica be and they are hereby withdrawn
from said Government, and are hereby resumed and vested in
the State of Alabaraa.
" Sec 3. Be it resolved by the people op Alabama in
convention assembled. That the people of the States of Del
aware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, I'lorlda, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mis
souri, Tennessee and Kentucky be and are hereby invited to
meet the people of the State of Alabama by their Delegates in
Convention on the Fourth day of February A. D. 1861, at the
city of Montgomery in the State of Alabama, for the purpose
consulting with each other as to the most effectual mode of
securing concerted and harmonious action in whatever meas
ures may be deemed most desirable for our common peace and
security.

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 559
"And be it further resolved. That the President of this
Convention be and is hereby instructed to transmit forthwith
a copy of the foregoing Preamble and Ordinance and Resolu
tions to the Governors of the several States naraed in said
Resolutions :
" Done by the People of the State of Alabama in Conven
tion assembled, at Montgoraery, on this the Eleventh Day of
January, A. D., 1861."
A rainorlty report was off'ered, signed by Messrs. Jere
Clemens, David P. Lewis, William O. Winston, A. KimbaU,
R. S. Watkins and Robert Jeraison, Inviting all the States
named In the majority report to meet, February 22, of the
same year, at NashvUle, " for the purpose of taking Into con
sideration the wrongs of which we have cause to complain,
the appropriate remedy thereof and the time and manner of
its application." To the minority report was appended a
lengthy memorandum of Instructions to the Alabama dele
gates to the proposed NashvUle Convention. The instructions
were substantially a synopsis of the Nebraska-Kansas Act, of
1854, and the platform of the Breckenrldge and Lane cam
paign, of 1860, to all of which was added the pledge, "and, in
the meantime, we will resist by all means at our command
any attempt on the part of the General Government to coerce
a seceding State." A protocol was attached demanding that
any Ordinance of secession passed by the Convention should
be submitted to the people for ratification.
WhUe the Convention deliberated on the two reports, the
Governor sent a message to it reciting that he had received by
telegraph, through the Governor of New York, a resolution
passed, on that day, by the Legislature pledging the federal
authorities aid, in "men and money," to subdue a seceding
State. Mr. Yancey moved the question of reception on the
telegram, and moved to lay that motion on the table. The
motion to table prevailed.
The minority report was rejected. Mr. Clemens moved to
amend the majority report so as to forbid the Ordinance to
"go into effect before the Fourth day of March, 1861, and not
then, unless the same shall have been ratified and confirmed
by a direct vote of the people." Messrs. Yancey and Morgan
discussed Mr. Clemens' amendment, opposing it as unjust to

560 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the people. The amendment was voted down, 62 to 37. Those-
who supported the amendment were at heart, as to the most
of thera, opposed to any action at all on the part of the Con
vention. They coraprlsed alraost the exact per centage of the
Convention that the vote for Bell and Everett, in November,
comprised of the total vote of the State cast for President.
It was now January 11. The majority report was put upon
its passage. Sixty-one, Including the President, voted, yea:
Thirty-nine voted, nay.
The scene was very Impressive and solemn, as the Conven
tion, In secret session, was about to poll the vote. The utmost
unanimity of opinion had been developed against the right
of the federal governraent to suppress secession by force.
Messrs. Jemison, Davis, Bulger, Sheffleld, Watkins, W. R.
Smith and other Whigs and Unionists rose and with dignity
aud deep feeling declared their purpose to urge their constitu
ents to a faithful allegiance to the State. Mr. William 0.
Winston had opposed secession, but, seeing the will of the
Convention manifest, he had written to his son, a cadet at
West Point, to resign and repair imraediately to Alabama to
offer his sword in the confiict, which must be inevitable. His
remarks deeply moved the delegates. By comraon consent,
Mr. Yancey closed the desultory discussion, before the call of
the roll. He said dift'erent sections of the Ordinance about to
be adopted, had a different history, which it would be well to
repeat, to show the harraony which had raarked the delibera
tions of the Committee. The majority " decidedly preferred "
a siraple Ordinance of a few sentences, declaring the State, by
its own act, resumed its original sovereignty.* But "his
friend, Mr. Clemens," on the part of the minority, desired to
prefix to the Ordinance a Preamble and to follow it with
certain Resolutions. The majority, therefore, "yielded their-
own cherished desire," which had been to present the soleran
act of the Convention free from all suspicion of apology. As
the result of the harmonious agreeraent of the Coraraittee,
incorporating both the Preamble and Resolutions, all parties
would be prepared to accept the Ordinance. The friends of
the remedy of separate State action and the Co-operationists
*The Ordinance preferred by the majority of the Committee was dra-wn by-
Judge A. A. Coleman, one of its members.

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 561
alike would now find Alabama pledged, not to remain an
independent sovereign — a monarchy, as some had feared —
but to seek a restoration of Union with sister States, prepared
by like Institutions and sentiments of the people, to live in
peace and prosperity together. He desired to say farther, in
regard to the defeated proposition to refer the Ordinance of
Secession back to the people for ratification, that, in his
opinion, the suggestion to refer was based on a misconception
of the relation of the Convention to the State. No powers
were reserved in the people, when the Convention met for
business. The Legislature might justly be expected to submit
certain of its acts to the people before declaring them law, but
the Legislature was not sovereign. The suggestion of popular
ratification Avas based on a mistaken view, too, of an enlight
ened and firm systera of government. The original thirteen
States, by their respective Conventions, had dissolved the old
" Confederation and Perpetual Union," and formed a " more
perfect Union" without the consent of the popular vote to
their Ordinances. It had been urged "by a venerable dele
gate" that the minority of the Convention, opposed to the
policy of secession, should not be pressed to sign the Ordi
nance. He would beseech delegates to remember the claims
of Alabama. Absence of signatures would be understood by
the members of the Convention, who had just heard the
patriotic utterances of those who proposed not to sign. But
the dignity, strength and unity of the State should command
the careful consideration of delegates. The light in which its
enemies would Adew its act on this monientous occasion was a
just subject of anxiety to every patriot within its bounds.
The eyes of the world should now behold Alabaraa united,
with the pledge of all its people to live for or die for the State.
The roll was now called. By common consent, as Mr.
Clemens' name was reached, he rose delivering a brief but
beautiful and animated address, closing with the exclamation :
"/ vote in the affirmative ! "
Across the rotunda, from the hall where sat the Conven
tion, in the Senate Chamber, while the Ordinance was upon its
passage, a highly excited meeting of citizens — ladies and
gentlemen — were entertained by distinguished speakers. So
loud was the uproar that the delegates were in easy hearing of

36

562 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
it. With the close of the proceedings on the Ordinance of
Secession the doors of the hall of the Convention were thrown
open, Instantly the throng frora the corridors and porches,
and the crowd from the Senate Charaber, rushed In, cannon
planted on the grounds belched forth, the cheering became
indescribable, within and without the building. A flag, gor
geous and of great proportions, was flxed by its staff In the
centre of the hall of the Convention and stretched out Its
full length by delegates' hands. As soon as quiet was
adequately restored, Mr. Yancey, in the name of the ladles
of Montgoraery, presented the flag to the Convention In
one of his most animated addresses. The fair donors, he said,
had conceived the design and manufactured with their own
hands the first flag of Alabama. A resolution was at once
passed formally accepting It and requiring that it should be
raised frora the dome of the Capltol. Mr. Alpheus Baker, of
Barbour, spoke, accepting the flag for the Convention, In
exceeding eloquence. Mr. WUliam R. Smith, of Tuskaloosa,
spoke, declaring " the daughters of Alabama thus endeavor to
impart to our veins the burning currents of their oavu enthu
siasm." In the raorning paper Mr. Smith published a sonnet
of exquisite pathos, " To the Flag of Alabama."
The Ordinance of Secession, on parchment, was ordered
left open on the Secretary's desk that delegates might attach
their signatures at will. The same rule had been observed
with the Declaration of Independence. One of- the signers,
for example, Charles Carroll, of CarroUton, did not become a
member of the Congress until many weeks after the first
signatures had been attached to the Declaration. Signatures
were, from time to time, attached to the Ordinance , until
nearly four-fifths of the names of the raerabers appeared upon
it. Twenty -four members, led by William R. Smith, declined
to sign, avowing their devotion to the State should be perfect,
but, yet unpersuaded of the correctness of its course, they
would not appear to posterity In concurrence with It. The
twenty-four non-signers were all from the hill country, the
stronghold of the Democratic party. There was no steam
transit between the northern and southern counties. When
the United States declared war, a few months later, against
the Confederate States, the policy of organizing the upper

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 563
counties into a " loyal " State was openly discussed among
them. No leader appeared. The temper of the war party. In
the free States, soon expelled hope from the minds of intelli
gent men, well disposed towards the Union, of the safety of
Constitutional gsvernraent under it.*
The Convention lost no time in proceeding to acts of legis
lation. Mr. Thomas J. Judge was dispatched to Washington
to negotiate with the governraent of the United States, first,
ior an adjustment of the share of Alabama in the public debt
and a settlement of the claims of the United States on the
forts and arsenals, on Alabama soU ; next, to determine the
future relations of Alabama toward that governraent. The
President declined, in a courteous raanner, through Senator C.
C. Clay, Jr., to see the Alabama Commissioner, save " as a
¦distinguished citizen."
The selection of Mr. Judge, wise in itself, became signifi
cant of the action of the Secessionists, in the early and
persistent promotion of recent Unionists in the new order of
affairs. This policy was too bold, in the extent to which It
was pursued, to be fruitless of decisive results. The purely
Intellectual problem of governraent which, in the Constitution-
making period had divided Federalists and Nationalists, which
in the Constitution-construing period had separated Demo
crats from Whigs, Secessionists frora Unionists, was hot
forgotten by the actors of the day and was not to be elirainated
from the conditions of the day. It is only necessary here to
record the fact of amalgamation, sudden and thorough, of the
personnel of the old parties in the re-organlzatlon of the federal
polity of the slave States. It Is necessary, too, to relate that
while the triumphant Deraocratic party doctrine installed the
Secessionists in power, Whigs and Unionists, from the outset,
left indelible impressions upon a new government, whose
advent they had deplored as a breach of public policy. Hardly
*It so happened that it became my duty in the winter of 1861-2 to traverse on
horseback the mil counties of -Alabama, sitting at the tables of the people, sleeping in
their beds and trv'ing their temper towards the Confederacy by inviting them to vol
unteer in its armies. I saw no man, young or old, not even the poorest, who by word
or act, professed any other than loyal devotion to the Confederacy. Indeed, among the
earliest volunteer regiments of the Confederacy were regiments from the hill coun
ties, whole companies appearing in which no soldier owned a slave. Consideration of
this loyal attachment lead not a few of the political and military leaders ol the Con
federacy, Mr. Yancey among them, to recommend a prompt invasion of the United
States at the outset of the war, a resort to preserve the spirit of that part of the
home population, once disaffected toward the policy of secession, but, when war
•came, sincerely devoted to the fortunes of the Confederate States.

564 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
a practical question of government which had risen in the
United States, from the beginning, could be avoided by the
government of a Southern Confederacy. Granted, that all alike
were hopeful and resolute, the hope and resolution of some
was in the present climax of a party policy, pursued from the
beginning ; and of others In the possible turn of public opinion
backward. So it came to pass that, while a large part of the
Convention believed the success of the course upon which the
State had entered required the continued leadership of those
who had Initiated it, a majority preferred re-organization of
forces without regard to the [Ipast political syrapathies of
strong and honest leaders. Those In the lead, heretofore,
raust be pulled back a little ; those in the rear, pushed up a
little to the comraon alignment. It was a subtle question, a
very grave proposition of statecraft, overhanging an unparal
leled emergency.
In this condition of mind, the Convention asked of itself,.
how shall the nine deputies apportioned to Alabaraa, in the
forthcoraing Congress of seceded States, be chosen? Those
delegates who had deraanded the popular vote upon the Ordi
nance of Secession, now demanded a popular election of dep
uties. It was at once perceived, however, that time was too
brief, until the meeting of the Congress, to permit a resort to
the polls. Mr. Morgan thought a fair compromise would be
reached in an election of deputies by the Convention, qualified
by an agreeraent not to choose any delegate then sitting nor
any member of the Legislature ; the Legislature being involved,.
already, in the act authorizing the call of the Convention and
the Convention being responsible for secession. He Avould
enlarge the responsibility for the order of things by calling
fresh actors upon the stage. He did not make a motion from
his place to that effect, but he made known his views to dele
gates, his friends, in an informal way. The opinions of many
delegates were quite fixed in support of Mr. Morgan's general
views, when Mr. Ernest, of Jefferson, a Co-operationist, with
out Mr. Morgan's consent, however, introduced a resolution
requiring the Convention to proceed to the choice of deputies,.
and providing that no delegate then sitting or legislator
should be chosen. Mr. Yancey heard of the talk among the
delegates, over Mr. Morgan's views. Not a few Secessionists

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 565
were anxious and even chagrined at the suggestion to cut short
the career of Yancey, as it was said, at the initial of the work
before him. An excited feeling on the fioor met Mr. Ernest's
resolution. Mr. Yancey attacked it with force. For the
ostensible object, he had only sincere respect, he said. It was
highly expedient that the State should receive the universal
support of the people in this crisis of its fortunes. But he
could not give his consent to a measure so impolitic. The
State was the Convention Itself, and vice versa. It would be
as logical to debar a citizen of Alabama from offlce, conferred
by the whole people of Alabama, as to debar a delegate from
•offlce conferred by the Convention. Gentlemen who supported
the resolution failed to appreciate the dignity of the Conven
tion and its just prerogatives. He knew what the argument
of gentlemen was — it was the argument of expediency. In
this they were mistaken. There were two hundred and thirty-
three of the foremost men of Alabama, delegates and legisla
tors. It was proposed that these men, already endorsed by
the people as men of wisdom, men of experience, men of
courage, should not be considered as available for members of
the Congress. In his judgment, the Convention should go
straight forward and direct to the duty before it. The list of
ellgibles to so important a body as the Congress could not be
reduced, in the limited number of Alabaraa statesraen, by two
hundred and thirty-three, on the ground of expediency in the
public weal. The people would look to results. Results in
government were the fruits of Avisdom, or folly, in the choice of
men to make or execute the laws. Partial friends, he was free
to admit, had pressed him to become a eandidate for a seat in
the Congress, but he " had positively refused." He would pro
test, nevertheless, against any action of the Convention which
would deprive the State of the services of others, most able to
serve it, merely because their ability had been endorsed by the
people in those opportunities wherein the test could be best
applied. The resolution struck at the equaUty of citizenship.
It was both the right and habit of the people to call citizens
from one branch of the public service to another, and their
judgment in this particular was based on sound principle and
was supported by reason.

566 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Mr. Morgan replied In a spirited speech to Mr. Yancey.
The people had set the Convention the example, he said, and
he accepted It, even should It deprive the Congress of some
very erainent men. The people elected some of their number
to Congress, others to the Legislature, others to the Conven
tion. In its original organization, it was the rule of the
Legislature that it would chose none of its raembers to offlces
created by itself. He heartily approved the motive of the
resolution, and believed the rule It proposed should be adopted
by the Convention, but he had hoped that end would have
been accomplished informally, by mere tacit understanding.
He hoped the Convention would remain intact, as the people
had created it. The arguraent of Yancey prevailed. The
resolution of Mr. Ernest was rejected, 50 to 46. The views of
Morgan were accepted — by tacit consent, the deputies, save
two, were chosen frora citizens other than delegates or legis
lators. For the offlce of deputies, for the State at large, were
chosen, the Chief Justice, Richard W. Walker, of Huntsville,
and Robert H. Sraith, an eminent lawyer, of Mobile. To
represent the forraer Congress Districts, were chosen, Colin J.
McRae, of MobUe, John Gill Shorter, of Eufaula, William P.
Chilton, of Montgomery, Stephen F. Hale, of Eutaw, Jabez L.
M. Curry, of Talladega, David P. Lewis, of Moulton, and Dr.
Thomas Fearn, of HuntsvUle. The political antecedents of
the deputies indicated the conciliatory teraper of the secession
majority of the Convention toward their late opponents. Mr.
Curry, alone, had the experience of a Congressional career and
he alone had been a consistent meraber of the Deraocratic party.
Mr. Walker had been noralnated for Governor, eight years
before. In opposition to the Deraocrat and Secessionist, Win
ston, but so little was his political ambition that he paid no
attention to the honor. His experience In political life was
insignificant. Eight years before, Mr. Smith was a pronounced
and influential Whig — a member of the Legislature ten years
before, a supporter of Taylor, in 1848, and Scott, in 1852. Mr.
McRae was a cotton broker, unknown to political life. Mr.
Shorter was then, and had been long, on the Circuit ciaurt
bench, and was without experience of value for the moraent-
ous legislative duties to which he was unexpectedly called.
Mr. Chilton had a limited experience in the Legislature,

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 567
had been an active Unionist and Whig, for twenty or more
years, supporting Harrison, In 1840, Clay, In 1844, Taylor,
in 1848, Scott, in 1852, Fillmore, in 1856. Mr. Hale had
voted for Bell and Everett In the preceding November, and
had been a Whig opposed to secession, through successful and
unsuccessful political aspirations. In early life he was, for a
single session, a legislator, and re-appeared again in the
Legislature, holding a seat there when chosen to the Congress.
Mr. Lewis was never in political service, until elected as an
unconditional Unionist to a seat in the Convention. He
resigned his place in the Congress, and, in course of time, left
his home, went into the lines of the United States array and
there remained until the dissolution of the Confederacy. Dr.
Fearn had a limited experience in the Legislature, was devoted
to the exact sciences, was in full sympathy with his friend,
Mr. Lewis, in politics, was a septuagenarian, in bad health,
and soon resigned from the Congress. Death overtook him
before the dissolution of the Confederacy, hastened, it was
believed, by the rude oppression and personal Indignities
imposed upon him bythe troops of the United States. " With
a majority of one " Yancey would have imparted energy to the
secession movement, trusting to its merits to acquire volume.*
The Convention proceeded, in an animated way, to the
work it marked out for itself. Mr. Shortridge, Unionist,
moved that the message from the Legislature of New York be
now received, and, in response, the Convention pass an Ordi
nance confiscating the property of citizens of that State found
in Alabama, also all property of citizens of other States of the
United States whose Legislatures had pledged men and money
to assist in the subjugation of Alabaraa. W. R. Smith, Union
ist, off'ered a resolution declaring all the rivers, of the proposed
Southern Confederacy, should be open to free trade, with the
United States, and that in all respects the same free trade
that had prevailed between the States, in the Union, should
continue as heretofore. Mr. Yancey considered the motion of
Mr. Smith very suggestive. He would never consent to such
a policy in the present condition of affairs. When the South
ern Confederacy should be formed, it must hold in reserve its
* Messrs. Smith, Hale and Curry entered the Confederate army : Messrs. Walker,
Chilton and McRae entered the Confederate civil service. Mr. Shorter was elected
Govemor in 1861.

568 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
great commercial benefits as a basis of diplomacy. Alabama,
surely, should not take so Important a step in advance of the
meeting of the Congress. Secession meant ¦separation, " root
and branch." Discriraination, in favor of New England, would
necessarily be discrimination against old England. He ex
pected much from dlploraacy. The cotton States were in
position to realize rauch from that wise use of their advantages
which the comraercial powers would gladly accept. The
United States had its birth In the necessities of commerce.
Alabama should remember that the old Articles of Confeder
ation had been found inefflcient, chiefly because they permitted
the States to act precisely as Mr. Smith's resolution contem
plated the State of Alabama should now act. The Confederacy,
to be born, was the only authority that Alabama could afford
to trust with her commerce. The Confederacy should see to
it that comraerce, seeking the Southern ports, should be the
coramerce of friends and allies, and not that of enemies. He
would raeet public opinion of the Northwest on middle
ground. He would off'er a resolution favoring free navigation
of the Mississippi. He was not unmindful of the unfriendli
ness of the States of the upper Mississippi Valley to the
Southern States, but the normal coraraercial affinities of the
whole valley lead him to hope that the approaching Congress
would be able to remove partisan prejudices of the past,
between its geographical divisions. Mr. Smith's substitute to
the resolutions, concerning free trade between the States of
the United States and the proposed Confederacy, was laid on
the table. Mr. Yancey's resolution, amended slightly by Mr.
DoAvdell, favoring free navigation of the Mississippi, passed.
A committee reported an Ordinance to become " a supreme
law of the land " forbidding the African slave trade. Mr.
Henry C. Jones, Unionist, of Lauderdale, moved instructions
to the deputies to the Congress, requiring them to urge that
body to prohibit the importation of slaves " other than from
the States of the late United States of America." Speaking to
Mr. Jones' resolution, Mr. Morgan said, he would sooner pro
hibit the bringing of Christianized negroes from Virginia, as a
moral wrong, than forbid ship loads of savage slaves of savage
masters enter upon the plantations of Christian gentleraen of
Alabaraa, to be trained in labor and civilized customs. He

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 569
would vote for the amendraent of the report of the committee,
prohibiting the trade, solely on the ground of public policy.
PubUc policy had recommended the trade to our forefathers ;
pubUc policy now condemned it. It would be necessary that
the Congress should prohibit it to make prohibition eff'ective.
Mr. Smith, of Tuskaloosa, saw no reason for a declaration of
^'public policy" in the resolutions. He would prohibit the
trade as the most brutal comraerce men could engage In.
Besides, he wanted to see the way left open to the Avhlte men
to occupy the State. He had often been a candidate for office,
and had seen much of the sraall, non-slaveholding farmers.
They were good citizens, and'nearly all were living happily
and honestly. There could be no imraorality in the trans
formation of character the negro had undergone on the plan
tations. The black race had been greatly advanced, being
taught to live under a roof, tp live on wholesome diet, had
acquired a graceful, sinewy form and the stature of intellect
had advanced with all. But he would have no raore slaves in
Alabama. Solon looked far Into the future when he proposed
laws ; Lycurgus planned for a thousand years. " Sir (he said)
you are not merely opening the womb of emergencies that
great warriors, great orators, great poets, great statesraen raay
•spring out. You are not merely creating an era — an age that
may be an age of iron, an age of bronze, an age of gold, or an
age of blood. You are here for the loftiest of all purposes — to
build up a country for the lasting happiness and the perma
nent prosperity of the millions that inherit the land."
Mr. Yancey spoke to the resolution of Mr. Jones, at length.
No subject had been brought before the Convention, save the
question of secession, comparable to this resolution In impor
tance, he said. No public man had ever been allowed so little
beneflt from his own well defined positions as he, himself, on
this question. He was opposed to the trade. " Within the
allotted time of a life (he continued) simple skill applied to
cotton culture had amassed many a fortune. Within half a
century a plant culture, beginning with a narrow belt of sea
board, has opened fields from the fprests, extending in length
1,500 miles, and 500 in breadth, giving eraployraent to the
manufactures and commerce of the civilized world. Well, Mr.
President, might the statesman pause before he undertakes to

570 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
meddle with the foundations upon which this magnificent and
unparalleled prosperity rests. Well might visions of future
political aggrandizement melt away before the reality of pros
perity so grand and so amazing." The South, he continued,
had been greatly embarrassed in determining its duty, on the
question of maintaining its Institutions against hostile inter
ference, Avlthln the Union. There had never been a public
opinion favorable to the African slave trade In the South, but
sorae good raen, seeing no hope of preserving their rights in
competition with the organized rush of Europeans to the
comraon domain, otherwise, had adAused the trade. Not more
than 500 negroes had been landed in the cotton States from
Africa, to the best of his information. The people of tho
South, too, had been goaded to defy laws denouncing that
trade to be piracy, which the framers of the Constitution had
specially protected against all possible interference for twenty
years. But, secession had determined a fixed policy. The
Confederacy would need no additions to its slaves from fresh
importations. The Mississippi Valley could produce, even,,
ten millions of bales of cotton, by the labor of the slaves
already In the country. He would be glad to assure the
border States of perfect freedom frora African competition In
the slave market. He would be glad to Invite thera into the
Confederacy on those terras. He foresaw danger in the atti
tude of the border States tTiwards the Confederacy. Should
those States fail to secede, knowing the fate of slavery in the
Union, they would hurry their slaves into the Confederacy, far
in excess of any demand for thera.
The Ordinance declaring prohibition of the slave trade
with Africa, amended by Mr. Jones denouncing the trade as
opposed to public policy and instructing the deputies from
Alabama to the Congress to insist that a prohibitory provision
be incorporated into the organic law of the Confederacy,-
passed, with three dissenting votes.
After three weeks' sessions, the Convention adjourned,
until March 4. Meantime, the Provisional Government of the
Confederate States of America organized at Montgomery. Mr.
Yancey resigned his seat in the Convention to enter the civil
service of the Confederacy, and Mr. Mitchell was chosen to
succeed him. /

SECESSION OF ALABAMA. 571
The Convention Avas an assembly of earnest men accus
tomed to business. They quite realized that they were ex
pected to do those things for AA'hlch they would be held
answerable In the latest pages of history. Nothing of utter
ance availed on the fioor, save a native and vigorous eloquence
turned upon the present situation of affairs. Speculation or
sophistry Avould not be tolerated. Mr. Yancey was tried, as
never before, and never before did the solid foundation of his
intellectual proAvess so manifest Itself. Every utterance of his
was fraught with arguraent ; he was master of every subject
which the most able and astute opponent or the most appre
ciative ally brought forward ; he was, himself, already
convinced of tbe wisdom of all things recommended by him
to others. No delegate was so listened to as he. He went
into the Convention with both the matter and the argument
of the situation in perfect command. He accepted with un
feigned alarm and openly confessed premonitions of evil, his
failure to arrest the tacit purpose of the Convention to dis
qualify for service in the Congress two hundred and thirty-
three citizens of the State, upon whom had been bestowed the
flrst choice of the people in the direction of the crisis then
upon them. He beheld the infiuence of Alabaraa, in the new
Confederacy, taken away frora those supporters of his through
the long years of his maturing purpose, to be entrusted to
others whose wisdom he did not 'beUeve to be equal to the
momentous issue of the times. He was profoundly impressed
with the premonition that, a first false step had been taken, in
the crisis for which he was to be held responsible in all time.-

CHAPTER 25.

Confederate Diplomacy.
1861.

The Jeffersonian doctrine of State interposition to arrest
unconstitutional acts of the federal government had given way
to the presumptively more effective self-defense of secession,
preliminary to federal re-organization of homogeneous States..
The speculations of statesmanship will not avoid, because of
the awful consequences of the course the slave States adopted,
to consider the hypothesis of the Jeffersonian doctrine in the
original circumstances. If, Instead of formal secession and
simultaneous federal re-organlzatlon, the Imperiled States
thus seeking safety, had merely suspended their relations Avith
the Union, to the extent of peaceable and quiet withdrawal
from all participation in Its government, they would have
thrown the revolutionary States upon their own resources of
government. Had the members of the Supreme Court, from
the South, the cabinet officers, the foreign ministers, the offi
cers of the army and navy and aU civil officers of the federal
governraent, of Southern buth and associations, retired, leaving
their places to be filled by the Republican party from its own
section, the full force of the revolution would have developed
at once in the free States. Up to 1861, the slave States had
cimtributed the President of thirteen Administrations, and the
free ^ates of five. The Speakers of the House, Presidents of
the Senate, Justices of the Supreme Court, foreign ministers,
military officers had been, in far the greater number, taken

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 57s
from the slave States. The slave States had demonstrated
their ability to preserve the government. The free States
were in a condition of open revolution against the government.
War was timely, if not necessary, to establish, in the free
States, the cohesiveness of society essential to the united
action ot those States under whatever forra of governraent
might follow, there, the deposed Constitutional Union. A
hypothetical policy of unbroken peace at the South presented,
at least, the presumption that, amidst the great changes
through which the free States must pass when thrown upon
themselves for government, the slave States would see their
prospects for relief brighten. But it was evident, in 1861,
that the Jeft'ersonian doctrine of arrest of oppressive govern
ment, by refusal to participate in it, would not be accepted at
the South, with that degree of unanimity necessary to the
experiment. The question of accepting the government, under
the Republican party, already divided the people. Alexander
H. Stephens had advised the Southern aspirants for office to
stickle not at serAung under any legally commissioned Chief
Executive, while there were other evidences that nullification
could not be brought to the relief of the Imperiled States.*
When Governor Letcher found an invitation at the door of
every slave State, sent by South Carolina already withdrawn
from the Union, to meet in Congress to form a Southern Con
federacy, the Legislature of Virginia was hastily summoned in
extra session to devise a plan of reconciliation of the sections.
So it came to pass that, on the same Fourth day of February,
1861, on which seven seceded States convened by their depu
ties In Provisional Congress at Montgomery, the delegates of
twenty-one States, by invitation of Virginia, met in Peace
Congress at Washington. No explanation of the motives of
the two colliding Confederacies will be more satisfactory to
history than that which follows an inquiry into the temper
dominating these two Congresses.
* Considering the fact of revolution in the free States, -within the first twenty
years of ascendency of the Republican party, two Presidents were assassinated, a
third was virtually impeached, and a fourth was seated in the ofHce, to which he was
not elected, by the threat of the use of the army. The revolution was further evi
denced in the act of Congress (where the Southern States were not represented, who
composed the Confederate States) approved June 19, 186iJ, which arbitrarily annulled
the Constitutional principles determined in the Dred Scott decree. The provisions
annexed to the Constitution, by the Republican party, changed the government in its.
sources.

^74 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Senator Salmon P. Chase was the controUing influence 1
the Peace Congress. To him fell the lot of applying the match
which exploded the lingering hopes of the Unionists, North
or South. Never was shadow lifted from a public career with
raore fateful celerity than frora the career of Mr. Chase. But
-a little while ago, the leader of a junta, meeting in darkness
and secrecy, in bodily peril of the mob, now he appeared with
bold front, a chosen Constitutional adviser of the President
elect. Those passions which, as a politician under a shadoAV,
he had been forced to cultivate with uncertain plans and
obscure hopes, he now found borne upon the unparalled forces
of revolution to the erabrace of the greatest of governments.
The annual message of President Buchanan, laid before
¦Congress, in Deceraber, 1860, advised It to prepare an araend-
raent to the Constitution which Avould dispose of the ostensible
cause of sectional discord by securing to the whole people the
right of peaceful occupation of the coraraon doraain, with their
]property. Referring to the attitude of the Southern States,
where^the menace of secession was heard, denying the right the
message said : " To the extent of the delegated powers, the
Constitution of the United States is as much a part of the
Constitution of each State and is as binding upon its people as
though it had been textually Inserted therein." The question
of right, in the federal authority, to coerce a State, the Presi
dent said, had been more than once brought up in the Conven
tion of 1787. Favorable as Mr. Madison was known to be to a
centralized goA'crnment, he resisted the raotion to delegate the
power to coerce a State. After full debate the idea had been
abandoned and no trace of it appeared in the Constitution.
Foreshadowing what his course as Chief Executive would be,
in the event that secession would be consumraated, the Presi
dent said the acts of Congress, February, 1795, and March,
1807, vested the President with authority to call forth the
constabulary to execute any process, civil or railitary, and, if
necessary, to employ the army and navy for the same purpose.
But no law then on the statute book " would overcome the
-united opposition of a single State, not to speak of other States
who raay place themselves in a simUar attitude." He had
instructed the offlcer in command of the forts to resist any
attempt to expel the United States from their possession. The

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 575
Executive had no poAver to change the relation of the States to
the federal government and he would not recognize a seceding
State. Those Avho agreed with the President argued that the
federal government had no right to coerce a State, but could
execute its laws within a State. The federal government
could not bring a State Into court, as a party to an action, but
It could pass laws and bring thera to bear upon Individuals
within a State. The message did not please the Secessionists
or the Republican party.
In support of the proposition of the message, that an
amendment be added to the Constitution deflnlng the rights of
persons and property in the Territories, Mr. Crittenden, from
Kentucky, off'ered in the Senate the substance of an amend
ment, to extend the old Missouri "compromise" line across
the continent. North of the line slavery should be forever
prohibited; south of the line the people might tolerate or deny
the institution at will. In a special message, of January 8,
1861, the President plead eagerly for the amendment : "In
-heaven's name (he cried), let the trial be raade before we
plunge into arraed conflict upon the raere assumption that
there is no other alternative." The South unanimously called
for the amendment. Senators Robert Toombs and Jefferson
Davis were speciaUy earnest in demanding it. Senator Clark
of New Hampshire, after various proceedings, raoved to strike
out the entire preamble and resolution of Mr. Crittenden and
substitute therefor the platform of the Republican party, in
the late Presidential campaign, and this motion prevailed ; 25
to 23 !
The Republicans in Congress determined to carry over to
Lincoln's adrainistration and to the Congress, elected with
him, the initial of a new method of government. They
remained stubborn, and both Houses were, consequently, in
active. Both Houses appointed committees, in mockery, to
-consider the situation. In the Senate Committee of Thirteen,
Republican members, in contempt and derision, announced
their intention to disregard the President's counsel and their
purpose to yield nothing, to listen to no plea for guarantees of
safety to Southern Institutions. The House Committee met
and adjourned for a week, without even coming to a vote on
the various propositions for restored harmony, which it had

576 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
promised to consider. The cabinet dissolved in discord. Lewis-
Cass, Secretary of State, resigned, because of the refusal of ,
the President to enter upon the armed conquest of the South ;.
Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury ; John B.
Floyd of Virginia, Secretary of War ; Jacob Thompson, of
Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior, and Aaron V. Brown, of
Tennessee, Post Master General, resigned, because of their
Intention to espouse the cause of their respective States in the
Inevitable rupture. Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania,
Attorney General, resigned, after complying with the Presi
dent's demand for his offlcial opinion touching the duty of the
Executive toward a seceding State. Mr. Black's opinion
announced :
"If it be true that war cannot be declared nor a system of general
hostilities carried on by tlie central government against a State, then it
appears that an attempt to do so would be ipse facto the expulsion of
such State from the Union. Being treated as an alien and an enemy,
she would be compelled to act accordingly. And if Congress shall break
up the present Union, by unconstitutionally putting strife and enmity
and armed hostility between the different sections of the country, in
stead of the 'domestic tranquility' it was meant to insure, will not all the
States be absolved from their federal obligations? Is any portion of the
people bound to contribute their money and their blood to carry on a
contest like that?"
Mr. Black gave voice to yet more emphatic horror of the
Republican policy and methods :
"Remember (he said), in addition to this, the leading Abolitionists
acknowledge no law which stands in the way of their interests or their
passions. Against anybody else the Constitution of the country would
be a protection. But they have no scruples about swearing to protect it
while premeditating to violate it. We have been well warned by all the
men best entitled to our confidence — particularly and eloquently warned
by Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster — that if ever the Abolitionists got a hold
upon the organized physical force of the country, they would govern
without law, scoff at the authority of the Courts and throw down all the
defenses of civil liberty."
The President had re-fllled the vacancies in the Cabinet by
pronounced Unionists, or coercionists, as the term "Unionist"
then implied at the North. Edwin M. Stanton, John A. Dix
and Joseph Holt were now of his advisers. The leaders of the
South, yet resolved on peace, sought to change the Adminis
tration as a last recourse. On Christmas day, 1860, Senator

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 577
Wigfall, of Texas, in company with several gentlemen and
with the approval of others, of the North, and the South, went
to the residence of Secretary Floyd to unfold a plan to abduct
the President, remove him in safety from Washington, or
possibly from the country, leaving his offlce to be filled by
the vice-President, Mr. Breckenrldge — a more forceful and a
younger man. The public mind of the South would be
directed into uoav channels, the rightful authority of the gov
ernment would be administered, peace would be Invited and
radicalism delayed, at least measurably. The Secretary indig
nantly rejected the project and Wigfall, in despair, aban
doned it.*
The conservatlA^es of the North watched with Intense
anxiety the fierce spirits, of their own section, maddened by
triumph and unrestrained by principle. On the sixth day of
January Fernando Wood, Mayor of Ncav York, sent an elab
orate special message to the Common Council. A dissolution
of the Union, the raessage declared to be inevitable. It was
originally a government of opinion. A resort to force would
destroy the principle upon which it was founded and the lives
and property of the people would go out in one common ruin.
It had become the solemn duty of New York city to look
ahead to new relations, necessarily growing out so great a
change in public affairs. "While unfortunately (said the
Mayor) other portions of our State have become imbued with
the fanatical spirit which actuates a portion of the people of
New England, the city of New York has unfalteringly pre
served the Integrity of its principles by adhering to the
compromises of the Constitution and the equal rights of the
people of the States." The Mayor urged the fearful conse
quences of "an odious and oppressive connection" with a
State dominated by the Republican party. He did not antici
pate a ready consent of that party to a peaceful separation of
the city and the adjacent territory from the State. But, the
probability was that, the Pacific States would sunder their
relations with a government, from which the conservative
States of the South had found it necessary to withdraw. The
States bordering the upper Mississippi would not be slow in
setting up for themselves.
"North American Meview, February, 1887.

37

578 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
"Why should not New York city (he inquired) instead of support
ing by her contributions in revenue two-thirds of the expenses of the
United States, become also equally independent? With our aggrieved
brethren of the slave States we have friendly relations and a common
sympathy. * * It is folly to disguise the fact that New York may
have more cause of apprehension from the aggressive legislation of our
own State than from external dangers. * * How we shall rid our
selves from this odious and oppressive connection it is not for me to
determine. * When disunion has become a fixed and certain fact
why may not New York (city) disrupt the bands which bind her to a
venal and corrupt master, to a people and a party that have plundered
her revenues, attempted to ruin her commerce, taken away the power
of self-government and destroyed the Confederacy of which she was
the Empire City?"
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri,
Tennessee and Kentucky were the slave States represented in
the Peace Congress. Senator Zachariah Chandler had exerted
his powerful Influence to prevent the appointment, by the free
States Governors, of deputies. Failing in that resort, he urged
that politicians firmly wedded to the Republican party should
alone receive comralssions. The venerable John Tyler was
chosen to preside and, upon assuraing the chair, he delivered
an eloquent appeal for restored harmony to the entire Union.
On the second day, the Crittenden amendment being under
discussion, on a motion to recoraraend the federal Congress to
adopt It, Mr. Chase, Senator frora Ohio and a delegate, ap
peared in his seat to speak against it. His speech was a frank
announcement to the South, coming as from the incoming
Administration, that nothing would be done to restore the
Constitutional coraproralses or to sustain adjudicated rights of
that section under the Dred Scott decree. To hold the Peace
Congress up to the derision and execration of the North was
the effect, at least, of the Senator's oratory. He said the
Constitutional requirement of the rendition of fugitive slaves
Avas as universally admitted in one section as in the other.
But time had wrought great changes at the North. The letter
of the law reraained, as the fathers had made it ; yet the law
could not be made operative. And there lay the irremediable
trouble. "1 must speak to you plainly, gentlemen of the
South, (said Mr. Chase) ; It Is not in my heart to deceive you.
I, therefore, tell you explicitly, if we of the North and West
would consent to throw away all that has been gained in the

CONFEDERA'TE DIPLOMACY. 579
recent triumph of our principles, the people Avould not sustain
us and so the consent would avail you nothing." The Senator
proposed that, the equality of slavery in the Union being
entirely out of the question, certain steps might be taken to
adjust existing difficulties in the maintenance of its acknowl
edged rights. For example, an amendment to the Constitution
might vest authority in courts of equity to determine the
value of fugitive slaves, and the value, determined thus, would
be " a charge upon the national treasury." " Let there be (he
said) judgraent for compensation rather than judgment for
lendltion." But, the Southern deputies asked, would the judg
ment for compensation be held in higher respect at the North
than the despised judgment for rendition? Would equity
attach a property valuation to a fugitive In States, whose
statutes declared the fugitive was, by natural right, a free
man ? Would not the acceptance, by the slave States, of this
new order of obtaining justice be construed by the Abolition
emissaries as tacit assent to their machinations to procure
fugitives; and, with every fugitive procured, would not the
uncertainty of the master's rights depreciate the property
A'alue of the remaining slaves ? Would not Mr. Chase's plan,
iu practice, be emancipation Avlthout indemnity to owners ?
While Virginia attempted to raedlate and Horace Greeley
and General Scott declared against violent suppression of
-secession, Greeley applied to the President-elect, yet at his
home in Illinois, for an avowal of his opinion on the momen
tous question. Mr. Lincoln was prompt In reply and emphatic.
He would "suff'er death" before consenting or permitting
others to pledge his Administration to a course of conciliation,
while tbe South was " In a state of menace." The question of
Integrity of empire, was the paramount question, Mr. Lincoln
held. It is not a little interesting, the narrow escape of this
question of empire, of 1860, In its birth.- By accident a colony
of Jesuits, planted by Spain, on the Albemarle Sound, and a
settlement made by the Spanish Governor of Florida on " the
bay Santa Maria " — Chesapeake— a full half century before
Jamestown was founded, or before the landing on Plymouth
Rock, had failed ; even while the Spanish claim to all the
country penetrated by De Soto, and all conquered by Cortez
and Plzarro was undisputed. Eighteen millions of the free

580 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
States, twelve millions of the slave States, self-governing
communities, rich and brave, would, Mr. Lincoln assured Mr.
Greeley and the people, "fall down to a level with the existing
disorganized state of affairs in Mexico," so soon as the argu
ment of irrefragable empire gave way to the logical force of i;he
American idea. The menace of " Mexicanizatlon " was a most
timely and ingenious argument. It presented a dread alterna
tive to hundreds of thousands of anxious minds in the free
States ; hundreds of thousands, who had voted for Brecken
rldge and who required the help of the South to save the
North from the revolution, prepared by the party of the
President-elect. " Mexicanizatlon " of the free States was the
alternative to that measurable unification of Democrats and
Republicans there, permitting Douglas, Franklin Pierce, Ho
ratio Seymour, Black, Cushing, Bigler and McClellan to unite
with Seward, Sumner, Fremont and Sherman to prepare for
war — the one party fighting to achieve centralization, the
other to compel the Southern States to assist them in their
struggle against the Republican party.
The Peace Congress deliberated three weeks. The fruit of
Its labors was, a proposed amendment to the Constitution,
substantially the same as the Crittenden amendment. Its
venerable presiding officer was instructed to lay the document
before each branch of the national Legislature to receive the
necessary legal sanction. The Senate took a vote on it, and
rejected it by a large majority ; the House refused to receive it.
So terminated Southern mediation in dernier resort.
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana and Texas, seven States with fifty deputies, organ
ized in Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of
Araerica, in the Capltol, at Montgomery, February 4, 1861.
The connection of each State with the Congress of the United
States had been severed by the withdrawal of its Senators and
Representatives, except in the single exception of Mr. Boulig-
ney, of Louisiana, who retained his seat in the House until the
expiration of his term. The deputies had been chosen by the
secession Conventions and the Conventions had taken them
from the two parties, one recommending, the other opposing
secession. Even the deputation from South Carolina was com
posed In equal numbers of original Secessionists and Co-opera
tionists. South Carolina, by act of her secession Convention >

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 581
had recommended the capital of Alabama as the place for
the assembling of the Congress of the seceded States. Mr.
Rhett suggested the place because it was the home of Mr.
Yancey and because Mr. Yancey was supported, in his political
views, by both of the dally newspapers published there — the
Advertiser and the Mail. To the Congress came, from all the
States represented, deputies who had yet to learn the signifi
cance of the movement. From Georgia, Alexander H. Stephens,
Benjamin H. Hill, Augustus H. Kenan, who, to the last, had
resisted with the full force of their extraordinary powers, the
act of secession. Mr. Stephens hesitated to accept his com
mission as deputy, until six days before the Congress
assembled, and consented then only on condition that the
Georgia Convention should pass a resolution, virtually with
drawing its deputation from the Congress, unless the govern
ment established for the proposed Confederacy should be
" upon the principles and basis of the Constitution of the
United States of America."* Indeed, deputies came, numerous,
eloquent and skilled who, from their youth up had won fame
in contesting the theories upon which the Confederacy was
founded, who in November had voted as Whigs and Union
ists and who, even the week before, had urged the inutility of
the Confederacy and A'oted to defeat its creation. Howell
Cobb was chosen President of the Congress, he who, in 1850,
had lead in the organization of the new Union Party at
Washington, and who had defeated the secession party of
Georgia, in 1851. Johnson J. Hooper, one of the most brilliant
leaders of the Whig-Unionionists of the Southwest, up to
1858, was appointed Secretary. Nothing had transpired to
revolutionize the matured views of great leaders, and at the
outset, when appreciation and vigorous action must be decisive
of success, a kind of dazed contemplation possessed the Con
gress. An Alabama deputy, the only original secessionist
representing the State, wrote to a constituent from his seat:
"It is difficult to tell whether there will be war. Buchanan will
hardly attempt coercion. Lincoln may or may rot. The interests in
favor of peace are so great that war can hardly be unnecessarily at
tempted. If the Black Republicans force it, of course we must defend
ourselves, t"
?Pictorial History United States, Stephens, pp. 583-9. „„,„„„
tJ. L. M. Currv's letter to Dr. W. W. Anderson, Montgomery, February 20, 1860.

582 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Trade and travel were yet unrestricted between the two
Republics. The Congress read the defiant speech of Mr.
Chase and the judicial verdict of Mr. Lincoln ; sent forth its
Proclamation of Independence; and left open Its sea ports —
through which flowed out resources of national life, more
nourishing than new born nation ever, until now, had Inherited
and squandered. Of property the Confederacy owned only
unarmed forts and one or two comparatively empty arsenals^
fortunately seized by Governors favoring secession. Sixty
thousand old and condemned muskets from the United States
armory, at Springfleld, had been distributed by the Virginian,
Floyd, at the head of the War Office, in orderly Qourse of official
duty, through the Southern States and four hundred thousand
through the Northern States. The Unionist editor, C. C.
Langdon, of Mobile, seeing this, had declared, not in Irony :
" We are much obliged to Secretary Floyd for the foresight he
has displayed in disa,rmin g the North arid equipping the South
for the emergency r
There was no question of good faith in the organization of
the new Southern government. There was only the question
of time necessary to reconcile great men of long opposing
views and rival parties to the general principles of the one
party, whose policies were now In the ascendency. Thus it-
happened that, in the celerity of the Southern movement, vigor
of administration was not attained. A Congress composed, in
part, of deputies controlled by an intense conviction of right
and, in part, of deputies who had remained Unionists to the
latest moraent of the open question, dallied with its oppor
tunities and fell even into irremediable neglect. There were
old questions of tariff, of foreign alliance, of protection to home
Industries, upon which the deputies assembled had diff'ered
through long and stormy conflicts among themselves. Every
deputy had raade up his mind to consent to the raising and
equipping of an army, yet the Congress permitted millions in
cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar to take wings from the land.
Millions of cash in bank vaults was destined to remain unap
propriated, even while, a Uttle later. Congress prepared to
impress into its service the meal, meat, mules, wagons from
the farms and to drain the country of its arms-bearing popula
tion. Unfortunately, the Congress, inappreclative of the

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 583
sentiments of Messrs. Lincoln and Chase having only the
Interpretation of war about thera, went diligently to work to
erect a ponderous civil goA'crnraent, cumbersome under exist
ing conditions. In five weeks it had enacted an elaborate
Provisional Constitution, elected a President and vice-Presi
dent and adopted a Permanent Constitution. Both Constitu
tions disclosed the genius of the South ; both were far in
advance of the theories of any social polity known to the
world. The subtle significance of Mr. Stephens' resolution, commit
ting the sovereign Convention of Georgia not to join the
Southern Confederacy, unless the Congress should Immediately
put in force a civil polity essentially the same as the Constitu
tion of the United States, must be allowed a highly Important,
perhaps decisive part in the Southern movement. It did not
come forth from the propelling thought of that movement. It
was more an expression of regret than of confidence. The
governments of the seceded States, in town, county and State,
had been in no degree disturbed. They were the repositories
of law and order, operative in every function. The Legislature
of the separate State, by accepted adjudgment, possessed the
power to do all things not prohibited by the State Constitu
tion, now that the federal Constitution was not in force. The
object of secession was federal reorganization, but the State
government, in this crisis of the federal systera, was far more
competent to employ the resources of the people than a com
plex federal system, possessing only the powers conferred on
It by the States. Was Mr. Stephens' resolution sound state
craft? Would not a simpler federal oiganism have provided
a Constitutional status, under the circumstances, safer to the
cause at issue ? Would not a General, to command armies and
resources of war, and a Congress of a single branch have been
a prudent federal organization ? Especially did advanced ob
servers, who were sympathizers with the movement, look with
suspicion upon the offlce of President and Coraraander- in-
Chief of the army and navy, endowed also with the veto
power, together Avith a great variety of arbitrary powers ; in
theory, established to preserve the equilibrium between civil
and military authority in the government. Undoubtedly the

584 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
general understanding of the dangerous nature of the Presi
dency, in the crisis, turned the public mind toward Mr. Jeffer
son Davis, as the most available and proper person to fill it.
He had considerable reputation as a soldier, however slight
may have been the claims upon which it was founded ; his
popularity as a politician was very great, notwithstanding he
had never been a leader in any successful statecraft. The
Secessionists, of 1861, remembered that, in 1851, he stood in
the front rank of the supporters of their policy ; the Unionists,
of 1861, remembered that, in 1858, he had virtually come to
their side, and that after the election of Lincoln he had pro
tested against secession. Thus It happened that the mixed
deputations to the Congress, Secessionists and Unionists from
every State, even before setting out from horae, had decided
upon the elevation of Jefferson Davis to a commanding posi
tion. Upon what foundation did the fame of Mr. Davis rest?
He entered political life from the seclusion of the agricultural
pursuit. He was a cotton planter, of the Mississippi Valley,
but was not distinguished for thrift. His military education
and experience, however limited in the field, as a Lieutenant,
induced the regiment of Mississippians, volunteers to the
Mexican war, to chose him their Colonel, while he held the
seat to which he had just been elected as Representative in
Congress. In the sraall array of Invasion, to which the Mis
sissippi Regiraent was attached, commanded by a Brigadier
and in numbers only a full Brigade, Colonel Davis' personal
qualities shone out. The tactical disposition of his Regiment
on the hard fought field of Buena Vista and the flrmness in
which he held it, overshadowed all other events of his military
career. Returning to his plantation, ere the war was over,
refusing military promotion, he was sent to the federal Senate.
He resigned, in 1851, that high offlce to take up the cauA'ass,
Avhlch Quitman had abandoned, as secession candidate for
Governor of Mississippi, against his colleague in the Senate,
Henry S. Foote, the Unionist. He was defeated, by a small
majority, but won encomiums on all sides by his eloquence and
noble bearing In the contest. He was called, two years later,
from retirement into the Cabinet of President Pierce, and as
Secretary of War, in control of an army of 25,000 men, in

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 585
time of peace, devoted . hiraself with industry and success to
the improvement of its discipline, to its reorganization and
improved equipment. In 1857 he was restored to the Senate.
It will be the duty of the historian of the events in Avhich Mr.
Davis acted a determining part to study, in the debates of the
Senate, in 1849-50, when the Clay "compromise" was dis
cussed, and In the debates, covering four years of his last
term, when the sections had arrived at a full consciousness of
the abortive nature of that measure, the mental measure of
the man. Omitting Calhoun, Webster and Clay, because of
their phenomenal individuaUty, the Senators wUl, perhaps, be
classed, by the standard of original powers displayed, as of the
flrst class, Toombs, Clayton, Badger, of the slave States ;
Douglas, Chase, Seward, of the free States. In the class next
below, determined by the original test, were .left'erson Davis,
Hammond, from South Carolina, Mason, from Virginia; Sum
ner, Dickinson, Wade, from the free States. Senator Davis
was not a ready debater, upon the higher plane of logic.
Where acquired Information was needed for illustrating the
subject under discussion, his wide reading becarae evident.
His prepared orations charmed all listeners and all readers.
His seat in the Senate Avas a rendezvous of Senators, of all
parties, who came thither to enjoy the delights of his conver
sation. His voice was singularly pleasing, his language chaste
and his information Inexhaustible. In general society, he was
gallant and his courtesy to woman was beautiful. " Mr. Davis
was a very courteous man, scrupulously polite to everybody,
ordinarily, but cross and petulant when his health was bad, as
was often the case."* Mr. Davis was a model Senator, not a
resourceful leader ; he was a distinguished orator, not a resist
less advocate ; he was so chivalrous in devotion to his principles
as to command the reverence of all heroes. He was a typical
Southerner, not super-typical fitted to direct the whole ener
gies of the South concentrated in a deadly grapple. There
were not a few men, voiceless, who knew him as he was ; -the
man consecrated to his conscience; the man below the measure
of the exigency over which he was called to preside ; the raan
who could not forget what ought not to be reraembered, by
?Personal Reminiscences of ex-Senator Anthony Kennedy, of Maryland, iu
Baltimore Sun, December 21, 1889.

586 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the chieftain of such a cause as was the cause of the South.
A very strong man in the rugged paths of enterprise, was F.
M. Gilmer, a notably practical mau of affairs, the Alabama
Commissioner to Virginia, the fellow-townsman and acute
observer of Yancey from the outset of his career. Mr. Gilmer,
at Richmond, warned the leaders of Virginia that Yancey was
the practical man required to lead the South.* But Mr.
Gilmer returned with the news that Virginia preferred Mr.
Davis for President. The unanimity of States in the choice of
the President did not conceal the fact that sorae deputies did
not prefer hira or that some sagacious citizens did not trust
bis capacity. Mr. Rhett was charged with the duty of casting
the vote of South Carolina in the election of Provisional Pres
ident and vice-President. Mr. Davis was nqt his favorite for
the Presidency, though' he was not resolved to oppose him.
Mr. Robert W. Barnwell, a deputy from the same State, a
kinsman and friend of Rhett's, recently withdrawn from the
United States Senate, was a friend of Mr. Davis. There
was no forraal conference of the South Carolina deputies, but
Mr. Barnwell sought Mr. Rhett, as the election of President
approached. Barnvi^ell urged that an era of good feeling was
the true political objective. A raore robust intellect than Mr.
Davis, he adraltted, raight be found. He would not even claim
greatness for him, but the people were proud of his career.
Should he be elevated to the Chief Executive offlce the dignity
of his character would encourage the people at horae and
comraand respect abroad. Mr. iMonroe, not a great man, had
made two Administrations Illustrious, because he had selected
advisers of the highest qualifications. It was certain no indi-
Addual of the Confederacy had so wide an acquaintance with
the political and military men who would probably enter its
service, as Mr. Davis. It was forgotten that in the decisive
and progressive Administration of President Jefferson, who-
relied upon his own sound discretion, to the limit of the law,.
the cause of Constitutional right was advanced ; and that in
the "era of good feeling," under Mr. Monroe, the seeds of
revolution were planted.
?General G. T. Beauregard -nrote : " I was vcrN^ favorably impressed, on brief
acquaintance, during the late war, with the great Southern orator, Hon. W. L.
Yancey. Indeed, I believe that, if he had been selected as our Chief Kxecutive, the
result might have been verj' different. He appeared to me to be a statesman with
enlarged views, and no petty Jealousies to jeopardize our sacred cause."

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 587
Mr. Alexander H. Stephens was chosen Provisional vice-
President, because his high courage and fidelity and because
of the practical wisdom in which he would be sure to lead the
Unionists of the country. It will, presently, appear that, of
all wisdom in civil politics consecrated to the service of the
Confederate States, his stood pre-eminent; and of the brave
men who joined their fortunes with that governraent, none
were truer than he.
The Provisional President-elect set out by the raost con
venient route from his home to the capital through upper
Mississippi and Alabama, through the region of great planta-
tatlons, on to Atlanta and West Point, Georgia, thence by the
oldest villages of Alabama to his journey's end. Crowds of
highly excited gentlemen and ladies met his train at every
station, greeting him with evidences of most flattering confi
dence. The municipality of Montgomery received hira with
elaborate display. Mr. Yancey, by appolntraent of the mayor
and council, delivered the address of public welcome, declaring
to the people that the man and the occasion had met. The
next day, February 18, the ceremony of inauguration was
performed. " I never before or since that hour so experienced
the ecstasy of patriotisra," declared a veteran, a quarter of a
century later. A great throng of citizens, from both Confed
eracies, men of the South and men of the North, arm in arm,-
foUowed the calm and soldierly figure, in one unbroken mass,
up the broad avenue. At the Capitol, the Congress, in a body,
received him, Mr. Rhett delivering a spirited and eloquent
address in their name. On the porch, the people saw him bow
reverently and swear loyalty to the new Republic and heard
his earnest plea for peace. " War (he said) would be a policy
so detrimental to the civilized world, the Northern States in
cluded, that It could not be dictated by even the strongest
desire to Infiict punishment upon us." Other States would ask
admission ; their desire should be granted, but, with unfriendly
States, " reunion was neither practicable nor desirable." " The
suffering of millions Avill bear testimony to the folly and
wickedness of our oppressors," should war be forced by them ^
Immediately upon the return of the President to his apart
ments, at the Exchange Hotel, he sent for Mr. Yancey. No
civil appointment had been made by the Executive, he said.

588 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Would Mr. Yancey indicate his own choice of an offlce within
the gift of the Executive ? Mr. Yancey repUed that, with a
•deep acknowledgment of the confidence of the Executive, he
did not desire public office ; he was at that moment a delegate
holding a seat in the sovereign Convention of Alabama, and
would prefer the duty of serving the political cause in a
private capacity. The President insisted upon Mr. Yancey^
selection oi one of two ppsitions_r-r a Cabinet portfolio, or the
head of the^ommlssion to Europe,jwhieh3nact-aLC.Qngress,
even before the inauguration of the Executiyer-i^-Uired_Mm Jo
.appoint ; expressing, meantime, thejiope that he would choose,
the^latter. Mr. Yancey left the President In exceUent mood,
having promised to refiect upon his wishes and return answer
as soon as his determination was reached. At an early day,
after this conference, Mr. Yancey carried to the President the
application of his personal and political friend, Leroy Pope
Walker, for a place in the Cabinet, recommending it. " But
(said the President) Alabama does not expect two Cabinet
places ? " "I desire the appointment of Mr. Walker," replied
Yancey. B. C. Yancey had distinguished his conduct of the Argen
tine Republic mission, to which Mr. Buchanan appointed him,
by one or more acts of prudence and courage. So gratified
was the Administration with his course there, that upon his
resignation, in 1859, and return home, Mr. Buchanan insisted
that he should go as Minister Plenipotentiary to France.^ He
<iecUned the proff'ered servTce, having been quite convinced of
the trouble Avhich the approaching Presidential campaign
would excite, and being resolved to remain in the South to
serve his own people, as best he might. JW. L. Yancey
submittecLJor the advice of his brother, the President's invita_
tion^to him to, take the head of the Commission of the

Confederate States to Europe., The advice was promptly
given, to decline the appointment. The minister, on his home
ward voyage, had remained in England for a season. He had
studiously sought information touching the feeling .of the
government there toward a probable Southern Confederacy
and, also, had applied himself to ascertain the feeling of the
laboring classes and their leaders, Cobden and Bright. Suf
frage had not then been enlarged, to reach the laboring classes.

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 589
but the government was scarcely less respectful of their wishes
on that account. Cob^enjind Bright would oppose the recog-
jlition^ of a slave holders' Confederacy. Unless the horae ^r-
governlnent T&"oiird "send' "a Commission authorized to offer]!
commercial advantages so liberal that the Exeter Hall influence
could not withstand them, the British government, however i
well disposed, would not venture to run counter to the anti- j
slavery feeling in the monarchy by recognition of the Confed-j/
erate States.
The leader of the South CaroUna deputation, Robert
Barnwell Rhett, had been twenty years a member, in either
branch, of the Congress of the United States. His experience
had been especially devoted to the study of the revenue laws
and the laws of commerce. In this connection, he had become
thoroughly familiar with the treaties of i;he United States,
before and after the creation of the Constitution. He had
discussed,^n the secessl^on Convention, of South Carolina, a
pollcy_.of_treaty between the proposed Southern" Confederacy
_and_E.uropean commercial States. Coming into Congress, well
known as a man of extraordinary raental acumen and a thor
oughly practical man of aff'airs, he was at once chosen
chairman of the most important_of the Committees — the
Committee on Foreign Relations. This Committee, through
its chairman, brought in a report, ere the inauguration of the
President, as has just been said, requiring that officer, when
installed, to send a Commission to Europe, to treat with the
great powers of that continent for recognition of the Confed
erate States. The object of_the Commission, as defined by the
report, would ^BeTcTsecure recognition for their government
and to make treaties, offensive and defensive, with its allies.
Beyond a general outline of purpose in Its act, the Congress
could not, under the Constitution, go. The Comraission must
become a function of diplomacy, whose scope the President,
under the Constitution, must determine.
Contrary to his brother's counsel;_Mr. Yancey consented
to__go, as the head of Commission to Europe^ withoul" t'hOse
Jngir^c&ons • whi-crh irs~g5'gfsg^edly~esteemed essential to the
^successot its untlertaKingr" Presideht' Davis, yet unembar-
rassed with THBttrsr-cares of office and yet without those
personal prejudices, which beset the ruler of a free people,

590 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
passed his mind's eye over the interminable list of distin
guished individuals known to him, personally, to find suitable
Individuals for his Constitutional advisers. His first, unan
nounced, selections were, in two examples, at least, eminently
fortunate. To fill the most important of all the civil posi
tions — Secretary of the Treasury — he selected the man who
had more sedulously studied, in past years, public finances
and national monetary systems than, perhaps, any American —
Robert Toombs. The secret purpose to appoint Toombs to the
office was, doubtless, suggested to the President's mind in
memory of the fact that he himself had never devoted special
attention to national monetary systems.* The other of the
two, unannounced but fortunate, appointments was, .Judah P.
Benjamin. From obscurity he had risen, rapidly, to the front
rank at the bar, of the federal Supreme Court, and to a corre
sponding elevation among the orators of the Senate. "Full
of accompllshraents and sophistries, placid and smiling, his
brow ever unclouded," it is. strange he was not dispatched to
Euiopean courts, there to labor for the cause of the unwelcome
new nation. But, for a government never destined to have a
judiciary, Benjamin was made Attorney General. Mallory, of
Florida, long chairraan of the Senate Coraraittee on Naval
Aft'airs, was made Secretary of the Navy, and Reagan, of
Texas, Post Master General. The President suddenly cast
aside the wisdom at which he had arrived in the contempla
tion of his Cabinet. Barnwell, of South Carolina, decUned to
become Secretary of State, and, with fateful faclUty, Toombs
was assigned to the sinecure place. The problera then became,
less to find a worthy choice for the high place intended for
Toombs and more to assign to South Carolina a given share
of federal patronage. To Christopher G. Meralnger, of South
Carolina, was assigned the duties of Secretary of the Treasury.
The President did not know him. He was not known beyond
the confines of a narrow State. He was without experience to
justify his promotion and without abUlty to sustain the honors
thrust on blm. He had opposed the movement in which the
Confederacy had its origin. Mr. Walker accepted the War
Office in a time of peace, when peace measures Avere being
*Eise and FaU of the Confederate Government: Dr. Craven's Prison Life of
.lelterson Davis.

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 591
pressed, with, at least, an impUed understanding that the
President expected to assume practical control. In the event of
war. Thus judged, he was competent.
I shall present now those alterations incorporated in the
Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States from its
model, the Constitution of the United States. Sorae of the
number have been recommended, since the fall of the Con
federacy, by Presidents of the United States, to Congress for
submission to the reunited people for adoption. The most
important political journal In the United States, of 1861, then
advised the people of that RepubUc to adopt It as a basis of
reunion — the New York Herald. Mr. Rhett was chairman of
the Coraraittee that fraraed the document; Toombs, Stephens
and Rhett suggested and prepared most of the alterations;
and certainly the more vital ones.
The new Preamble qualified the phrase, " We, the people,"
in the original Preamble, to make the words imply their
original meaning, reading : " We, the People of the Confed
erate States, each State acting in its sovereign and Indej>endent
character,\n order to form a Permanent Federal Government."
The phrase, "general welfare," found in the original, was
AvhoUy omitted. The words added were: "Invoking the
favor of Almighty God," etc.
Powers and restrictions, added or imposed upon the three
branches of the government, were :
As to Congress — This branch was authorized to allow the
heads of each Department of the Kxecutive branch to appear
upon the floor of either House for the purpose of explaining its
estimates or recommendations. Congress could make no
appropriations, save for the purposes and in the amounts
specified by the heads of Departments. But appropriations,
not so demanded, might be made by a vote of two-thirds of
both Houses. And further to fix responsibility for public
expenditures on the Executive branch, all bills providing
appropriations, going to the President, he might approve any
appropriation or disapprove of any appropriation in the same
bill. The Post Office must be self-sustaining, after a date
named. The Treasury must publish, at stated Intervals, its
receipts and disbursements, by items. Revenue might be
raised by duties on imports, " to pay the debts, provide for the

592 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
common defense, and carry on the government of the Confed
erate States," but Congress could grant no bounties, nor foster
any branch of Industry by taxes or duties on foreign importa
tions. Congress could not carry oh general internal improve
ments, to facilitate commerce. Each State, by consent of
Congress, could tax marine commerce in its harbor for the
improvement thereof, provided the tax did not interfere with
the treaties or laws of Congress. Congress might improve the
navigation of any particular harbor, but it must reimburse the
federal treasury by taxes levied on the commerce of that
harbor. When a river divided or fiowed through two or more
States, the States concerned might unite to improve its
navigation-. Congress might admit new States, by a two
thirds vote of both Houses, the vote of the Senate being by
States. Congress could pass no act of bankruptcy to discharge
any debt contracted prior to the passage of the act. This last
reform -was intended to quiet much dispute, arising from the
phraseology of the old Constitution, relating to the same
object. As to the Executive — The President and vice-President
must be chosen for six years and the President was not
re-ellglble. The President might remove the officers of his.
Cabinet, at will, but removal, below that grade, must be
reported to the Congress, with the cause. No person nomi
nated for civil office and rejected by the Senate, could be
appointed by the President, in the intervals of the sessions of
Congress. The President might convene both Houses, or
either, In extra session, at will, and could adjourn one or both,
so convened, by proclamation.
The powers of the Judicial Department were so altered
that, citizens of one State could not bring suit against citizens-
of another State, In the federal Courts. When the duties of a
federal Judge were confined to one State, the Legislature
thereof raight impeach hira for offences named in the federal
Constitution. The Congress created the Department of Justice,.
to be undei- the direction of the Attorney General, and this
Avas held, by Congress, to be a long advance over the practical
operation of the Attorney General's office in the United States.
The provision of the Constitution, of 1787, allowing Con
gress to regulate elections for merabers of Congress, was.

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 593
retained, and to the restriction, relating to non-interference
with the " places " of electing Senators, " times " of electing
Senators was added. Three States, by Conventions, might
demand a Convention of States to alter or amend the Consti
tution, but Congress could not suggest alterations, and the
federal Convention must determine whether the State ratifica
tions should be by ordinance of Convention of the people or by
act of Legislature. The African slave trade was forever
prohibited. Congress might prohibit the introduction of slaves
from States, not members of the Confederacy. These reforms
were intended to elucidate the Araerican idea contained in the
resolutions of Patrick Henry, of 1765.
After Mr. Lincoln's Adrainistration was fully organized,
Mr. Douglas readily discovered the radical changes of Admin
istration policy toward the South, which would be pursued at
the earliest practicable moment. He yet remained the true
friend of the South, as he conceived his opportunity to be ; he
was yet the resolute defender of the Constitution, as he deemed
a defense of it possible, amidst his environments. March 15,
1861, he Introduced in the Senate resolutions of the most
conservative nature. They were the refiex of his motives. In
the past. Their fate, and the counter course of the first
]{epubllcan party Administration, will reraaln the most inter
esting testimony that Yancey and Douglas, of all leaders,
understood their times. They were the architects ; the work
men, of their following, respectively, placed the parts of the
structure, knowing not the plan of the buUder. The resolu
tions of Mr. Douglas declared for peace ; declared the forts held
near Charleston, Savannah, Pensacola, Mobile and New Or
leans should be evacuated by the United States. In his speech
he said the land on which the forts were built was ceded to
protect, first, the States who were no longer represented in
the Union. He would not surrender Fort Taylor, at Key
West, or Fort Jefferson, at Dry Tortugas, for these w^ere
positions of a general defensive character to all the States, but
the United States would have no excuse for holding the other
forts, intended to protect the States now of the Southern
Confederacy, unless the United States intended to begin a war
of subjugation. " We are for peace," he exclaimed, meaning
his following in Congress.

38

594 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Secretary of Wai-, Walker, soon received applications for
military duty from organized companies, and battalions and
individuals, in all numbering largely more than three hundred
thousand raen. States, counties, towns, neighborhoods and
individuals equipped and arraed Individuals, companies and
regiments for the fleld without the assistance or the consent of
government. Z. C. Deas, later Brigadier-General, a cotton
broker, of Mobile, armed with new rifles of the best pattern,
at his own expense, the Twenty-second Alabama Infantry,
commanded by himself. N. B. Forrest, of Memphis, later
Lieutenant-General, arraed at his own expense a battalion of
six hundred cavalry. WUliara R. Miles, of Mississippi, raised
and arraed and equipped at his own expense a legion and
becarae Brigadier-General in command of It. Wade Hampton,
of South Carolina, later Lieutenant-General, raised and armed
a legion at his own expense. Neighborhoods fed men and
horses at recruiting stations to the value of thousands of
dollars without the knowledge or consent of the government.
Congress deliberated in secrecy. The press reflected the
energy of the people In warlike preparations, devoting small
attention to affairs of government. The contact of the people
with the President ever exalted hira in their eyes. No public
utterances surpassed his in fervor and devotion. All who saw
him and heard blm left him, fascinated by the tone of his
resolution and Inspired with the glowing ardof of his senti
ments. But the President's health, always precarious, soon
began to fail.
^ Mr. A. Dudley Mannj,dlstlngulshed ln_coraraercial pursuits
and Mr. P. A. Rost, of Louisiana, were appointed Associate
Commissioners to Europe -with Mr. YapceyTjMijFearnT^
Alabama, _a_ young gentleman of previous experience inthe
duties Incumbent on the office^wafj ma,de .Secretary of~the^
Commission. Besides providing for this Comraission, the
Congress, undeterred by the repulse of the eff'orts of the sep
arate seceded States to adjust their accounts and establish
friendly relations with the United States, passed a resolution,
before the arrival of the President, providing that :
"A Commission of three persons be appointed by the President
elect, as early as may be convenient after his inauguration, and sent to
the government of the United States of America for the purpose of

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 595
negotiating friendly relations between that government and the Confed
erate States of America, and for the settlement of all questions of
disagreement between the two governments upon principles of right,
justice and good faith."
Messrs. John Forsyth, Martin A. Crawford, of Georgia, and
A. B. Roman, of Louisiana, were appointed, and set out Imme
diately. Mr. Seward authorized Justice John A. Campbell, in
view of that gentleraan's intimacy with the Commissioners,
and his well knoAvn sentiments of hostility to the Southern
movement, to assure the Commissioners that, while he Avould
not receive them officially, he Avas anxious for peace :
"Fort Sumter will be evacuated (wrote Justice Campbell) in less
than ten day-s, even before a letter can go from Washington to Mont
gomery; as regards Fort Pickens, notice will be given of .any design to
alter the status there."*
Hearing of the visit of the Commissioners, and suspicious
cf the purpose of Mr. Seward, the Governors of seven States,
controlled by the Republican party, hurried to Washington,
and, waiting on the President, succeeded in effecting a reverse
policy to peace. Justice Campbell, in turn, growing suspicious
of the presence of the visiting Governors at the State Depart
ment, while a fieet of seven ships, carrying 285 guns and 2,400
men, Avas being prepared, in great haste, at New York and
Norfolk, to sail under sealed orders, demanded of Mr. Seward
re-assurance. Mr. Seward replied: "Faith as to Sumter
fully kept ; wait and see." But, before Mr. Seward's reply had
been written, the fieet had not only sailed, but was near
Charleston harbor. Upon the discovery of the deception, the
Commissioners notified Mr. Seward that the course of his
government was equivalent to a declaration of war against the
Confederate States and forthwith started on their way horae.
Justice Campbell resignecl his seat on the Supreme Court, and
repaired to Alabafna, with unfeigned reluctance.
Tn tbe month of March, the Commissioners appointed to go
to Europe waited yet, at Montgomery, the instructions of their
gov££q,mentr TheiFgoverhhientAvaited, on the hopes Inspired
by Mr. Seward's correspondence, indirectly, with the Commis
sioners at Washington. Toombs, Secretary of State, Rhett,
?Letter of John A. Campbell to the Commissioners, dated Washington, March
15, 1861.

596 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
chairman of the Cpmmittee on Foreign Relations, and Yancey,
head of the foreign embassy, expected nothing from Washing
ton, which could justify the neglect of high diplomacy at the
governments of the commercial powers of Europe. There
was, however, a strong feeling in Congress favorable to hold
ing open to the United States the first advantages in the
diplomacy of the Confederate States. Nor was this feeling
confined to Congress. It appeared in argument made by one
of the most distinguished citizens and politicians of the Ala
bama Secession Convention — W. R. Smith; it soon recom
mended itself to the mind of, at least, one of the Commissioners
to Europe.* There -were indications that it had received the
President's sanction. It had been determlned_thjtJthejC^^^
missioners should sainrroin"'Nevr^Orleans, on Mikrch..31 ;-.and.
they were on raid ocean when the Coramissioners_at^Wasjilng-_
ton discovered, in the early days of April, that an arm.ed,^jetj_
clandestinely dispatched to relie-ve Fort Sumter,.. had cut oft'
all hope of diplomacy with the United States.
The Confederate States never had a foreign policy nor did
the "government ever consent to attempt a^igh diplomacy
with -European powers.f In the early months of the life of
the Confederacy the Chief Executive devoted his labors, almost
exclusively, to the minor, perfunctory tasks of his office. He
was betrayed by the enthusiasm of the people, ignorant of the
real state of aff'airs. Into a fatal self-contentment. A sugges
tion came to Montgomery, and was submitted to Secretary
Mallory, to the eff'ect that an entire fleet of iron ships, six In
number, as good as new, built for the East Indies trade, could
be purchased at that moment in Liverpool for 110,000,000 that
cost $20,000,000 to build, and that, at small cost, the ships
could be conA'erted Into armed cruisers, capable of holding
open at least one ot the Confederate sea ports ; and capable, as
to the reraalnder of the fieet, not so eraployed, of destroying
the entire merchant marine, on the high seas, of the -people of
the United States. Mr. Mallory, knowing the utter ineffi
ciency into which Secretary Meminger's Department had fallen,
01' rather the virtual failure of that officer to organize a flnan
cial sy^em, omitted to communicate to the President his
?Rost's letter to Yancey.
t Kemark of James L. Orr, chairman of House Committee on Foreign Relations,
Confederate Congress.

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 597
opportunity, quite assured that the want of funds would be
the plea of Meminger, sustained by the head of the govern
ment. The President, therefore, remained In ignorance of so
important a consideration of the hour.* The Treasury admin
istration was, frora the outset, a block to the naval and
military administrations, ^eeksbefore the Commissioners
to Europe sailed, a foreign policy, based on the experience of
"the States durlUg^the-revoiutiOnary war, was very earnestly
.. pressed upon the attentioii of the Congress and the Executive.
The treaty made by Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur
_Le£,jii-lU-&, was an Indispensable condition to the success of
the American Confederation, striking to establish Its Inde
pendence. In 1861, it was urged, that the Confederate States
had inducements to offer to England and France of incom
parably greater importance than the Araerican Confederation
offered, successfully, to France and Spain in the revolutionary
war. No money, no gifts, loans or endorsements, as were
granted to the States by their allies, of 1778, were proposed
in the example of the Confederate States. JThe Confederate
States neither desired, or required, more than the right to sell
^ in friendly markets~tKe~annual surplus products of Its agri
culture. The Com raission ers, of the earlier period, went to'-^^
Europe empowered to negotiate, as best they might, to assist
their government over a recognized crisis in its life ; to encour
age a practical reciprocity of benefits by soleran and honora)jle
treaty. The Commissioners of the later period went to Europe <s
expressly forbidden to engage the attention of the great powers
with suggestions of practical reciprocity of benefits, by treaty.
Franklin, Deane and Lee were granted a wide field of enter
prise, their government anxious only to gain relief and recog
nition, on terms becoraing to its honor 3_ Yancey, Mann and
Rost were only bearers of Information of the great importance
of the commerce^f their government ; ofjts moral right to a
.place in the family of nations. "Distih guished citizens, some
as general, others as special Commissioners, were sent to
Europe at various times by the Confederate governraent, but
the tenor of no instructions given to them ever reached to an
?A merchant, Mr. Trenholm, of a long established house of Charleston, having
a Liverpool connection, made the visit to Secretary Mallorj' revealmg the project of
Jiurchase of the iron ships. (See Century Magazine War Papers, 1887.) In an article
in the North American lievieiv Mr. Davis denied all knowledge of it.

598 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
appreciation of diplomacy. Undoubtedly, the conduct of the
financial affairs of the Confederacy and the resolute neglect of
its governraent to engage in a diplomacy, consistent with its
origin and Intelligence, were deliberate acts, founded upon a
narrow understanding of the character and resources of the
Northern people. It was determined to stamp a great deal of
paper, for currency, then tolssue bonds in purchase of _colton,-
leavingthe cotton on the plantations, although the, ports were
wide open then and for a year later. It was supposed the
United States would fall into bankruptcy, AA'jthin a twelve
month. That class of politicians who, at the outset, demanded
no restrictions on trade between the two Confederacies believed
a lasting peace could be estabUshed between them by means
of the cotton held by the one and necessary to the prosperity
of the other. The other class argued that, a sound statesman
ship required the Confederate States to put itself In position
to accept or reject an alliance with the United States, as Its
positive interests required; and that, under existing circum
stances, the friendship of the powers of Western Europe
should be first secured. Nothing was sought, by the masses
who resorted to secession, but security from the Republican
party domination of the Union. Until Unionists of the South
should comprehend the menace of subjugation, held out by
the war party of the North, they Avere quite in the intellectual
position of those numerous colonists of the revolution, of 1774,
who were ready to accept the repeal of the Stamp Act as a
guarantee of Constitutional government; who were ready to
accept the order of government reducing the import tax on
tea, for the colonies, as satisfaction of the Araerican com
plaint.* Patrick Henry, Jeff'erson, Otis, .Adams demanded^
the renunciation of the right of Great Britain to tax America,
and, on the same fundamental principle, the i.ss_ue,of_the slave"
States was made up, in 1861.
The chairraan of the Committee on Foreign Relations
matured a plan of Confederate diplomacy, contained in these
several propositions :
1. A treaty of commercial alliance, involving reciprocal
obligations off'ensive and defensive, should be offered to Eng
land and France, to continue not less than twenty years, with
?Milledgeville speech of A. H. Stephens, November, 1860: Letter of A. H.
Stephens to -Abraham Lincoln.

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 599
the Confederate States, conditioned on their recognition as an
independent power. During the continuance of this treaty
the Confederate States would Impose an import duty, not
higher than twenty per cent., ad valorem, on the importations
passing through Its custom houses from Great Britain and
France; that no tonnage duties, except for the purpose of
maintaining harbors and rivers, should, in the continuance
of the treaty, be imposed by the Confederate States, or in
Its ports ; that the European parties to the treaty should
enjoy the privilege of the coasting trade of the Confederate
States free, subject only to police regulations ihiposed by the
several States, each in its own capacity ;
2. That a discriminating duty of ten per cent, should be
imposed by the Confederate States upon the importations of
all kinds, from nations refusing to accept the stipulations
above cited;
3. Jhat the Commission be empowered, as in the example
of Franklin, Dean and Lee, to raake a league, oft'enslve and
defensive, with special guarantees, to defend the North Amer
ican possessions, for example, of Great Britain. But this
authority must not be exercised hastily.
These arguments were made known in due time to the
President and it was hoped they would be Incorporated In the
Instructions of the State Department to the Coraraissioners.
Indefed, Mr. Toombs had overcome his extreme reluctance to
accept the Secretaryship of State in the expectation that sorae
such instructions would be allowed frora the office. A few
days before the Coramission took its departure, Mr. Rhett,
meeting Mr. Toombs on the staircase of the Exchange Hotel,
inquired concerning the character of the instructions to the
Commission, on the points he had discussed In the Congress
in the presence of Mr. Toombs. The Secretary replied, the
President had not embraced the points in any conversation
with him. Rhett hastened to Yancey. Had he been instructed
to negotiate comraercial treaties with European powers ?^_^r^
Yancey had received no intimation f rom_any source that
"Snthority to negotiate commercial trestle's would devolve upon
"the— COmmisiionT " What, then, (exclaimed Rhett), can be
yournislructions ? " The President, Mr. Yancey said, seemed
to be impressed with the importance of the cotton crop. A

600 THE , LIFE OF YANCEY.
considerable part of the crop of last year was yet on hand and
a full crop would soon be planted. The justice of the cause
and the cotton, so far as he knew, he regretted to say, would
be the basis of diplomacy expected of the Commission. " Sir,
(rejoined Rhett), you have no business in Europe, You carry"
no argument which Europe cares to hear. Unless you shall
have it in your power to arrest attention there by some great
and lasting off'er of practical advantage to the governments
and peoples there, to compensate them for the risks they must
incur in receiving you and recognizing your government, you
can do nothing worthy of your time. The United States has
^ Avarned all Europe against your coming, and Europe will not
! off'end the United States merely to exalt the virtue of your
j government. My counsel to you as a friend is, if you value
\ your reputation, to stay at home or to go prepared to concil
iate Europe by irresistible proff'ers of trade."
The uninstructed Commissioners sailed for London. The
Congress adjourned. The fleet ordered to provision and rein
force Sumter was delayed, off the bar of Charleston, by a pro
tracted storm. Beauregard, advised of its approach, bom
barded and captured Sumter, before Its arrival. Lincoln called
for seventy-five thousand volunteers to subdue the South. Vir
ginia, in response to a deraand for her quota of troops for the
United States army, seceded and joined the Confederacy. Tbe
President of the Confederate States called Congress to reas
semble. The chairman of the Coraraittee on Foreign Relations
appealed to Congress. He oft'ered a resolution, respectfuUy
directing the attention of the Executive and requesting the
President to Instruct the Coraraissioners. The Secretary of
State was in full sympathy with the chairman of the Com
mittee. The Committee invited the Secretary to appear before
It. After hearing his argument, a report was prepared unani
mously Indorsing the views of the chairraan and the Secretary,
.^.favoring i.nstructiqns to the Cora niisslon ers for a most-^J)eral
. treaty. When the report came up In Congress, Mr. Perkins, from
Louisiana, Whig and' Unionist, moved to reduce the stipula
tion of twenty years enjoyment by foreign powers, to six
years ; the manufactures of the Confederacy would be extin
guished, in twenty years competition with Europe; "the purse

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 601
of a nation is the conscience of a nation," and England could
not afford to reduce her manufacturing classes to starvation
for Arant.of American "cotton ; France would follow the lead of
England ; most of all, such a treaty would be premature, for,
as yet, there was no hindrance to the peaceful life of the Con
federacy. Mr. Rhett replied that, a treaty was the best security of the
continued peace of the Confederacy ; that the natural commer
cial allies of the Confederate States, and the natural coraraercial
rivals of the United States, should be the beneficiaries of a
liberal treaty. An eneray should be assailed on his most
vulnerable point. The United States was exceedingly anxious
lest it should lose free trade with the States of the Confed
eracy. European nations would require at least twenty years
guarantee, in a treaty, securing such vital relief to the Confed
erate States as that proposed. The experience of the United
States and of Great Britain had shown that, twenty per cent.,
ad valorem, import duty was a revenue standard. It was not
improbable that the war would continue six years, if the prep
arations, then going on. Indicated the hostile temper of the
two Republics. The twenty years limit would allow the Con
federate States time to recuperate from the sacrifices of war,
whUe enjoying the friendship of nations able to supply every
want. True as it might be, that European goods brought
under the proposed treaty, through the ports of the Confed
erate States, would be smuggled through the long frontier Into
the LTnited States, the manufacturers of the United States
would thus be raade to suffer. In the competition of foreign
products, without any important Injury to the people of the
Confederate States. He could not concur with the gentlemen
who would have the Secretary of the Treasury authorized to
buy cotton, on Interest bearing bonds of the Government, and
issue a paper currency while the cotton remained on the plan
tations; nor accept this financial system in preference to a
treaty which would make the cotton, deposited In Europe, the
basis of a perfect currency. He was apprehensive that
jEnglandj^^^ecially, .was-in„no mpqd to^cpn template a course
^^ conduct, in the Confederate States, which would assist the
''Trnlted_ Stjates to'ciose- the cotton ports. ButJi__the_cott,Dn
ports of America should be closed, England would engage In a

602 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
determined eff'ort to cultivate cotton in India and elsewhere,.
and, enterprise once begun in that direction, it would be her
policy to discourage trade with the Confedera-te States to the
utmost.
-" Mr. Perkins' amendment to the report of the Committee,.
substituting six years for " twenty years," was adopted. Mr.
Rhett rose to say that, in his opinion, the amended resolution
would excite only the derision of foreign powers. He would
move to lay the whole subject on tbe table; and to this the
Congress gave its ready assent.*
The President did not appreciate the argument of the
Secretary of State and the Chairman of the Committee on
Foreign Relations. Many years later he revealed the purpose
he had in view, when dispatching the Commission to Europe,-
and explained what he expected :
" If we were independent States (he wrote) the refusal (of Euro
pean powers) to entertain, with us, the same international intercourse
as was maintained with our enemy, was unjust. * * Neither was it
in accordance with the high moral obligation of that international code,
whose chief sanction is the conscience of sovereigns, and the public
opinion of mankind, that those eminent powers should have declined
the performance of a duty, peculiarly incumbent on them, for any appre
hensions of the consequences to themselves."t
The vice-President took a widely dift'erent view-— a view
eminently practical. The planters, too, came to the capital
with proffers of cotton, the remnant of a crop on hand and the
full crop growing. Speculators were not yet known. Mer
chants and bankers were ready to support the fortunes of the
new government. Vice-President Stephens urged that, there
was a sufficiency of cotton In sight, and In contemplation, to
prepare- an array to hold the frontier slave States, where the
army could be fed and the farmers reap their reward in
feeding it, while the cotton States, raising an abundance of
provisions for their own consumption, might produce, at least,
half a cotton crop. It was quite to be expected that the
government might purchase, without delay, vessels enough
not only to cripple the marine commerce of the United States,
but to hold open at least one sea port of its own. Vessels
* 1 am indebted to a very valuable unpublished history written bv Hon. R. B.
Rhett, Deputy to the Congress, a fragment of whidh was submitted to me bv his son.
Colonel R. B. Rhett.
t Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Vol. II., p. 369.

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 603
might be bought to convoy the Confederate commerce across
the sea. ^ The vice-President declared that, cotton was not a
politicajJ)ut.jj2QjQlHl£rclalj^ug''; that a vigorous war policy
would devote the slave labor In the cotton States to the pro
duction of the staple, and would so dispose of armies as to
receive the benefit of slave labor in the grain producing States ;
that cotton stored in Europe, on account of the Confederate
gov^ernment, would appreciate in price, sufficient to cover the
cost of money advanced on it, and that the staple so stored
Avould become "the basis of the soundest currency in the
world." • Secretary Meminger resisted all argument addressed to a
vigorous war 'p'ollcy, sustained by the Treasury. He was
unwilling to take the cotton from the planters, fearing the
political eff'ects at home. There was, as yet, no trouble with
the governments currency ; there would probably be none ;
cotton, stored by the government on the plantations, was a
basis of currency, and the removal to Europe would not
augment its value ; it was not probable the troops, already
armed, would all be required ; the moment cotton began to go
out of the ports of the Confederacy, the United States would
make the blockade effective, and it was not probable Europe
would send ships for the staple, even should we store it at the
sea ports. He considered cotton, on the plantations, in position
to justify diplomacy with all comraercial nations, whose
friendship the Confederacy would need, but this advantage,
safe as it was then, would be liable to impairment, should the
cotton be consigned to English warehouses.
Toombs, in despair of making operative his Department,
resigned after five months and took active service In the field
as Brigadier-General. Walker, convinced that inadequate
steps would be taken to arm and equip the troops in the field,
and ready to take the field, resigned and accepted a commission
as active Brigadier-General. The best informed soldiers grew
apprehensive, on account of the feebleness of the govern
ment. General Bragg, writing frora Pensacola, declared the
future of the Confederate struggle depended on the selection of
a competent Secretary of War.*
?Life of Albert Sidney Johnston.

604 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
It became, soon, common talk that all cotton on hand in
the Confederacy ought to be destroyed, by the government,
and notice given to England that no crop would be planted, in
the future, until the recognition of the Confederate States was
allowed by that power. A discriminating tax was put on
cotton production.
Messrs. Yancey and Rost, accompanied Jiy  §gS£^SEy
Fearn, arrived at London, April 29. _Mr. Mann had_chosen
a diff'erent route, and reached the same destination, M,ay 15.
Before the arrival of Mr. Mann, Hon. W. L. Gregory, M. P.,'
arranged an informal interview for the Commissioners, already
arrived, with her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign
Aff'airs, Lord John Russell. The Interview was entirely
satisfactory to the Commissioners. Lord John asked to be
informed concerning the physical character of the Confederate
States, the military and Industrial resource? of the country.
The Commissioners assured his Lordship that their govern
ment would recognize neutral rights and property of neutrals
to the extent AA'hlch the most liberal nation could require.
Lord John gave close attention to the recital of the treatment
the Coraraissioners of the Confederate government, to the
United States, had received from Mr. Seward. His Lordship
was reminded of the Declaration of Paris, which required a
blockade to be " effective " to be entitled to respect, a rule which
would leave every Confederate port open to the world. At the
termination of the Interview, his Lordship promised that a
meeting of the Cabinet would take the matter, brought up,
into consideration and it was probable his governraent would
confer with the powers of Western Europe, but he was unable
to encourage the hope that the Coramission would have an
early ansAver.
Three days later. Lord John spoke in the House of Com
mons, in answer to a question of previous notice. He said the
government had "reached the opinion that the Southern Con
federacy of America, according to those principles which, to
them, seemed to be just principles, must be treated as a
belligerent." In the House of Lords, a few days later, in
interesting debate it was declared, the United States could
not be allowed to treat the privateers of the Confederacy as
pirates.

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 606
Mr. Rost repaired to Paris. He was politely received by
Count de Morecy, the adviser of the Emperor. Here, too,
political parties embarrassed the American policy of the
government. The Imperialists seeraed not adverse to the
claims of the Confederacy, but both the Orleanists and the
Red Republicans looked to the unity of the American people
as a counterpoise to the power of Great Britain. Mr. Rost
could discover no unfriendly feeling, of the Emperor, toAvards
the Confederacy, but was raade aware of his disinclination to
act at that tirae and alone.
The Commissioners were Impressed with the advantage to \
them of the abortive pledges of Mr. Seward, to restore the
Union in ninety days, while the press of the United States,
and emissaries of that government abroad, spread the pledge
Into all parts of Great Britain and the Continent. Under
date June 1, they dispatched to their government:
"The effect has been most decidedly to injure the position of the
United States and especially to excite British antagonism. So evident
is this state of sentiment that the Commission has studiously avoided
all public discussion even while they industriously strive to enlighten
public opinion They believe tlieir conduct has been appreciated where
it was desired to take eHect."
The neglect of the Commission by their government era-A
harrassed its official work. While the neglectful course of
their government checked them at every point, the reverse
conduct of the United States towards its agents was seen to
be fruitful of the best results. The Coraraisslon had received
no funds, even to defray their personal expenses. No raessen-
gers were allowed to them, no secret agents, no influence could
be exerted by thera, in the many ordinary and legitimate
uses of feed assistants in the work of diplomacy. , Jhe ,
United States, however, with a vigorous conduct of its Treas
ury Department, sent nunierous agents to all parts of Europe

^' InHuence public opinion, supplying them with abundant
^meahs. Orators were sent and newspapers employed to exalt
"the war"agalnst slavcry,'lin the manufacturing towns. Mr.
ScAvard opened direct correspondence with military men on
the continent, stipulating for their services, and, even, offered
the command of the principal army of the United States to
a European.* Nothing was left undone which money and
?McClellan's Own Story.

606 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
flattery could accomplish to enUst the sympathies of Europe
for "the war against slavery." The metropolitan press of
the United States were required to publish news especially
adapted to European circulation, and large sums of money
Avere sent by the government to distribute those papers.
Meanwhile, notwithstanding the appeal of the Confederate
Commission for Confederate accounts of preparations for
defense and of battles fought, their government passed them
by unheeded. Libraries, club rooms, hotel rooms, numberless
public places were abundantly supplied with the newspapers
of the LTnited States, and frora these, only, did news frora the
Confederate States reach the foreign view.
The gentlemen of the Comraission were politely received
by individuals in foreign countries, but no offlcial entertain
ment of them was permitted by the authorities. The Minister
of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, encouraged by
this incident, required of Lord John Russell that the oral
IntervlcAvs heretofore held by him with the Confederate Com
missioners should cease. July 15 tbe Commissioners reported
to their government :
" The relations between Mr. Adams and the British Cabinet are not
entirely amicable or satiijfactory to either, and, both in his diplomatic
and social relations, Mr. Adams is held a blunderer. Our owu course
has been to avoid calling attention here to this state of affairs, leaving
the mistakes of our enemies to their full effect. Any other course
would have excited TSTorthern emissaries to divert attention to us."
Mr. Adams, however, succeeded in breaking off the per
sonal raeetlngs of Lord John Russell with the Commissioners.
Upon this a dlff'erence of opinion among the members of the
Commission arose. Mr. Yancey thought the concession of
Lord John to Mr. Adams' demand was in violation of the rule
of neutrality, to which the British governraent had pledged
Itself. Written corainunlcations, which Lord John was still
willing to accept, were, as Mr. Yancey argued, not a fair sub
stitute for oral communications and personal interchange of
argument. Neither could the cause of the Confederacy, under
the circumstances, be adequately explained in writing or the
tone and temper of tbe British government toward it be dis
covered. Mr. Yancey urged that the Commission should
respond to Lord John's notice of suspension of his accus
tomed interviews with it by a moderate but firm protest.

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 607
consistent with the dignity of their government. The other
Commissioners objected to a protest and the matter of dlff'er
ence was referred to the government at Richmond.
,Iuly 15, the Commission reported that Mr. Rost had suc
ceeded in obtaining an informal interview with M. Thouvenal,
French Minister of Foreign Affairs. The government of ;
France entertained a sincere desire to see peace restored in
America and would join other powers of Europe in such
measures as might be agreed upon, but the imperial interest
Avas first to be looked for in European politics. The i'rench
consuls had reported a full cotton crop about to be harvested
and that there_tLadJ3fesn-BQ iraportant ..invasion of any part of
^he Conf ed erac^. French interests had not been molested in
any of the States. . Mr. Yancey at onpe repaired to Paris to
join Mt._JiQst..^irpon inquiry, as best he might, he became
convinced that the emperor entertained no feeling hostile to
the Confederacy and only awaited the action of the British
governraent. "From information derived from very reliable sources (said a dis
patch of the Commission from Paris) we are of the opinion that the /
governments of Spain, Belgium and Denmark entertain towards the
Confederate States the most friendly feeling, and are ready to recognize
their independence so soon as England and France shall determine to i
do so. * * AVe think the opinion is general among the best informed I
Englishmen, who deny the right of secession and refuse to justify its
exercise, that the great principle underlying the contest, by which it
¦should be judged, is the principle of self-government. They do not
hesitate to declare that eleven great commonwealths united, have the
revolutionary right to throw off the government of a Republic which
they consider injurious to their best interests and to set up another.
To deny this right is, they say, to impeach the Declaration of 1776.
-* * The opinion once prevailing here, that there was a considerable .
party in the Southern Confederacy favorable to reconstruction of the
lata Union, has given way before the march of events. In consequence,
the desire is universal that an early peace shall prevail and that Eng
land, when occasion offers, shall tender her mediation. * * We are \
yet fully satisiied of the correctness of the opinion heretofore advanced
by us, that the recognition of the independence of the Confederate ]
States is considered both in England aud on the continent as a question 1
merely of time. The unity of our population in defense of their gov- /
ernment has been satisfactorily proven. This fact, taken in connection
with the recognized wisdom of the statesmanship of the Confederacy,!
has led to the condition of public sentiment favorable to us." '

608 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The Commission not only failed to receive funds frora
', Secretary Meminger, but they had cause of complaint in other
; examples of neglect. Frequent calls raade on them in Europe
j for the official record of vessels entering and clearing the
; Confederate ports, could not receive answer for the want of
this Important information from their government :
"Not a day passes (they wrote) that fails to bring demands upon
us from individuals, of Aveight and influence, who require information
concerning the inefficiency of the blockade, with which to swell the
pressure upon the government. Unfortunately we have been compelled
to meet all such inquiries with the reply that, 'we hope to be able to
answer them by the next advices.' The impression here is that, England
aud France have remonstrated in strong terms and protested against
the sinking of the stone fleet in the marine channel off Charleston. It
is said they will interfere to the extent of a, demand for an armistice.
The whole question will be brought forward in Parliament at ah early
day and will give rise to heated discussion."
^ The Commission continued to urge a raore constant corre-
f spondence of their government with itself, and pressed their
government to appreciate the activity of the United States, by
means of agents well paid and a thorough distribution of pro
ductions of the press, calculated to excite prejudice in every
part of Europe against the Confederacy, the prowess of its
I armies, and the perseverance of its people. To faciUtate
i communication with its government, the Comraission urged
I the establishment of a secret Une, one end fixed in Canada and
I the other on a frontier post of the Confederacy. Expense
would be heavy, and the risk would be considerable, but not
sufficient to deter an enterprise on whose success so much
depended. Indeed, evidence abounds confirming the most
active attempts of the Commission to obtain information in
the very limited lines prescribed by their government.
August 7, Lord John Russell addressed a note to the
Commissioners, intimating his desire to receive from them a
Avritten explanation of the alleged right of their government
to recognition by her nnijesty's government. Two of the
Commissioners, Messrs. Yancey and Rost, replied the next
day, Mr. Mann being in Paris, promising to prepare the doc
ument requested. Mr. Mann returned, and the next week the
promised document was submitted to his Lordship. The
original draft is in the handwriting of Mr. Yancey. The

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 609
argument presented was limited to the tenor of the instruc
tions of the President. Upon the reasoning of this docuraent,
and its facts, the cause of the Confederate States will stand at
the bar of history. The raethods of practical administration
of that cause bring up another view of the question, not
possible of full consideration in these pages.
THE PLEA FOR RECOGNITION.
" London, August 14, 1861.
"Right Honorable Earl Russell, Her Majesty^ s Principal Sec
retary of State for Foreign Aff'airs :
" The undersigned, as your Lordship has already on two
occasions been orally and unofficially Informed, were appointed
on the 16th of March last, a Comraission to Her Britannic
Majesty's Governraent by the President of the Confederate
States of America.
" The undersigned were instructed to represent to your
Lordship that seven of the sovereign States of the late Ameri
can Union, for just and sufficient reasons and in full accordance
with the great American principle of self-government, had
thrown off the authority of that Union and had formed a
Confederacy, which they had styled 'The Confederate States
of America.' They were further instructed to ask her Britan
nic Majesty's Government to recognize the fact of the existence
of this power in the world, and also to inform it that they
were fully empowered to negotiate with it a treaty of Friend
ship, and of Commerce and Navigation.
"At an early day after the arrival of the undersigned In
London, at an interview, which your Lordship was pleased to
accord them, they informed your Lordship of the object of
their mission, and endeavored to impress upon your Lordship
that the -action of seven Confederate States had been based
upon frequent attempts on the part of the Federal Govern
ment, and of many of the more Northern States which
composed the late Union, during a series of years extending
over near a half century, to rule the people of the Southern
section of that Union by means of an unconstitutional exercise
of power, and that secession from the Union had been resorted
to as, in the opinion of the people of the seceded States, the

610 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
best and surest mode of saving the liberties which their fed
eral and State Constitutions were designed to secure to them.
They also endeavored to place before your Lordship satisfac
tory' evidence that the justice of this great movement, upon
the part of the cotton States, was so palpable that it would be
endorsed by many, if not all, the Southern States then adher
ing to the Union, who would be convinced sooner or later
that the security of their rights could only be maintained by
pursuing the like process of secession from the Federal Union
and of accession to the Constitution and governraent of the
Confederate States of America. They were especially desirous
of convincing your Lordship, and laid before your Lordship
reasons for their belief that, the people of the Confederate
States had violated no principle of allegiance in their acts of
secession, but, on the contrary, that they had been true to that
high duty which all citizens owe to the sovereignty which is
the supreme fount of power in a State, no raatter what may
be the particular forra of government under which they live.
They were careful to show to your Lordship, however, that
the Idea of Araerican sovereignty was dift'erent from that
entertained in Great Britain and Europe; that, whereas, in
the Eastern hemisphere, sovereignty was supposed to exist in
the governraent, the founders of the North American States
had solemnly declared, and upon that Declaration had built
up Araerican institutions, that, 'governments are instituted
among men deriving their just powers frora the consent of the
governed ; that whenever any forra of governraent becomes
destructive of these ends (security to life, Uberty and the
pursuit of happiness) it is the right of the people to alter or
to abolish it and to Institute a new government.'
" The undersigned assumed it be incontestable, in order
to give practical utility to this Declaration, that, the people
declared to possess the right to alter or abolish ojipressive
government must be the ' people ' whose rights such govern
ment assailed or no longer protected. Whether governraent
should be administered by one tyrant or by the more heartless
and equally effective despotism of a sectional and tyrannical
raajority of the people, could make no difference in the appli
cation of the principle asserted in the Declaration. And
when the people who thus act in abolishing their form of

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 611
government are not mere self-constituted assemblages of dls-
aft'ected individuals, but the sovereign people of great States,
possessing separate Constitutions and legislative and executive
powers, acting in the manner prescribed by those Constitu
tions and taking votes under form and by virtue of law — the
minority yielding cheerfully to the decision of the majority, as
to the question of redress — it becomes clear that, whatever
might be European views as to such action, if developed in
Europe, the seceding States are justified by the great Ameri
can principle of self-government, proclaimed by their ancestors
in 1776. The undersigned submitted that, so far from the
principle of American allegiance having been violated by the
people of the seceded ' States, in those States alone is that
principle upheld as a living truth, whereby the actions of men
claiming to be representatives of the men of 1776 are to be
guided and justified ; and that the people and governraent of
the States upholding Mr. Lincoln, in his war upon the Con
federate States, are alone the traitors to that great political
truth, and as such raust be adjudged by an impartial world.
In connection with this view, the undersigned explained to
your Lordship the unity, the deliberation, the moderation and
regard for personal and public right, the absence of undue
popular commotion, during the process of secession, the daily
and ordinary adrainistration of the laws in every department
of justice, all of which are distinguished features of this great
movement. They expatiated upon the extent of fertile country
over which the Confederate States exercised jurisdiction, pro
ducing every variety of cereals necessary and in ample quan
tity for the support of their inhabitants ; to the great value of
the products of cotton and tobacco grown by them; to the
number and character of their people ; and they submitted to
your Lordship that these political and material facts demon
strated to the nations of the world that the action of the
Confederate States of America was not that of rebels, subject
to be dealt with as traitors and pirates, by their eneray, but I
was the dignified and solemn conduct of a belligerent power,/
struggling, in wisdom and energy, to assume a place among
the great States of the civilized world, upon a broad and just
principle which commended itself to that world's respect.
The undersigned have witnessed with pleasure that the views

612 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
which, in their first interview, they pressed upon your Lord
ship, as to the undoubted right of the Confederate States,
under the law of nations, to be treated as a belligerent power,
and the monstrous assertion, of the government of Washing
ton, of its right to treat its citizens found in arms upon land
or sea as rebels or pirates, have met with the concurrence of
Her Britannic Majesty's Government ; and that the raoral
weight of that great and Christian people has been thrown
into the scale to prevent the barbarous and inhuraan spectacle
of war, betAveen citizens so lately claiming a common country,
conducted upon principles which would have been a disgrace
to the age in which we live.
"The undersigned received, however, with some surprise
and regret the avowal of her Britannic Majesty's Government
that. In order to the observance of a strict neutrality, the
public and private arraed vessels of neither belligerent should
be perraltted to enter Her Majesty's ports with prizes. The
undersigned do not contest the right of the British govern
ment to raake such regulations, but had been disposed to
think that It had been unusual for Her Majesty's Government
to exercise such right, and, in this instance, the practical
operation of the rule has been to favor the government at
Washington, and to cripple an undoubted right of the gov
ernment of the Confederate States. The government of the
Confederate States commenced its career entirely without a
navy. Owing to the high sense of duty which distinguished
the Southern officers, who were lately In commission in the
LTnited States navy, the ships winch, otherwise, might have
been brought into Southern ports were honorably delivered up
to the United States government, and the navy built for the
protection of the people of all the States is now used by the
government, at Washington, to coerce the people and blockade
the ports of one-third of the States of the late Union.
" The people of the Confederate States are an agricultural
and not a manufacturing or coraraercial people. They own
but few ships. Hence, not the least necessity has irapelled the
government at Washington to issue letters of marque. There
Is no considerable number of ships or much commerce belong
ing to the Confederate States upon which private armed vessels
may operate. The commodities raised In the Confederate

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 613
States are such as the world needs, raore than it needs
any others, and the nations of the earth have heretofore sent
their ships to our wharves and in our ports their merchants
have bought and received our cotton and tobacco. But It is
far otherwise -with the people of the present United States.
They are a manufacturing and commercial people. They do a
large part of the carrying trade of the world. Their ships
and commerce aff'ord the sinews of war and keep their indus
tries prosperous. To cripple their ships, or cause them to be
dismantled and tied up to rotting wharves, are legitimate
objects and means of warfare. Having no navy and no com
mercial marine, out of which to improvise public armed ves
sels, to any extent, the Confederate States were compelled to
resort to the issuance of letters of marque — a mode of warfare
as fully and clearly recognized by the law and usage of nations
as any other; and, most assuredly, more humane and raore
civilized in practice than that mode of warfare which appears
to have distinguished the march of the troops of the govern
ment of the United States upon the soil of Virginia. These
facts tend to show that, the practical working of the rule that
forbids the entry of public and private armed vessels, of either
party, into British ports, with prizes, operates exclusively to
prevent the exercise of this legitimate mode of warfare by the
Confederate States, while it is, to a great degree, protection to
the commerce and ships of the United States. At the inter
view, already alluded to, as well as at one of a similar char
acter at a later date, held between your Lordship and the
undersigned, the undersigned were fully aware of the relations
of anxiety existing between Her Britannic Majesty's Govern
ment and the governraent at Washington, and of the pecuhar
embarrassraent Into which those relations might be thrown if
her Majesty should choose to recognize the government of the
Confederate States of America, before sorae decided exhibition
of ability, on the part of the government of the Confederate
St-dtes, to maintain Itself had been shown. Therefore they
did not deem It advisable to urge an immediate decision, upon
so grave a question, but contented theraselves with a presenta
tion of the cause of their governraent and have quietly waited
upon events to justify aU that they had advanced— In the hope
that Her Britannic Majesty's Governraent would eventually

614 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
come to the conclusion that, the same sense of justice, the
same views of duty, under the law of nations, which caused it
to recognize the de facto government of Texas, while yet a
superior Mexican army was contending for mastery upon its
soil, to recognize the de facto governments of the South Amer
ican Spanish RepubUcs, while Spain stiU persisted in claiming
to be their sovereign, and to recognize the de .facto govern
ments of Greece, of Belgium and of Italy would induce it
to recognize the government of the Confederate States of
Araerica, upon the happening of events which displayed Its
power to maintain itself.
" The undersigned assure your Lordship that the Confed
erate States desire no aid in this contest for their liberties
against a usurping government, other than such as it is
entitled to under the laAV of nations. They'desire no arms to
be raised in their defense, but those of their own people.
They desire no resources to be gathered in their behalf, but
such as are legitimately to be derived from their own industry.
No matter what the disparity of military numbers, they are
ready and amply prepared to defend their rights, and they
entertain a deep seated and abiding confidence that success
will attend their eft'orts. At all events, reconstruction is
impossible. The brief history of their career confirms thera
In this belief.
" Since the organization of the government of the Confed
erate States, in February last, and since Mr. Lincoln assumed
the reins of government, in the United States, and commenced
preparing for his aggressive policy against the Confederate
States, the moral weight of their position and cause, aided by
the unconstitutional action and policy of the new President
and his Cabinet, have caused four other great States, viz.:
Vlrglhla, North CaroUna, Tennessee and Arkansas, containing
about four million Ua'C hundred thousand inhabitants and
covering an extent of valuable territory, equal to that of
France and Spain, to secede from the late Union and join the
Confederate States. The inhabitants of three other principal
States, viz.: Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, are now agi
tated by the throes of revolution and a large part of them are
rising in arms to resist the military despotism which, in the
name of the Constitution, has been so ruthlessly and in utter

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 615
subversion of the provisions of that Instrument Imposed upon
them. " The undersigned have also sufficient reason for their
belief that, in the North- Western State of Illinois a part of
the people have openly proclaimed opposition to Mr. Lincoln's
unconstitutional and despotic government, while in several
others public assemblages and their legislators have con
demned the war as subversive of the Constitution. In addi
tion to these striking evidences of the increasing strength of
the Confederate States and of great internal weakness and
division in Mr. Lincoln's government, the undersigned can
proudly point, with confidence, to the unity which exists
among the people of the Confederate States, with the solitary
and unimportant exception of the extreme north-western
corner of Virginia, lying between Ohio and Pennsylvania and
settled, almost exclusively, by Northern emigrants. What
ever differences of opinion may have been entertained as to
the original policy of secession by the people of the Confederate
States, there was a general concurrence of opinion as to the
breaches of the Constitution which compelled resort to it; and,
after secession had been accomplished, the great mass of the
people at once yielded all objections and are now engaged by
their wealth and their persons in the most patriotic exertions
to uphold their governraent in the cause of independence.
" Whatever tribute of admiration may be yielded, for the
present, to the people who submit to Mr. Lincoln's usurping
government, for energy, for display in raising and organizing
an immense army for the field, for the purpose of imposing
the yoke of that government upon a people who are struggling
for the inestimable right of governing themselves in order to
a preservation of their liberties, a just and Impartial history
will award to the people of the Confederate States an unmixed
admiration for an effort which, in the space of six months, has
thrown off the power of the usurper, has organized a new
government, based upon the principles of personal and public
liberty, and has put that government into operation and has
raised, organized and armed an army sufficient to meet and
defeat in a fair field, and drive in ignominious fiight from
that field, the Invaders who the reputed first Captain of the
age deemed sufficient to crush a so-called rebellion. The

616 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
undersigned call your Lordship's attention to the fact that,
Mr. Lincoln's army, though possessed of all the advantages of
a more nuraerous population, of the credit due to a recognized
government of long continuance, and of the entire navy of the
late Union, has been unable to retake a single fortification
of which the Confederate States had possessed theraselves;
but, on the contrary, has been driven from a powerful fortress
upon the Atlantic coast and from several forts on the Western
frontier by the Confederate Arms ; that he has not been able
to advance more than five miles into the territory of any of
the Confederate States, when there was any attempt to pre
vent it, and is in danger of losing three great States of the
remnant of the Union by insurrection. Even upon the sea,
where the government of Mr. Lincoln possesses undisputed
supreraacy, it has not been able to raake an effective blockade
of a single port, save those whose outlets are upon the Chesa
peake — vessels of every class, public and private armed ships,
belonging to the Confederate States and to traders, having
found their way in and out of every other port at which an
attempt has been raade.
" In everything constituting material of war, the Confed
erate States, thus far, have been supplied from their own
resources, unaided by that free intercourse with the world
which has been open to the United States. Men, arms,
munitions of war, of every description, have beep supplied, in
ample abundance, to defeat attempts to invade, successfully,
our borders. Money has been obtained frora the people of the
Confederate States in sufficient quantity. Every loan that has
been put upon the market has been taken at and above par.
And the undersigned but repeat the belief of their government
and the universal expectations of their fellow citizens that,
however great may be the demand for means to defend their
country against invasion, sufficient resources of every char
acter, and sufficient patriotism, exist within the Confederate
States for that purpose. The undersigned are aware that an
impression has prevailed in what may be termed well informed
circles, in Europe, that the slaveholding States are poor and
unable to sustain themselves in a prolonged confiict with the
non-slaveholding States. In the opinion of the undersigned,
this Idea is grossly erroneous and, considering the importance

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 617
of a correct understanding of the relative resources of the two
contending powers, in solving the question of comparative
strength and ability to maintain theraselves, your Lordship
will pardon a reference to statistical tables of the census of
1850, the last authentic exposition of the resources of the
United States, which has yet been published, and which is
appended to this coramunication. The incontestible evi
dence, presented in that table, proves the Confederate States
possesses all the material resources of a great and powerful
nation, capable, noV only of feeding, clothing and defending
themselves in time of war, but capable of clothing all Europe
in time of peace and free trade. The undersigned are also
aware that, the anti-slavery sentiment, so prevalent in Europe,
has recoiled from the thought of entering into friendly rela
tions, recognizing slavery. The question of morality In the
Institution, as found in their government, the undersigned will
not discuss with any foreign power. The authors of the
American Declaration of Independence found the African race
in the colonies, in a state of slavery, both by colonial and
English law, and by the law of nations. Those good and great
men left that fact, and the responsibility for its existence,
where they found it. And finding two distinct races, one free
and capable of maintaining freedom, the other slave, and, in
their opinion, unfitted to participate in the contest for self-
government, they made Declarations of freedom for the white
race alone. They eventually. In the course even of a few
years, framed and put into operation two plans of government,
both resting upon the great and recognized distinction of the
two races, perpetuating it as the fundamental theory of their
government formed, as they announced, for the beneflt of
themselves and their posterity — to use their own language,
' to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos
terity.' " The wisdom of- that course Is not a raatter for the discus
sion of the undersigned, with foreign nations. Suffice it to
say, thus were Araerican institutions formed and remain un
changed. It was not frora fear of liberation of slaves that
secession took place. The new party in power has proposed
to guarantee slavery, forever, in the States if the South will

618 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
but remain in the Union.* Mr. Lincoln's message does not
propose freedom for the slave, but subjection of his owner to
the will of the Union, that is, to the wlU of the North. Even
after the battle of Manassas, the Congress at Washington
passed resolutions declaring the object of the war to be the
upholding of the pro-slavery Constitution, by a vote showing
only one in the negative in the Senate and two in the House.
As the army of invasion entered upon its march, a general
order was issued frora headquarters forbidding any slave to
enter the camp or to follow In its train. The object of the
war, therefore, as now officiaUy announced, is, not eraancipa
tion of slaves, but, through legislative trammels, which the
government of the United States intends, if aUowed, to employ
to the subjection of the owners. The undersigned submit,
therefore, with confidence, that, as far as the anti-slavery
sentiment of England is involved, it cannot remain in sym
pathy with the Northern St-ates, but must hold in disgust a
canting hypocrisy seeking to take an advantage under false
pretences. "The undersigned are not insensible to the surmise that,
the Lincoln government raay, under stress of circumstances,
change its policy, a policy based, at present, raore upon a
Aviley vicAV of its effect upon the old Union sentiment of the
Southern States than any honest intent to uphold a Consti
tution, the plainest provisions of which it has shamelessly
violated. But the undersigned confidently submit to your
Lordship's consideration that, an abrupt and violent destruc
tion of a labor system which has reared so vast a commerce
between Araerica and Europe — which, as is now supposed,
gives bread to the railllons of the population of European
States, which, as may be safely assumed, is intimately blended
with the great manufacturing and commercial prosperity
which distinguishes the age and is, probably, not the least
element In that prosperity — would be attended with results
?Afew weeks before the date of the address of the Commissioners, the Con
gress of the United States passed the following resolution, almost unanimously, and
It received the President's signature, while the armies of the two Republics were
confronting each other in the field: ^'Resolved. That the war is not prosecuted on
our part in any spirit of opi)ression, nor for any purpose of conquest, nor for the
purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights of any established institutions
in the States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and
all laws made in ptirsuance thereof and to preserve the IJnion with all the dignity,
equality and rights of the several States unimpaired ; that as soon as these objects
are accomplished the war ought to cease."

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 619
alike disastrous to the world as well as to the master and the
slave. " Resort, on the part of the United States, to servile war
has not yet been announced, but, on the contrary, has been
officially disclaimed. Servile war has, however, been recom
mended by individuals of Influence in the United States, and
when all other means shall fail — as the undersigned assure
your Lordship they will fall — to bring the Confederate States
into subjection to the power of Mr. Lincoln's government, it is
by no means improbable that it may be inaugurated. When
ever it shall be done, however, the motive will not be that
philanthropic consideration, which undoubtedly beats in the
hearts of many in New England, but the baser feeling of
selfish aggrandizement not unmixed with the cowardly spirit
of revenge. "The undersigned call your Lordship's attention to what
is now so publicly knoAvn as a fact — to the great battle of
Manassas, In which a Avell appointed army of United States
troops gave battle to the Confederate States army of Inferior
forces. After nine hours of hard flghting the former were
defeated and were driven from the field. In open flight, and
were pursued to CentreAdlle, the position of their reserve.
The enemy lost honor and nearly all the arras and munitions
gathered industriously for months, for an offensive carapaign
in Virginia; and they did not cease their fiight until, under
cover of night, they reached their intrenchments in front of
Washington. So far from threatening the integrity of the
¦territory or the existence of the government of the Confed
erate States, the government at Washington seems content at
present and will be rejoiced if it can maintain a successful
defense of its capital, while preserving the remnant of its
defeated and disorganized forces.
" The undersigned would also ask your Lordship's atten
tion that, the cotton picking season, in the cotton growing
States of the Confederacy, has opened. The crop bids fair to
be, at least, an average one, and will be prepared for market
and delivered by the planters and merchants at the wharves
of the ports of those States, when there is a prospect of the
blockade being raised, and not before, An embargo, as an
off'ensive measure, has been laid by the Confederate States

620 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
against the passage of cotton across the border. Into the
United States. To be obtained, the article must be sought in
the ports of the Confederacy. They submit to your Lordship
the consideration of the fact that, the blockade of all the ports
of the Confederate States was declared when. In truth, there
was no pretense of closing the Gulf ports. They further sub
mit that, since- the proclamation of blockade there have been
repeated Instances of escapes of vessels from Wilmington,
Charleston, Savannah, Mobile and New Orleans. It must be
for the neutrals, whose comraerce is seriously damaged, to
determine for how long a blockade, of such a character, shall
be respected. "In closing this coniraunicatlon, tbe undersigned desire
to urge upon Her Britannic Majesty's Governraent the just
claims which, in their opinion, the Confederate States has, at
this time, to recognition as a government de facto, when the
internal peace it enjoys, the vast territory it controls, the
millions of population which it contains, the exhaustless
resources of foreign and domestic commerce it possesses and
its ability to maintain itself are considered ; and, when your
Lordship shall consider the necessities of commercial relations
with it to the preservation of certain great interests in Eng
land. "If, however, in the opinion of Her Britannic Majesty's
Government, the Confederate States have not yet won a right
to a place among the nations of the earth, the undersigned
assure your Lordship that while such an announcement will
be received Avith surprise by the governraent they represent ;
and if that government is to be left to contend for interests
which, it is beUeved, are as important to the commercial
powers of Europe as to itself, without even the friendly coun
tenance of other nations, its citizens will buckle themselves
to the great task before them with vigor and determination
which wUl justify the undersigned In having pressed the
question upon Her Britannic Majesty's Government; and
Avhen peace shall have been won, their government will, at
least, feel that it will not be justly responsible for the vast
quantity of blood which shall have been shed, nor for the
great and widespread suft'ering which so prolonged a conflict

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 621
wiU have entaUed upon millions of the huraan race. In the
Eastern as well as in the Western Hemisphere.*
" W. L. Yancky, j
" P. A. RosT, V Commissioners."
" A. Dudley Mann. )
Memoranda araong Mr. Yancey's papers show that the
address was carefully read by the Coraraissioners, together,
before signing it. Every sentence bears the imprint of
Yancey's style and habit of thought. The style is far less
conventional than, possibly, would have been adopted had
Lord John invited anything more from the Commissioners than
an argument in detaU, explaining the object of their visit.
The instructions of the President, rather than Yancey's own
views of what suggestions of dlploraacy should have been
advanced, are apparent in the document. England was in
formed, by the Pre.sidenfs instructions, that a great quantity of
cotton would be delivered at the sea ports of the Confederacy
when England, at the expense of war with the United States,
should come to receive it. Rhett, Toombs and Yancey con
curred in unavailing advice to the President that, England's
risk should be recompensed by a practical monopoly of the
commerce of the Confederacy, for twenty years, as well as by
qther stipulations of solemn treaty.
Having now discharged his instructions, and being without
hope of encouraging results, Mr. Yancey promptly sent for
ward his letter of resignation. Mr. R. M. T. Hunter, who had
succeeded to the State Department, repUed, accepting the
resignation with regret, adding : " The President desires, if
anything has occurred to change your determination, that you
continue in the diplomatic service." t Mr. Yancey was quite
resolved, however, to enter some fleld of public service more
promising'bf fruits. He awaited only the arrival of his suc
cessor to begin his homeward voyage.
?The table of statistics attached to the communication to Lord John Russell,
referred to the comparative wealth of the free and slave States, as shown by the census
of 1850. It is not included here, because the same items, and many more, are given
in Chapter 20, sMpra.
tThe elaborate work of Mr. Davis, "The Rise andFall of the Confederate Govern
ment," avoids all mention of Mr. Yancey's name, or the names of Rhett and Wigfall.
so intimately associated as each of the three was with the '* rise " and the *' fall" of
the government. The omission as to Yancey is remarkable because the names of
Messrs. Rost, Mann, and the later Commissioners, Messrs. Mason and SlideU, are
given in the work, with an explanation of their foreign services. No intimation is
given of the views of the Secretary of State, Toombs, or of the views of the Chairman
of the I ommitteeon Foreign Relations, Khett, or of the head of the first Commission,
Yancey, concerning a foreign policy, of which the President was so fully advised.

622 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Meantime, the Commissioners returned to Paris. They had
an interview with the Minister of Marine and the Colonies,
from whom they received hopeful intimations of the friendly
purposes of his government towards theirs. At Paris they
received private information of the favorable impression their
address to Lord John Russell had made on the British Cab
inet, and they were reliably informed of a strong feeling in the
Cabinet favorable to recognition. England had gone so far as
to suggest to France the initiation of a general European
recognition. The French Cabinet declined to lead, but would
proceed conjointly with England. Cotton had already. In flve
months frora the beginning of hostilities between the Araeri
can Republics, risen on the raarket one hundred per cent.
The English factories were all running on short time. A large
bread riot. In the suburbs of Paris, was suppressed during the
Commissioners' visit to that city by the government. The
grain crop of England was below the average, while the
deflciency of harvest in France was believed to be one billion
of francs' worth.
Returning to England, Mr. Yancey received distinguished
personal attentions from exalted people. He was invited to
the country and delivered at least one speech there which the
English newspapers reported and praised. Sir Archibald
Alison sent a copy of his recent pamphlet on " Government
Reform" to his address, accompanied with a request for a
criticism upon its theories. Mr. Yancey replied :
"My mind is not cultivated in speculative philosophy. I
have given consideration only to questions of government as
they have arisen, demanding practical solution. Indeed, I
have been disposed to regard true religion to be based on the
Individual responsibility rather than collective responsibility.
I will, however, with greater frankness than profoundness,
state the result of my reflections Upon reading your disserta
tion upon America and Araerican affairs.
" 1. vl National Church. You recommend the institution
to America to foster salutory feelings of reverence ; ' the bonds
of reverence, sincerity and liberty wiU take the place of
hatred, hypocrisy and oppression.' You admit the South
American Republics have fallen into a state of lassitude and
misrule and you fear the same fate awaits the RepubUcs of

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 623
North America without a national church. Permit rae to
remind you that the panacea you offer to North America has
always been with South America. The lassitude and misrule,
prevaiUng in the latter country, have ever been associatea
with a national church.
" I do not question the influence of a national church over
public opinion. The power of the church, too, must define
the limit of freedom of thought and activity of conscience in
individuals. History proves that love of ease, luxury and
pride in high places in the church, follow upon inertness of
public opinion. I do not hold that this condition of society is
desirable. The relation of man to his Creator should not be
in subjection to church or state. No man should be allowed
to say, ' my sin i? not mine, but the sin of the church.' There
is a national church in Turkey, Austria and Prussia and great
powers of despotism in each country. The experience of
to-day in Italy, France and Spain has been the experience of
centuries. " If you mean to use a national church, as your correspond
ent, Mr. Cassius M. Clay, seems to recommend, to estabUsh a
government of arbitrary powers, I am unable to advise the
jeopardy of men's souls by the creation of a Procrustean
religious faith the better to enforce certain political theories.
Better, far, devise a scherae of unmitigated national despotism
and leave it to stand or fall upon purely political grounds.
" The political evils, in North America, are not to be traced
to religious freedom, but, perhaps, to excess of personal free
dom. The dominating passions of the minds of men in the
Northern States is, acquisition. This passion has been so
assiduously cultiArated that the ingredient of self-denial —
honesty, if you please — has been greatly the sufferer. And
there is the great evil which has afflicted the body politic,
under the Union. The North overreaches the plain obliga
tions of the compact between the States, entered Into when
their strength was about equal. Wherever a national church
has existed, questions arising from its defense have excited
convulsions of society and have forced political revolutions.
"2. A .Monarchy: Of course it is not expected that I
should approve a suggestion that a king should rule North
America, and, least of all, that I should acquiesce in the

624 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
seriously stated but amusing proposition that, 'the future
king of the North American States should be selected from
the royal families of Europe ' ! I ara able to reraember noth
ing in the history of the royal families of Europe which
should give them precedence for political elevation over the
Washingtons, Jeffersons, etc., of Araerica. Three-quarters of
a century of American experience proves there are good and
great men to be found in that country, available to raake
kings when a kingdom must be erected there.
"3. Slavery: The title to slaves in America Is of British
origin. * * You observe that ' while the South is honest in
doing the wrong thing, the North is dishonest in doing the
right thing.' I differ with you. You advise the North to
violate the fundamental law of its own political existence in
order to gratify a fanaticism, without reason, and to enable it
to destroy the rights of the South, secured, by the same
fundamental law. * * You are mistaken when you assert
that, unless slavery be abolished the African slave trade must
continue. I am sure not five hundred Africans have been
imported into the Southern States In the last several years, of
the alleged revival of that trade ; and these were Introduced
more for political effect than for any purpose of restoring the
trade. The Constitution of the Confederate States forbids
the trade."
An event now took place which not only delayed for some
months the departure of Mr. Yancey from Europe, but which,
for several weeks, held out strong promises that the labors of
the Coraraissioners would be turned to practical ends. On
November 1, 1861, Messrs. James M. Mason and John SlideU,
Commissioners of the Confederate States — Mr. SlideU accom
panied by his family — with their Secretaries, Messrs. McFar
lane and Eustis, embarked at Havana for Southampton, on
board the British mall packet, Trent. The day following,
oft' the Pandora Grande Ught house. In the narrowest part
of the Bahama passage, a war ship lay across the course
of the steamer. When the Trent had approached within
half a mile of the war ship the latter ran up the colors
of the United States and immediately fired a round shot
across the bows of the Trent, following this instantly with a
shell, which exploded within an hundred yards of the British

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 625
vessel. The Trent ran up the British colors and, having
reached easy hailing distance, demanded an explanation. The
reply came that, the offending ship wanted to send a boat
alongside. The Trent brought to, and ah officer, with atoat's
crew armed, pushed off ana in person carae aboard of the
Trent. He announced his rank and name. Lieutenant Fairfax,
with orders from the commander of the United States armed
ship, San Jacinto, to arrest Messrs. Mason, SlideU and their
Secretaries, and to deliver them, with their baggage, and
papers and effects, on board the San Jacinto. The passengers
had now all gathered around. Messrs. Mason and SlideU
announced their presence, claiming the protection of the Brit- 1
ish flag. To the Captain of the Trent, Lieutenant Fairfax
said he had been instructed to lay that ship alongside his
own. The Captain of the Trent remarked, in reply, that he
would repair to his quarter deck, and could be found there.
Lieutenant Fairfax, thereupon, announced that he would take
possession of the Trent, unless the Confederate Coraraissioners
surrendered, immediately. There was no offer of surrender,
and seeing this, the United States officer, at the point of the
weapons of his men, placed the Coraraissioners in his boat and
delivered them to his superior officer on board the San Jacinto.
The Commissioners had taken the precaution, at a timely \
moment, to deliver their papers to Mr. Haskel, of Charleston,
a passenger on the Trent, by whom they were delivered to
Messrs. Yancey and associates upon the arrival of the Trent
at her destination.*
The gravity of the offense was increased when it became
known to the English that it was the premeditated act of the ,
government of the United States. Precaution had been taken |
by orders from Washington, looking to the capture of the !
Commissioners on the high seas, toward the end of their j
voyage, should they escape the arrangements made to that j
purpose at the beginning of it. The United States armed
steamer, James Adger, having been allowed to coal and repair
in a British port, put to sea, but remained near, hovering
along the coast. On demand of an officer of the admiralty
for an explanation of her conduct, the reply came that she
?I have taken the account of the affair described from the MS. dispatch of
Messrs. Yancey aurl associates to their government.

40

626 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
waited the arrival of the British mail steamer from Havana,
with the intention of taking from her the Confederate Com
missioners expected to be aboard. The British officer rejoined
that tlie act, if perpetrated, would be accepted as an insult to
the flag of his country.
A highly excited public feeling prevailed in London and
over all England when the news of the deliberate preparations
of the United States to insult [the British fiag was made
known. Lord John Russell's original draft of his govern
ment's dispatch to Mr. Seward was unequivocal and resentful.
The tone of it was reflected by every daily newspaper in
England, save the Star, the organ of Messrs. Bright and
Cobden, and, also, the organ of the United States minister in
the pending unsettled relation of the government toward the
Confederate States. The dispatch of Lord John was tanta
mount to a menace of war. According to custom, it was
submitted to the Queen before being sent. The Prince Con
sort, holding fast to his syrapathies with the United States, in
the " war against slavery," elirainated the Insulting paragraphs
and reduced the deraand to one for apology and the restoration
of the captives to the protection of the British flag.
The Instant the capture of Messrs. Mason and SlideU was
made known to the Commissioners, they renewed, with
urgency, their demand for the recognition of their govern
raent. They had received, through Mr. Haskel, information,
long withheld from them, of great value — the number of
vessels which had passed through the blockade, in safety,
with their names. It was shown that, up to Auglist 20, raore
than four hundred ships had entered and passed out of the
Confederate ports, entirely unraolested.
Messrs. Mason and SlideU arrived at London and Mr.
Yancey imraediately sought an opportunity to take passage to
the Confederate States. His salary had not been remitted and
he found it necessary to borrow the funds required to pay his
expenses back. In February he arrived at New Orleans. A
public address was required of him. He spoke resolutely of
the future of the Confederacy, but hopelessly of foreign recog
nition. His disease had taken deeper root and his bodily
inflrmity was painfully apparent.

CONFEDERATE DIPLOMACY. 627
He sought repose in the bosom of his family at Mont
gomery. In his absence, the Legislature had elected him, by
unanimous vote, to the Confederate States Senate, to take his
seat with the organization of the Permanent Government,
February 22, 1862. James R. Powell, Benjamin H. Micou and
others, his neighbors, bought a beautiful black horse, sending
him fully equipped with bridle and saddle, to Mr. Yancey's
door, with a touching letter of presentation, in the vain hope
of contributing to the restoration of his health by off'ering the
opportunity of indulgence in his favorite exercise.

CHAPTER 26.

The Perplexed People.
1861-1862.

The aristocratic society of the South, organized upon the
simplicity of Democratic theories, was ever distinguished by
a sentiment of respect for authority. In no modern civiliza
tion were the civil, military or ecclesiastical functionaries held
in more deferential regard than here. The pursuits and edu
cation of the people, together with the great physical force of
the inferior race, were the potentialities which created this
sentiment. Hundreds of thousands of men, of all divisions
of society, organized in the Southern armies, taken frora a
state of freedom as perfect as the birds of the air, submitted
instantly to discipline, the most exacting, Avhen imposed by
the wisdom of their leaders. No troops made longer marches
with greater ease, or were more faithful on the scout, or
received the charge, standing more steady. The history of
wars presents no record of devotion of rank and file to A^'¦orthy
Captains, surpassing the devotion of the Confederate soldiers.
Absorbed in an individual consecration to the cause of the
Confederacy — the arms bearing population in the field, the
women spinning and weaving their clothing and caring for
their children — the whole people were enthused by the vic
tory of Manassas ; upon the glory of which sat the crown of
the President's conduct — the first President of Americans who
had ever been seen riding, erect and gallant, into the smoke
of the field, upon the heels of a routed foe, dismounting

THE PERPLEXED PEOPLE. 629
to administer to a dying patriot, remaining in the camp,
for days, to promote the rank of the hero of the day and, as
imagination pictured, to devise some daring plan of fresh
adventure for his invincible Confederates. Few, Indeed, were
those who knew the Administration lived, from day to day,
without any broad and firm plan of war or policy of govern
ment. Few knew that the phenomenal wealth of the country,
instead of being firmly fixed as a basis of national resources
and credit, reraained untouched. In utter neglect and waste ;
that the indomitable martial spirit of the people was sustained
by nothing in the conduct of the War Office, save puerile ways.
FcAver yet were'those who had reached the discovery that the
President was, even now, confused and had been, even thus
early, drawn beyond the raeasure of his faculties by the duties
of his unfortunate office. He seemed, already, to fear the
assistance of great men at his hand, but to be fearless of their
enmity. Filling high stations with the coraraonplace or in
competent, he heroically made their errors his own. Slow in
perceiving the -opportunities created for him, he was obstinate
in holding fast to the errors comraitted by himself. Such
were the infallible evidences, to the appreciation of the states
man, of the desperate attitude of the Confederacy when. In
November, 1861, the first election, under the permanent Con
stitution, took place for Representatives in Congress, President
and Vice-President. Prone as the Southern people had ever
been to retain, without question, the public services of individ
uals whose acceptability had once received their sanction, they
went to the polls without the least organization or Inquiry.
Politics were an unrecognized factor in the demands of the
day. Nobody knew that it was because of the apathy of the
elective government that the volunteers were without arras ;
or knew that the cotton crop and tobacco crop, just harvested,
ample to serve as a basis for credit the most perfect, credit
ample to arm and equip the entire arms bearing population,
would, under a policy of government, be left to waste, unused ;
or knew that the most gallant of saUors and the most ambi
tious and trusted soldiers of America, mayhap the ablest
sailors and soldiers of the age, who had throAvn up their high
commissions and higher promises, in the old service, to enter
the new, now chafed under the procrastination. Irresolution

630 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
and Inappreciation of the civil head of the war. So universal
was the ignorance of the people, whose familiar leaders were
nearly all in the army, that only in a single District of one
State was attempt raade to instruct them. Robert Barnwell
Rhett offered, for the Lower House of Congress, from South
Carolina, stating openly the descending prospects of the cause
under mal-adrainistration, but he found a constituency resent
ful of his counsel who, in the past, for thirty years, had sought
it. Mr. Davis was elected President and Mr. Stephens vice-
President, without opposition.
George Brinton McClellan was a young raan, voluntarily
retired from the army to a responsible position in civil life.
His professional attainments, in the military, were singularly
high; his intellectual rank in his profession was second to
none; his temper was conservative and his energy great.
Graduated at West Point, he had won promotion on the
bloodiest fields of Mexico, and, youthful as he was, for the
trust, so distinguished were his accoraplishraents that he was
selected by Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, to visit Europe,
during the Crimean war, to study the latest arts and appli
ances suitable for the improvement of the national army.
General McClellan superseded the venerable General Scott in
command of the United States army. He took up his Head
quarters in the army of the Potomac, lying near Washington,
and at once his wonderful personal attractiveness raade him
the idol of his forces, rank and file.
General Joseph Eggleston Johnston coraraanded the Army
in Northern Virginia, facing McClellan, and well knew that
his adversary would equip and organize a magnificent host,
intent upon invasion. He knew that McClellan was busily
engaged, educating his battalions by resort to sham battles,
the infantrymen thus learning to load and fire their pieces
and the cavalrymen, strapped fast to their saddles, thus learn
ing to keep their seats in action. General Johnston, even as
was McClellan, was both a soldier and a statesman. He was
aware of the divided public sentlraent In the United States,
touching the duty or advisability of waging war; he knew
that the United States government, as yet, had been unable to
provide a safe financial basis of war; that Europe was far
from any fixed poUcy in respect to America; that the best

THE PERPLEXED PEOPLE. 631
Generals of the United States recommended an invasion of
the Confederate States by way of the Mississippi and its
tributaries. If McCleUan's preparations were allowed to pro
ceed, unmolested, Halleck, In the West, would concentrate a
powerful army and, using rivers instead of wagon roads to
mobilize, would succeed in dividing the Confederate forces, as
yet armed and equipped only In part, giving to Northern
invasion, from one or the other side of the Alleghanies, the
prospect of success. Accordingly, sixty-five days after the
battle of ^lanassas. General Johnston, being able to discover
no indications of intent on the part of the Confederate civil
authorities to employ high strategy in meeting the industrious
preparations of the enemy, wrote a letter to Acting Secretary
of War, Judah P. Benjamin, requesting that the President, or
some person with authority from him, should visit his Head
quarters, at Fairfax Court House, to examine and deterraine
upon a policy of war. In the afternoon of the last day of
September, the President came in person, in response to the
letter, going directly to the Headquarters of General Beaure
gard, at, or about, Fairfax Court House. It should be remem
bered that, at this early date in the life of the Confederacy,
the President was not on cordial terms with General Johnston
or Beauregard, as will be shoAvn presently, and that this state
of personal feeling was known to control the mind of the
President in respect to his official relations to those officers.
General Johnston, accompanied by the ranking Major-
General, Gustavus W. Smith, a citizen of New York, who had
espoused the Confederate cause, called upon the President at
General Beauregard's quarters, to pay his respects, on the
evening of his arrival. Nothing raore than ordinary conver
sation seems to have taken place then. The next evening, by
request of the President, the three ranking offlcers convened
in his presence, at the same place, to confer on the subject of
General Johnston's letter. Various matters of army detail
were inquired into by the President and much time was passed
in giving answers to him, when General Smith, somewhat
abruptly, said : " But, Mr. President, is it not practicable to
put this army on the active oft'enslve ? That question seems
of such vital importance that the success or failure of our
cause may depend upon it." Conversation, of wide range>

632 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
followed. The dlfterences of opinion among those present
were too slight to require argument. All agreed that the
army was In the finest fighting condition and it was under
stood by all that the military force of the Confederacy was at
the highest point attainable, Avlth the arms and munitions on
hand. The adjacent country was In the .best condition for
army movements, and was destined to remain so for many
months. The Generals also endeavored to impress on the
President's rnlnd phe, celerity of the enemy's preparations and
that the Confederate army would be far weaker, both in
numbers and morale, at the opening of the spring campaign,
remaining inactive, than by fighting. No argument arose on
any of these points ; all present assented, readily, to the narra
tion of facts and to the conclusions drawn from them. General
Smith again spoke, saying: "Mr. President, Is It not possible
to Increase the eft'ectlve strength of this array and put us in a
condition to cross the Potomac ? Cannot you strip other
points to the last they will bear and, even risking defeat at all
other places, put us In condition to move forward? Success
here saves all, while defeat here loses everything." In elabora
tion of this A'lew, the opinion was expressed by the Generals
that if the Confederate forces, in Kentucky and Tennessee,
should be consolidated with the army about Fairfax Court
House and, as a consequence, those States should be occupied
by the enemy, his occupation must necessarily be brief. The
proposed advance, across the Potomac, into the heart of the
Eastern States, would compel a rapid concentration thither of
the forces of the United States and an evacuation of the Avhole
Southern country. On- the other hand, a small Confederate
army in Virginia and a smaller one In Kentucky, remaining
quiet, Avould allow the enemy to make his coveted prepara
tions, at the completion of which he would quickly concentrate,
SAveeping the country frora any point most convenient to him
self. It Avas argued that, should the Confederacy be able to
take and hold the Ohio river, as a boundary, the defeat of Its
army In Virginia would be followed by a wave of invaders,
taking the defenders of the Ohio line in the rear.
It Avas conceded, by all, that the force in Virginia was
insufflcient for an oft'enslve movement beyond the" Potomac ;
and that ca'cu should that army be greatly strengthened, an

THE PERPLEXED PEOPLE. 633
attack from the Virginia side on the fortifications at Wash
ington would be bad generalship. The President then asked
General Smith how many raen, in his opinion, would be
required to cross the Potomac, cut off the enemy's communi
cation with their fortified capital and carry the war into his
country. General Smith replied, " Fifty thousand seasoned
soldiers ;" Generals Johnston and Beauregard spoke quickly,
saying " sixty thousand of such troops would be necessary."
They reminded the President that transportation and muni
tions of war were AvhoUy inadequate, in that array, for such a
movement, but great as the difflculties were and problematical
as success raight be, the disastrous results of Inactivity were
sure to OA'erbalance all other considerations. The suggestion
of General Smith was discussed, in all its bearings, recog
nizing the probable effect of the movement in uniting the
North, now known to be divided as to the political policy of
pursuit of the war.
"Returning to the question that had been twice asked, the Presi
dent expressed surprise and, regret that the number of surplus arms
here was so small; and seemed to speak bitterly of this disappointment.
He then stated, that at that time no reinforcements could be furnished to
this army of the character asked for; and that the most that could be
done would be to furnish recruits to take the surplus arms in store
here say (2-500); that the whole country was demanding protection at
his hands and praying for arms and troops for defense; he had long
been expecting arms from abroad, but had been disappointed ; he still
hoped to get them, but had no positive assurance that they would be
received at all; the manufacture of arms in the Confederate States was,
as yet, undeveloped to any considerable extent; want of arms was the
great difficulty; he could not take auy troops from the points named,
(Xorfolk, Charleston, Mobile, etc.), and without arms from abroad
could not reinforce this army. He expressed regret and seemed to feel
deeply, as did every one present." *
The President having declined to concentrate the forces
for offensive operations, the main question being dropped, he
proposed certain partial operations. Among these, the break
ing of the bridge of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, over
the Monocacy river, in Maryland, between Washington and
Harper's Ferry. This expedition, he thought, would Injure
?MS. narrative of General G. W. Smith, dated " Centreville, Virginia, Januavy
31, 1802," signed "G. T. Beauregard, General, C. S. A.," "J. E. Johnston, General, C.
S. A.," and countersigned "John M. Otey, A. A. G."

634 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the enemy and, most of all, encourage the people of the Con
federacy. To this the Generals replied that to cross and
recross the river guarded by gunboats of the enemy, in face of
General Hooker's Division on land, would require - a force
strong enough to hold a point below and a point above the
crossing. Hazardous as would be the undertaking, however,
they would adopt the President's suggestion, with the re
sources at their command, rather than lie idle in a position
easily turned on either flank, so soon as the opportunity pre
sented itself.
The council here ended. It had continued two hours in
very earnest, deliberate and serious words. It was a decisive
councU. Four weeks before the council sat at Fairfax Court House,
the President, lying in bed. 111, heard a footstep enter the hall
below. "That Is Sidney Johnston's step (he said). Bring
him up." Even before the arrival of this eminent soldier and
statesman, deputations from the West had come to solicit his
assignment to comraand In that region. Frora Virginia to
Kansas small Confederate organiza'tions of partially armed
men were posted, without a comraon head and independent of
each other. The President thought of appointing General
Albert Sidney Johnston to the post of Secretary of War, now
vacant by resignation of Walker. It was a post to which he
was called In the RepublljC of Texas, when he was General-in-
Chief of its army. But, September 10, 1861, General .lohnston
was ordered to repair to Memphis to assurae coramand of
" Department Number 2," embracing Kentucky, Missouri,
Kansas, the Indian Territory, Arkansas, Tennessee, and a
part of Mississippi, some 25,000 troops in the field. The
eneray had been very industrious, preparing to Invade the
Confederacy through Kentucky and, as General Johnston
believed, with about 80,000 raen. Johnston found the Confed
eracy with a wholly inadequate supply of arms, a part of his
troops in the field ready for battle being supplied only with
squirrel rifles and shotguns, and others with no arms. But if
the enemy was to be resisted, a beginning raust be raade to
form an array. His perfect familiarity with the springs of
public opinion and the qualities for war inherent in the people,
lead him to issue a call upon the Governor of Tennessee for

THE PERPLEXED PEOPLE. 635
30,000 volunteers, twelve months men, upon the Governors of
Alabama and Mississippi for 10,000 each, making a reinforce
ment of 50,000 men. The Governors of all the States of the
Confederacy were ardently devoted to its cause and the call in
this case was republished with alacrity. Arms were gathered
from the people and those requiring repairs received attention
as fast as possible. Tennessee at once enacted a law allowing
private arms to be impressed for the Confederate service.
General Johnston, in a practical view of the circumstances,
believed that squads, companies and battalions should be
organized in camps and brought together at once, where they
could be well fed, trusting the question of arras to the future.
Organization could certainly be accoraplished in that way,
offlcers and raen could be taught Iraportant military duties
and an army, every man of which was familiar with the use
of fire arms and the saddle, could be placed in the field,
seasoned to camp life, so soon as the government could supply
arms. Even were arms already in abundance, the life in camp
would be needful preparation for their use. A statesman as
well as a soldier, he consulted freely with the political and
social leaders of his military territory. He made the call for
twelve-months men, resting assured that the spirit of war
would be preserved in the Confederacy by success of its
armies, and that if success was attained by twelve-months
men they would re-enlist, if the war yet continued. His
preparations were evidences of his profound appreciation of
the task before him ; and the decision, self-poise and celerity
of action which distinguished his administration, so long as
he was allowed the use of his judgment and his professional
rights, quite justified the faraillar ejaculation of bis warm
friend, the President: "I hoped and expected I had others
who Avould prove Generals, but I knew I had one in Sidney
Johnston." Recurring to political connections, an influence which
ceaselessly weighed upon the President's mUltary course, and
even perverted it, it Is to be observed that shortly before
General Johnston assuraed coraraand, the Governor of Ken
tucky, in which State the United States army to invade
Johnston's territory was being mustered, wrote to the Presi
dents, respectively, of the two Confederacies announcing the

636 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
neutrality of Kentucky and demanding of each to observe the
position assumed by the State. Mr. Davis intimated his
readiness to respect the Governor's notice; Mr. Lincoln de
clared the farce of State neutrality was justifled in none of
the circumstances, and entitled to no respect frora his govern
ment. General Johnston, arriving, took Lincoln's view and
posted his sraall forces on Kentucky soU at will. Johnston
ordered Hardee, Avlth some 4,000 men, to march from the
swamps of Arkansas, where they were idle and being con
sumed by malaria, to Kentucky and, thereupon, the poUticians
harrassed the President with complaints, against the General's
order, appropriate to their demagogical purpose.
Immediately upon receiving Information of the call of
General Johnston upon the Governors of three States for 50,000
men. Acting Secretary of War, Benjarain, wrote an order to
Adjutant-General Whitthorne, of the Tennessee State forces,
directing that no volunteer corapany, battalion or regiraent
should be mustered Into the Confederate service for twelve
months ; and giving notice that sorae troops, already mustered
in for that time, should be immediately mustered out. A fcAV
days before, Mr. Benjarain had written to General Johnston
offlclally describing the General's abUlty, Avith the forces he
held in hand, "to defy almost any front attack," while the
safety of his flanks was entirely beyond question ! The Act-
lug Secretary also said, in an offlcial letter to the General, that
attempts of unarmed men to volunteer for twelve months
were "so incessant and Ingenious " that the Department found
It necessary to exercise the greatest shrewdness in defeating
"such disingenuous practices." General Johnston, with un
feigned sorrow, at once obeyed the disastrous order of Acting
Secretary Benjamin. The camps In Mississippi and Arkansas,
formed under his orders, were broken up. Governor Harris,
of Tennessee, however, not only refused to disband the troops
he had called out, but directed Adjutant-General Whitthorne
to address an energetic protest to the President against the
order itself. A spirited correspondence followed betAveen the
Acting Secretary and the General. The hopes of the latter
for the oft'enslve movement, he had In view, were not only
extinguished, but the spirit of the people A\'as Inestimably
quenched. The report spread abroad that " Johnston Avanted

'THE PERPLEXED PEOPLE. 637
no more raen ;" " the Governors had received orders counter
manding volunteering araong the people." The only excuse
the Acting Secretary of War could oft'er for his course was :
"The Treasury is sorely pressed and I want to avoid the
heavy drain upon It that will be caused by accumulating these
twelve-months men." Writing further, he said : " In Mis
sissippi and Tennessee your unlucky off'er to receive unarmed
men has played the deuce with our camps." So was the
genius of the great Captain reduced to the Ioav plane of civil
control, from which no military genius, in the long and bloody
record of Confederate endeavor, could liberate Itself.
. In the winter, of 1861-62, the imports of arms and muni
tions of war frora Europe by the warring Republics, respect
ively, stood as follows : Confederate States. United States.
Rifies  25,000 341,000
Muskets  41,500
Flintlock guns  26,500
Percussion caps  500,000 49,982,000*
Besides this enumeration of imports, large invoices of Im
ported " hardware," received at ports of the United States,
were, indeed, arms and munitions of Avar.
Stored upon the plantations were the whole cotton, tobacco
and rice crops, of 1861, the customary ports of export by sea
being virtually unclosed by the blockade proclamation.
Secretary Benjamin's emplracal adrainistration was cor
ruptive and exhaustive at every point. Assuming that the
growing discontent of public sentiment was founded on weari
ness of war and its inconveniences, rather than on the enforced
idleness of troops, arising from the disorganized military
establishment, he attempted to popularize the civil head of the
government by spasmodic and arbitrary Interference with the
discipline of the army. It was his habit, for many months, to
send by mail, or otherwise, bundles of furloughs to the army,
avoiding even the knowledge of the commanding General,
for distribution among privates and offlcers. Against such
administration General J. E. Johnston earnestly protested,
assurmg the Secretary that. In less than thirty days, his un
paralleled interference had not only dangerously reduced the
?Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government: Roman's Campaign's of
General Beauregard.

688 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
strength of the army, but had seriously impaired its discipline.
"Leave to me, Mr. Secretary, those minor matters of detail,
which legitimately belong to my position ; that your mind
raay be left free to assume that general supervision which
your exalted station requires," wrote Johnston, in mortification
and chagrin. Nevertheless, the Secretary continued to send,
by mail, bundles of furloughs, and discharges and certificates
of authority to privates, officers, and even civilians, to raise
companies of cavalry and artillery frora the infantry regiments
then in the field. Johnston appealed to the President; the
President replied, the Secretary said he had sent no furloughs
or discharges to his army, in a month, and the General had
surely been imposed upon. But Adjutant-General Thomas G.
Rhett informed General Johnston that the mail which brought
the President's letter brought bundles of the obnoxious papers
from the offlce of the Secretary of War. The Secretary also
essayed to dispose troops in the fleld, in the presence of the
enemy. The Valley District, lying between the Allegheny and
the Blue Ridge, was placed under General " Stonewall " Jack
son. Jackson, after consulting Johnston, to whom he reported,
distributed the three Brigades under him. In the first days
of January, 1862, the troops being in fine condition and the
weather mild, Jackson resolved to drive the enemy from their
lodgment, in the northern bounds of his District, across the
Potoraac, and to hold or destroy the Baltimore and Ohio rail
road, then the only easy connection of the Western with the
Eastern army of the United States. To accomplish this pur
pose, he set out from Winchester at the head of his coramand.
The enemy were easily dislodged and thus far his object
gained. The weather changed suddenly, however, on the
march, and became intensely cold, with rain, sleet and snow.
Sorae of the men had thrown away their overcoats, others had
none ; they were compelled to pull the artillery on mountain
sides, so coated with ice that the horses often lost their foot
ing. General Loring was one of the Brigade commanders, a
West Pointer and a distinguished soldier In the war with
Mexico. In Loring's Brigade great dissatisfaction existed
with Jackson's strategy, alleged to have arisen from the
suff'erings of the men in being removed from comfortable
quarters in mid winter to take the field. A number of the

THE PERPLEXED PEOPLE. 639
officers of that Brigade repaired to Richmond with a petition
for the interference of the Secretary of War. The Secretary
granted the petition, issuing a peremptory order, direct to
Jackson, to return to Winchester. The order was at once
obeyed. Jackson promptly forwarded his resignation, through
General Johnston. Johnston withheld it, writing directly to
the President, stating the cause of complaint — the unwar
rantable interference of the Secretary with the General. The
Secretary, in eff'ect, apologized to Jackson, leaving the oft'ense
to Johnston, committed in the failure to communicate orders
to"t)ne of his subordinates through army headquarters, unap-
peased. But the sarae winter season was attended by a
calamity of mal-administration raore impressive, because more
manifestly chargeable to the Secretary's neglect, than, perhaps,
any that had yet transpired. Roanoke Island commanded
numerous water ways entering the sea from the interior of
North Carolina. Its defense was necessary to the protection
of Portsmouth and Norfolk, necessary to the safety of the
Norfolk and Petersburg railroad and, also, the Seaboard and
Roanoke railroad. Its possession by the Confederate States
allowed the collocation of supplies of corn, pork and forage
from a rich country, for the defense of both Norfolk and Rich
mond. Its loss to the Confederate States would not only open
the rear of Norfolk and Richmond to attack, but would secure
to the enemy a safe rendezvous for his ships. The North
Carolina authorities, appreciating the importance of the posi
tion, had applied to the President to separate the post and the
region of the vicinity as a distinct command. The request
was acceded to and Brigadier- General Henry A. Wise was
assigned to the command, reporting to Major-General Huger,
at Norfolk. The force on the Island was small, not number
ing, perhaps, over 2,000 effectives, many of these, or the most
of them, being North Carolina State troops. Huger was at
Norfolk, with sorae 15,000 of the early enUsted soldiers, the
flower of the Confederate army, where, for eight months, he
had been wholly unemployed. It was well known that General
Burnside, of the United States army, was expected to assault
the Island. General Wise, failing to arrest the attention, mucIi,
less the fears, of Secretary Benjamin by his appeals for aid.

640 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
repaired In person to Richmond to Intercede with the Depart
ment. The Secretary heard his plea and, without promising
to grant it, even assuring the commander that nothing could
be done for him, sent to him a peremptory order to return to
his post. Sick and despairing. Wise set out, reaching only as
far as Nagg's head, near his headquarters, where he went to
bed. Colonel Shaw, of the North Carolina State troops, being
senior officer, assumed command. The enemy landed 15,000
men. The resistance was gallant and steady. Among the
kUled was Captain O. Jennings Wise, son of the General, " a
young man of brilliant promise, refined chivalry and a courage
to which the softness of his manners and modesty of his
behavior added the virtue of knightly heroism." The Presi
dent felt bound to make public notice of a disaster, the
inexcusable character of which Avas on the lips of the whole
people aroused to an unAA'onted pitch of indignation. He
addressed a special message to Congress, confessing the " deep
humiliation " of the occurrence. Congress ordered an Investi
gation, which fixed the blame on the War Departraent and
Huger. The President, seeing the resentraent of the people
and the censure of Congress, in defiance, as it seemed, pro
moted Mr. Benjamin to the post of Secretary of State; Avhere
he remained, so long as the Confederacy existed, ever active,
imperturbable and potential in the councils of the Adminis
tration. The peculiar character of the Executive Department of the
government, its very noteworthy promises, its reraarkable
baitings between vigor of intent and performance, the para
doxical contrasts It presented between a government of the
people and the capacity, energy and devotion of the people, in
their Individual capacity, its shadowy refiections of the popu
lar intelligence and courage for war, are matters in evidence.
Nothing was done to preserve the esprit du corps, which
should have distinguished the head of the military establlsh-
raent. In Its relations to a citizen soldiery, on the edge of
battle. In November, 1861, the vice-President, in an example
of unwonted display of confidence from his superior, was
sumraoned to meet the President to confer upon a selection of
a General to coraraand the coast, from Wilmington southward.
Secretary Benjamin, and General Lee, who happened to be in

THE PERPLEXED PEOPLE. 641
Richmond for a few days, were present. In answer to a direct
interrogatory of the President, the vIce-Presldent suggested
General Beauregard as a proper selection ; to which the Secre
tary replied, the personal relations of the President to that
offlcer precluded his selection. The vice-President thereupon
proposed General Joseph E. Johnston ; and to this the same
reply was made. Very much to the embarrassment of General
Lee, the vice-President, in a third answer, named him ; and
the appointment was made.=* While General Joseph E. John
ston commanded the army at Centreville, he was summoned
to Richmond by a letter frora the President to confer upon a
subject in which the importance of secrecy would admit, as
the letter alleged, of no other manner of communication. The
Cabinet was called in session to receive the visit of General
Johnston. The President explained that he wished to discuss
the propriety and practicability of withdrawing the array
from Centreville to a less exposed position. General Johnston
said the position was untenable, so soon as McClellan was
willing or ready to move against it. It was well known, at
least to the President and Secretary of War, that against
General Johnston's urgent protests, often repeated, the Com
missary-General had erected a meat packing establishment,
Avithin army lines, as if the government intended to hold the
army there, and that immense quantities of supplies were
there stored, impossible to be raoved, in a reasonable time.
General Johnston stated the low condition of the artillery
horses, the impassable state of the country and the impossi
bility of accomplishing the withdrawal, at that time, or until
the season was so far advanced as to make the roads available.
The discussion was understood to be strictly confidential and
continued. In minutest details, from ten o'clock in the morning
until late in the afternoon. General Johnston went directly
from the council to his hotel and, upon entering, A\'as accosted
by Colonel Pender, commanding a Regiment in his army, now
just returning from leave of absence at his home in North
Carolina, inquiring if he had heard the report, circulating in
the hotel, that the Cabinet had been engaged all day in dis
cussing the withdrawal of the army. The next morning, on
his way to Centreville, General Johnston was told by a
?Reply of A. H. Stephens to Richard Taylor, North American Re^view.

41

642 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
passenger, a civilian with whom he was on social terms, that
the Cabinet, the day before, had considered the policy of with
drawing the army.* Gentlemen visiting the army, after asso
ciation with Secretary Benjamin, were not slow in repeating
to General Johnston specific allegations of the Secretary
charging the commanding General with want of enterprise
in face of the eneray. A prominent politician, walking the
streets of Richmond, on the morning of May 11, 1862, much
cast down, remarked to his acquaintances, that a sad day
had befallen the Confederacy ; the government was about to
destroy the iron clad ram " Virginia," on the coast of the
Chesapeake ; he had heard it at the Capltol, from the highest
authority. The ram was actually destroyed on that day, at a
point inaccessible to telegraphic intercourse. Formal investi
gation by the government acquitted Comraodore Tatnall, who
coraraanded, but pronounced the act of destruction unjusti-
fiable.f The rank of General, " full " General, as it was known
by the people, was created by the Provisional Congress. Five
Generals Avere to be appointed from the army. In all cases
AA^here officers had resigned from the United States army, or
raight. In six months frora the passage of the act, resign, to
enter the Confederate States array, the new coraraissions
should bear "one and the sarae date;" and the object of
issuing, to that class of officers, commissions of the "same
date " was to preserve, in the new service, the relative rank
held by thera in the old. Thus the officers were required to
sacrifice nothing of honorable pride of rank in the change;
and it was hoped the cause would receive the benefit of the
esprit du corps thus preserved. The President, holding the
Constitutional rank of» Comraander-ln-Chief of the army and
navy, could not create rank for officers. Nor had he the least
legal authority to act, alone. In raising and organizing an army.
In due tirae, the President issued commissions of General to
five officers. To this extent he observed the law. But the
commissions failed to bear " one and the same date." They
were published to the army in the following order : S.
Cooper, Colonel U. S. A., to rank from May 16; A. S. John
ston, Colonel U. S. A., to rank from May 28 ; R. E. Lee,

?Johnston's Narrative, pp. 96, 97.
t Pollard's Second Y'ear ol the War.

'THE PERPLEXED PEOPLE. 643
Lieutenant-Colonel U. S. A., to rank from June 14 ; J. E.
Johnston, Brigadier- General U. S. A., to rank frora July 4,
and G. T. Beauregard, Captain U. S. A., to rank frora July
21. The President preserved silence touching his motive, or
authority, in issuing commissions of flve different dates to
offlcers created by law, only, for whom commissions bearing
" one and the same date " were legally prescribed. He con
strued the intent of the law to apply to fleld officers only.
J. E. Johnston had been promoted from Lieutenant-Colonel,
of the cavalry arm, to the staff' office of Quartermaster-General,
with the rank of Brigadier-General. S. Cooper came into the
Confederate service from the staff' office of Adjutant-General,
with the rank of Colonel. The President made Cooper the
ranking General. He spoke, in public and private, in bitter
terms of the protest of J. E. Johnston. Public and army dis
content with the inefficiency of the conduct of the war, by the
Administration, induced Congress, in the early months of 1 862
to create the office of General of all the Annies. The Presi
dent vetoed the act but, to assuage the hostile public sentlraent,
he . summoned General Lee from the comparatively sraall
Department of the coast " to act under the directions of the
President," with his office at the capital. The country accepted
this assignment as the practical sacriflce of its just expecta
tions of support from General Lee. It Awas known to be a
position unbecoming to his railitary capacity and the influence
of his name and fame, in a popular cause.
The President was inaugurated under the permanent Con
stitution, February 22, 1862. Standing at the base of the
statue of Washington, surrounded by thousands, many battle
scarred, many more already depressed in business or broken
in fortune, he delivered an address so fervid with lofty self-
consecration, so chaste, so inspiring to the high resolve of his
country that the production will survive as among the best
examples of American oratory. The first cabinet under this
government was soon announced : Judah P. Benjamin, Secre
tary of State ; George W. Randolph, Secretary of War; S. R.
Mallory, Secretary of the Navy ; C: G. Meminger, Secretary of
the Treasury ; Thomas H. Watts, Attorney-General, and J. H.
Reagan, Post Master-General. The army was greatly encour
aged by the appointment of General Randolph to the War

644 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Office. But, refusing to the President the fiattery bestowed on
him by the strong minister, Benjamin, or the subserviency
yielded to him by the weak minister, Meminger, the valuable
services of the new Secretary of War were broken off' after a
term measured by weeks. He was succeeded by James A.
Seddon, a poUtlclan of local importance, in Virginia, a valetudi
narian, without military experience or education in mUitary
affairs. Mr. Seddon held his offlce until, in the expiring
gasps of the Confederacy, General John C. Breckenrldge was
called to fill it, to conciliate an indignant and prostrate people.
The relative strength, relative enterprise and prospect of
the two colliding RepubUcs, toward the close of the flrst winter
of preparation for general war, when examined, will show that
the United States was in a raost precarious condition, from
which the wisest statesmanship and the best generalship
could not be expected to rescue that government, unless
prolonged misuse of the talent and the resources of the
Confederate States should enter the problem of its safety.
Ten years after the close of the war. General Bragg, a Northern
raan and an offlcer who served on the side of the United
States, was made chairraan of a special coraraittee to enquire
into the claims of Miss Anna Ella Carroll, of Maryland, before
the House of Representatives. The basis of Miss Carroll's
claim was, an Invalid pension due from the governraent for
distinguished services rendered by her, November 30, 1861 ;
and the nature of the service was, the suggestion by her of an
original plan of a military campaign into the States of
Kentucky and Tennessee, submitted on that day by her to the
government at Washington, and which was the plan, in the
main, executed with success soon after in the capture of Forts
Henry and Donelson. The substance of the report of the
special coraraittee of enquiry was : Great doubt of the success
of the Union cause prevailed in the ralnd of the government of
the United States, in the winter of 1861-62 ; the government
believed the comraercial powers of Europe would recognize the
Confederate States, unless Its own railitary operations, in the
West, should be eminently successful ; the success of that cara
paign alone averted national bankruptcy. To the report was
appended a letter, written after the war, by Benjamin F. Wade,
chairman of the Senate Committee on the Conduct of War,

THE PERPLEXED PEOPLE. 645
addressed to the petitioner. Miss Carroll, in which Senator
Wade said :
"We were in the deepest despair, until just at this time Colonel
Scott informed me that there was a plan already devised, which, if
executed with secrecy, would open the Tennessee and save the national
cause. I went immediately to Mr. Lincoln. * * I said to Mr. Lincoln:
'You know we are in the last extremity, and you have to choose between
adopting and at once executing a plan which you believe to be the right
one, and save the country, or defer to the opinions of military men in
command and lose the country.' * * After repeated talks with Mr.
Stanton, I was entirely convinced that if p'at at the head of the War
Department he would have your plan executed vigorously. * * Mr.
Lincoln, on my suggesting Stanton, asked me how the leading Republi
cans would take it — that Stanton was fresh from the Buchanan cab
inet,'' etc.
While these straightforward, common sense preparations
were hurried forward by the civil government of the United
States, against the advice of Its own soldiers, the civil govern
ment of the Confederate States ordered the disbandment of
camps of volunteers and defeated other preparations of Albert
Sidney Johnston to fight in the West " the decisive battle of
the war." General Johnston called on the Governors of States
for troops not only to meet and vanquish the troops of the
United States in Kentucky and Tennessee, but, this success
attained, to cross his victorious forces into Missouri and to
compel the United States to meet, on that distant field, the
issue raised by the Confederacy. He would hold the Missis
sippi from the western shore, bringing into his ranks tens of
thousands of the sturdy fighters of Missouri, Arkansas and
Texas. From that side of the Mississippi, too, a Confederate
army of occupation might reasonably be expected to break the
OA^erland line of communication, then in use, between the
government at Washington and California and Oregon, where
the political temper of the people was considered, at least,
doubtful. Up to the time of the successes of the United
States troops under, the mal-adrainistration of Mr. Benjamin,
in the war offlce, the Confederates had won at Bethel, under
Magruder and D. H. HiU ; had foiled Patterson, under J. E.
Johnston ; had won at Manassas, under Johnston and Beaure
gard ; at Leesburg, under Evans ; at Gauley, under Floyd ; on
the Greenbrier, under H. R. Jackson ; on Santa Rosa Island,

646 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
under R. H. Anderson ; at ChastenaUah, under Mcintosh ; at
Oak HUl, under Price and McCuUoch ; at Belmont, under Polk
and Pillow, and, as we have seen, had driven the enemy across
the Potomac in northwestern Virginia ^under Jackson. Gen
erals, and troops, frora raany States had attested by their
efflclency and valor, their devotion. But the fall of Roanoke
Island had opened the way to the fall of Norfolk and the
siege of Richmond. The strategy of the Johnstons had been
overcome by the Interference of the War Office G. W. Smith
was soon to resign, because of continued neglect; Sterling
Price was to be reduced to inactivity ; Beauregard to be
forestalled in his own array, while Bragg, Peraberton, Holmes,
Heth, were to be assigned to most responsible positions.
Gustavus W. Smith, a West Point graduate, was an officer
of so universally conceded accomplishments that both Albert
Sidney Johnston and Joseph E. Johnston asked to have him
assigned to their armies. Sterling Price was one of the most
typical of Southerners. In 1845 he took his seat in the Lower
House of Congress, from Missouri. Falling to be re-nominated
by his party, the Democracy, he resigned when his term was
half spent, raised a Regiment of volunteers and, at its head,
performed a conspicuous part In the Mexican war. He was
elected Governor of Missouri in opposition to the Union party,
of 1851, after an active and extremely bitter carapaign, the
opposition lead by Thomas H. Benton. When the Confederacy
was organized he was commander of the Missouri State Guard,
with the rank of Major-General. He espoused the cause of
the Confederacy, fought battles for it on Missouri soil, and
developed a high order of military capacity. His personal
popularity In his State, among the friends of the Southern
movement, was boundless. His troops were devoted to him
with a wild enthusiasm. He bore with proud magnanimity
the neglect of the government and the practical reduction of
his rank, but the effect of harshness visited on him was seen
in public detriment to the cause in Missouri.
In less than two years from the outbreak of hostilities the
financial affairs of both Republics were on the brink of ruin.
The revenues of both governments consisted, for the raost
part. In paper promises to pay. Gold rose to twenty-flve for
one In New York. The expenditures of the United States

THE PERPLEXED PEOPLE. 647
government were ten to flfteen fold the expenditures of the
Confederate States governraent. But the superior manage
ment of the United States flnances was seen in the effort, here
and there, to keep the paper currency in circulation. The
army increased by hundreds of thousands of men, for whom
arms, powder, ball, clothing, boots, hats, medicines, horse
equipments, wagons were required and were raanufactured
at home. Ships of war were built, rapidly, at home. The
business of fllling army contracts employed millions of capital.
and tens of thousands of wage workers. So long as the war
could be maintained on Southern soil the Northern manu
facturing and commercial interests desired no more safe or
profitable occupation than government contracts, payable in
the paper of the government. Nevertheless, the fall elections
of 1862 revealed a widespread dissatisfaction with the party
in power In the United States. Six of the raost powerful
States sent up a protest, most alarming, to the government.
The Democrats were defeated in NeAv York, in 1860, by more
than fifty thousand votes, but, in 1862, they elected Horatio
Seymour, their leader opposed to war, Governor. New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, with New York,
possessed the bulk of tbe wealth of the United States and
furnished the majority of the troops in the field. They
offered, in their vote of 1862, unmistakable evidence of the
growing unpopularity of the war.
The President of the Confederate States left no ground for
faith in a reform of the financial measures of government.
The most extravagant predictions of the stability of the
treasury note currency were announced in his inaugural of
February; yet this currency had been on a steady decline
since Septembc-, 1861, and was then enormously discounted.
In August, 1862, he sent a message to Congress declaring " the
people had evinced a preference (over bonds) for treasury
notes so marked that legislation is recommended to authorize
an increase in the issue of treasury notes, which the public
service seems to require." Meantime, the area of the Confed
eracy was constantly reduced by the fortunes of war, the
government steadily refused to allow cotton, to be exported
and the United States was actively engaged in smuggling
cotton through Confederate ports. Continuing, the raessage

648 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
announced : " No grave inconvenience need be apprehended
from this increased issue, as the provision of law by which
these notes are converted into eight per cent, bonds, forms an
efficient and permanent safeguard against any serious depre
ciation of the currency." Thus it was explained, that without
any basis for bonds or currency, in a foreign commerce or
interior commerce, the public appreciation alone would con
tinue to preserve a wholesome equilibrium between the two
descriptions of paper, calling out treasury notes when cur
rency was needed and retiring thera for bonds, wUen a plethora
menaced their value, The immediate result of the financial
policy of the Confederacy was the outbreak of speculation
which, in no small degree, embarrassed the government. A
single instance will suffice. A ship arrived at Savannah con
temporaneous with the receipt by Secretary Benjamin of a
demand for arms frora General A. S. Johnston. The Secretary
Informed General Johnston that 1,800 stand of arms had corae
for government account on that vessel and that the govern
ment had been able to buy from private parties more than
1,700 stand of the same cargo. Gambling and speculation,
rather than conversion into interest bearing government
stocks, eraployed the currency of a government whose finan
cial wreck every financier of ordinary sagacity foretold. But,
in the elections In the States of the Confederacy, no dissatis
faction with the most vigorous Avar measures were expressed.
The civil officers best prepared to promote the pursuit of war
was the only Issue involved in those elections. Thoraas H.
Watts was summoned, without notice, from the command of
his Regiment In the field to the Cabinet and, against his wish,
was elected Governor of Alabama, from that position, because
the people knew his fideUty and capacity pre-erainently fitted
him to sustain the war upon the resources of the State ; while
the State itself should undertake under a humane and firm
Chief Executive to adopt the extraordinary measures required
of it for the collection and distribution of bread for the
dependent famlUes of soldiers, living or dead.

CHAPTER 27.

Senator Yancey.

1862-1863.

Mr. Yancey's oratorical labors in the free States, in 1860,
enlarged his sympathies and cultivated his intellectual dis
crimination. Trained already, as were his mental faculties, to
quick apprehension and prompt decision, he had time, brief as
were the hours, to draw inspiration from great libraries and to
study the organization of the most potential and the most
unsettled social conditions of the world, as he moved in their
midst. Learned and polite men of all political parties had
opened their hospitaUty to him. The time spent in Europe
was his first holiday in many years. The results of his
observation and reflection there were apparent in his short
but briUiant career in the Senate — the befitting crown of his
fame. Arduous as were his official labors in this capacity, he
did not neglect the social duties of his station. " To those
who saw him socially, he AA'as the gentlest, the most exquisitely
refined of men ; the most considerate, well bred of gentle
men — was the embodiment of the highest type of Southern
chivalry."* Mr. Yancey, upon landing at New Orleans, was invited by
merchants and others to appear in the rotunda of the St.
Charles Hotel to speak a few words touching the feeling of the
commercial powers of Europe. Complying with the request,
he warned the audience that the Confederacy must rely upon
*CosmopolUan Magazine, December, 1891.

650 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
itself; that foreign assistance was not probable. The Presi
dent's secret knowledge that Yancey referred, in his own
mind, to the failure of the Administration to attempt what
the returned Commissioner believed to be a promising foreign
diplomacy, angered hira not a little. Iramedlately upon Sen
ator Yancey taking his seat, he explored the records of tbe
Treasury and War Departments, seeking to discover why the
Confederate States had fallen so far behind the enterprise dis
played by the United States in maintaining a paper currency
and in the purchase of arras and munitions of war, in Europe.
Meanwhile, the alarming unhappy personal relations of the
President to the great raen, civilians and soldiers, of the Con
federacy and his fateful reliance upon weaker men revealed
itself. The two leading newspapers, the Richmond Examiner
and the Charleston Mercury, edited by Daniels and Rhett,
respectively, were pronounced in opinion that the Confed
eracy was in great peril from mal-administration. The im
pression made on Mr. Yancey's mind by the condition of
affairs in the government, is expressed by the following
extract from a private letter :
" I vividly recall the very last time I ever saw the great orator and
parliamentarian, and I can never forget the peculiar impression his
appearance made on my mind. It was in my parlor at Eichmond, that
I last saw him, soon after his return from abroad, in a private interview
in which he related the details of his fruitless mission. Hopeless
despair was written on his fine face, ah, and wailed out in every tone
of his voice. The doom of his beloved South was to him a personal
execution. He seemed literally to have perished with his hopes."
Having made a thorough examination of the acts ot Con
gress, the condition of the Departments and the course of
the President, Mr. Yancey from his private apartments, on
Sunday, wrote to the President a confidential letter :
"RiCHMO-ND, AprU 6, 1862.
"Sir : I have had occasion, very recently, to examine with
some care the instructions of the War Department to Captain
Huse, and the letters of that officer to the Secretary of W ar.*
The finished military education of Captain Huse naturally
Inclines him to buy none but the most superior rified arras.
•Caleb Huse, a native of New England, a graduate of West Point, was elevated
from the station of commandant, or drill master, at the University of Aliibama, to
Confederate Agent in Europe, with plenai-y control of purchases of war material.

SENATOR YANCEY. 651
"The instructions of the government strengthen him in
that inclination.
" The markets of Europe at this time can afford few rifled
muskets. '- Many very fair smooth bore muskets can be bought in
Europe, if pains are taken to find them.
"The appointment of, at least, two additional officers to
make different sections of the continent of Europe their
spheres of action, would facilitate the acquisition of such
arms. "Instructions to each officer, to confine his operations to
the section allotted to him, would avoid conflict with others
and also would be some protection against speculative prices.
" The manufacturers of rifled and other muskets, as well
as carbines, are now pretty much open to the monopoly of
your contractor. But to this end a large amount of cash, in
hand, is absolutely necessary. Forfeit money must be depos
ited with the contract. Cash is absolutely required on delivery
of the arras - — which would be raonthly.
" I notice, in Mr. Meminger's statement of the araount of
money sent to the agent of the War Departraent, that in the
most critical period of your contracts, in England, between
September 25, 1861, and January 19, 1862, nearly four months,
he only sent SI, 081. The consequence was. Captain Huse bad
to beg an advance from Sir Isaac Campbell and Company, to
the amount of a half-million of dollars. Had this house not
come generously to his relief, we should have lost every con
tract ; and also some fifty thousand muskets, delivered In that
period and since.
"The funds sent, up to March 1, -ultimo, will only pay for
deliveries under old contracts ; which do not, I beUeve, call for
more than 10,000 muskets per month.
" If we are to arm 200,000 additional men, or rather obtain
200,000 or 300,000 additional muskets, by faU, not only wUl
you be compelled to send additional officers, Imbued fuUy with
your Ideas, but a million doUars, a month, also.
"Pardon me for the suggestions. They are dictated by a
solemn sense of duty. I address them to you because I
believe, from the iramense pressure upon you of every public

652 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
interest, you cannot comprehend all, unless with the aid of
some plain spoken friends.
"I have spoken of what I know, and submit it for what it
may be worth to your consideration.
" Respectfully, your obedient servant,
« W. L. Yancey.
" To His Excellency, the President."
The informal character of this letter was justified in the
past intimacy of the parties to the correspondence. It was a
frank and even bold impeachment of the Secretaries. It went
so far as to prove the inefficiency of their administration, by
specific allegations of duty neglected. But it marked the
termination of the President's kindly feeling toward Yancey.
The explorations of the Departments, by a Senator, in advance
of the President, as Y'ancey had explored and then criticised,
was held to be an unpardonable impertinence. So long as
Yancey was content to remain in Europe, acknowledging his
instructions, and obeying them, the President's warmth of
friendship remained unabated. But, from the counsel of a
friend, who saw further than the Administration, he turned in
lofty scorn and bitter irony. The President replied and the
Senator rejoined : Senate Chamber, April 17, 1862.
"Dear Sir : I did not expect a reply to my letter of the
6th instant.
" I regret that I cannot comply with your request to
furnish you with inforraatlon in respect to sraooth bore mus
kets, the places where and the parties from whom they may be
obtained. " I kept no memoranda of the facts, as they occurred, and
am away from my correspondence, which might aid rae some
what. "My object in writing upon the subject was : 1. To assure
you that you could have obtained, and can now obtain, a
serviceable arm In Europe, such as your agent has not deemed
proper to buy, under his view of his instructions ; 2 — to
suggest my opinion that other — I mean a greater number of —
agents, assigned to distinct territory, in Europe, would facili
tate purchase of such arms ; 3— and chiefly, that a more regular

SENATOR YANCEY. 653
•
transmission of funds, and in larger amounts, is absolutely
necessary. " I undertook the task of doing this from the conviction
that you were not aware of the fact that funds had not
been transmitted from here, with regularity, and In sufficient
amounts. " I am the more convinced of your want of information on
this point since the receipt of your letter, on yesterday.
" By reference to offlcial statements, sent to the Senate by
Mr. Hunter, it appears that from September 28, 1861,, to
January, 1862, the entire amount, sent to Anderson and Huse
was $1,031.52. Captain Huse's letters previously warned the
Department of his need of more funds to pay his contracts for
10,000 Enfield muskets per month — that is about $200,000 per
month. " When I left, February 3, Huse had received nothing for
several months ; had relied on advances from our London
friends, to the araount of half million. On February 20, when
Mr. Halfman, bearer of dispatches to the Confederate Govern
ment, left, no funds had been received.
" I know your own conviction of the necessity of procuring
arms. I belie-ved that you were unaware that the failure was,
not in miscarriage of remittances, but was because, for months^
no remittances were made.
" I have a strong conviction that this failure was because
of the adoption of a new method of obtaining arms, in Septem
ber — a reliance on private contracts to obtain arms .from
Europe. "Finding difficulties in the way of obtaining your ear,
confidentially, as I preferred, I concluded to write. I wrote
from a sense of duty ; I reply to your letter, raore especially,
from a sense of duty.
" I would prefer this and my previous communication on the
same subject to be considered confidential. It was designed
to call your attention to the policy of employing government
agents in the purchase of arms and to the facts recommending
punctuality of remittances.
" Most respectfully, your obedient servant,
" W. L. Yancey.
" To His Excellency, .Jefferson Davis."

654 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
The pertinacity of the Senator only confirmed the antag
onism of the President. It is a little singular that while
Yancey wrote his first letter the first day of the battle of
Shiloh was being fought. It is remarkable that so ignorant
were the people, and even the Congress, of the causes which
had lead to General Albert Sidney Johnston's precipitate
retreat from Kentucky and Tennessee, to Corinth, Mississippi,
that the most flattering and urgent calls were made on the
President to hasten to take command of the army of the West
in person, to save the cause. The people Instinctively decided
that the decisive battle of the contest was at hand In the West.
They foresaw that to which Secretary Benjamin had been
blind, when he checkmated Johnston's plans for raising and
arming twelve-raonths' men. A large part of Johnston's army
had been left at outposts and, presumably, abandoned to cap
ture, also, an immense quantity of provisions.
"General Johnston can never re-organize or re-info rce his army
(telegraphed a member of Congress, from Atlanta, to the President,
March 11, 1862). The people now look to you as their deliverer, and
imploringly call upon you to come to the field of our late disasters and
assume command, as you promised in a speech to take the field when
ever necessary. That necessity is now upon us. Such a step would be
worth 100,000 soldiers throughout the Confederacy. Can you then hesi
tate? * * If your presence is impossible, for God's sake give imme
diate command to Beauregard or Bragg or Breckenrldge or all will be
irretrievably lost. Save us while there is yet time.''
Another raeraber of Congress, at whose house General
Johnston had stayed on his march, wrote to the President :
" General .Johnston's army is demoralized. Your presence would
re-assure it and will save Tennessee. Nothing else can. For (Jod's
sake come!"
An offlcer of high rank telegraphed to Richmond from
Meraphis :
"If Johnston and Hardee are not removed the army is demoral
ized. President Davis must come here and take the field."*
The President's personal regard for General Johnston
proved equal to the support of that great commander in his
dire extremity, even when his sense of offlcial duty had not
interfered to arrest the disastrous policy of the War Offlce, in
the earlier months of preparation. He wrote a beautiful and
* Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston, pp . 511-512.

SENATOR YANCEY. 655
manly letter to his old friend, the commanding General,
re-assurlng him in the confidence of the Governraent. Indeed,
so gracious had the Government now become, that Secretary
Benjamin wrote :
"The condition of your Department, in consequence of the largely
superior force of the enemy, has filled us witl( solicitude, and we have*
used every possible exertion to organize some means for your relief.
* * We have called on all the State for a levy of men for the war and
think in a few weeks we shall bo able to give you heavy re-inforcements,
although Ave may not be able to arm them with good weapons."
While Johnston yet held Kentucky, he had urged the
supply to hira of these very arms — the arms of private citi
zens. While at Bowling Green, he wrote letter after letter
urging the abandonment of an indefensible sea coast, the
concentration of Bragg's and Lovell's forces, with his own, and
the joining of a decisive battle. But It was only after he had
been driven from Kentucky, and Halleck and Buell were on
the direct march to the coast, that the Government saw its
way clear to endorse his strategy ; then only, after the sur
render of tens of thousands of his best troops, at impracticable
fortified camps. Falling back with his force, the left wing of
Johnston's army, Beauregard Issued a stirring appeal to citi
zens to come to the defense of their country "to flght the
decisive battle of the war." Several regiments. In this brief
time, were enrolled. A cargo of arms arrived, and 2,800 of
these were put In the hands of new levies. The Governors
had sent foi ward sorae State troops. General Bragg, describ
ing the men and their arms, carried into the battle of Shiloh
by General Johnston, wrote :
"It was an heterogeneous mass, in which there was more enthusi
asm than discipline. * * Kifles (of the ordinary huntsman's pattern
half century old) rifled and smooth bore muskets, some of them origi
nally percussion, others altered from flint locks by Yankee contractors,
many still with the old flint and steel, shotguns of all sizes and patterns
held place in the same regiment. The task of organizing such a com
mand in four weeks and supplying it, especially with ammunition suit
able for action, was simply appalling."
The task of organizing, which General Johnston had en
tered upon in September, countermanded by the Secretary of
War, was forced upon him four weeks before the great battle,

656 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
and after the enemy had concentrated a great force and won
iraportant victories. Erabarrassed as General Johnston was
by the fateful administration of the War Office, he succeeded
in his original plan of concentrating his forces and defeating
the enemy in a great battle. He had proposed to defeat and
capture Grant, hemmed in between the Tennessee river, at his
rear, the Confederate army on his front and an unfordable
creek on either flank. Grant disposed of, he intended to drive
BueU, hard by, across the Ohio, then cross the Mississippi and
raise a great array from Missouri, Arkansas and Texas.*
Grant was actually defeated, and upon the verge of capture,
when Johnston fell, and his grand strategy fell with him.
Beauregard, next in comraand, had been ill for months, suffer
ing intensely from a disease whose pathological nature was
nervous depression. From his bed he had commanded his
own corps, of the retreating array. Frora his bed he had risen
to go into the great battle and, when Johnston fell, was two
railes to the rear of the victorious advance, lead by the cora
raander In person, seeing only the skulkers and the wounded.
The only mistake, perhaps, of this great soldier, in the whole
war, was raade in an order restraining the troops, alraost in
the act of the flnal charge which would have dispersed or
captured Grant and his array. In pronouncing his order,
withdrawing the advance of the Confederate army from the
vicinage of Pittsburg Landing, toward the close of the day, a
mistake, the criticism is sustained by all oral and written
evidence, which I have been able to obtain, except that coming
frora General Beauregard and his staff. The successes of
Beauregard, before and after Shiloh, are of the most glorious
pages of Confederate military history — rich in strength and
versatility of talent and secure In the unvarying confidence of
the army, and of the people in their horaes, to a degree which
was not excelled. " General Whitthorne, go tell your people
that, under the favor of Providence, I will return in less than
ninety days and redeem their capital," was the raessage of
Albert Sidney Johnston left with the people of Tennessee, as
he passed on to the rendezvous of his army at Corinth.
Beauregard, in health, was quite equal to the redemption af
this pledge.
*Life of Albert Sidney Johnston.

SENATOR YANCEY. 657
Concentration of armies and invasion of the enemy's soil
was the grand strategy advised by the Confederate Generals,
in the first year of the war. Members of Congress, believing
the discharge of their duty required them to demand some
show of defense of every port on a long sea front, and every
Important town on a long border line, rose up in protest. The
President, believing the responsibilities of his offlce to be
divided between obedience to the popular will and the super
intendence of the army, in small and great matters, took
counsel of his erroneous judgraent in deciding against the
Generals. Not until the enemy had so recruited, armed and
trained his forces, as to reduce greatly the Confederate terri
tory, leaving the Confederate armies a limited area to defend,
was the original advice of the Generals seriously considered
by the civil authorities. Then began the unequal battle — the
smaller nation frowned upon by all foreign powers, in the
impotency of its diplomacy — having no plan of war save to
watch the inroads of the invader, strike him heroically,
receive his return blow and see hira all the stronger from the
collision, let the immediate result be what it raight.
Many were the struggles of the genius of the Southern
people to rise to the task before it. General J. E. Johnston
had warned the President, at Fairfax Court House, that the
army must advance from that position, or fall back so soon as
McClellan raight determine his own course. McClellan decided
to take the water route to the fortifications around Richmond.
To meet this movement Johnston fell back to the Peninsula.
Arrived with his army, he at once discovered the indefensible
nature of the country, flanked on either side by navigable
waters open to the enemies ships ; the enemy's base being at
one end of the field and the Confederate capital at the other.
In the rear of the enemy's base was the Atlantic ocean and iri
the rear of the Confederate capital was the territory pene
trated by good roads, bordering the enemy's country. Leaving
his camp at nightfall, Johnston galloped the forty miles into
Richmond and at sunrise awaited at the President's offlce to
lay before him the most weighty scheme of campaign upon
which the Confederate cause depended. He explained to the
President the whole situation. Huger yet held Norfolk, in
idleness. Troops were available all along the coast of the

42

658 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. The opportunity to concen
trate and invade the 'enemy had been lost, the opportunity to
concentrate and repel the invasion of the enemy's principal
army was now apparent. These were the only two opportuni
ties proralslng success. McClellan could be destroyed, if the
President would give the order. " Such a victory will decide
not only this campaign, but the war, while the present poUcy
will produce no result," urged the intrepid Johnston. The
President listened attentively and Invited General Johnston
to attend a councU at his office as soon as possible. In a few
hours the President, the Secretary of War, Randolph, and
Generals Lee, Johnston, G. W. Smith and Longstreet met
there. Smith concurred with Johnston ; Longstreet seems to
have taken little part in the discussion. The Secretary, once
a naval offlcer, Avith the traditional attachment of that class to
Norfolk, spoke against a strategy which would sacrifice the
position. General Lee was familiar with the topography of
the Peninsula. His wife had inherited, frora Washington's
heirs, the " White House " and then occupied the estate, sit
uated In that region. He thought there were raany defensible
positions which General Johnston's array might hold there.
It may be questioned whether General Lee rose to his full
measure on this memorable occasion. His services to the
Confederacy had not then increased the reputation he brought
with him from the "old" army, but neither the people nor
the array were irapatlent of him, knowing tke circumstances
which had conspired to deny hira opportunity. But the grand
strategy proposed by Johnston Involved some civil problems,
and General Lee never considered or never discussed politics.
To meet and contend, with the eneray, on such terras as his
government prepared for him, seemed to absorb his attention.
Resourceful and daring in his proper sphere, it is not apparent
that General Lee rose, in the council, to the full measure of
his raental view. There was no responsibility to enkindle his
genius, and rauch environment to excuse the indulgence of his
native modesty. His superior in authority, the Secretary of
War, had spoken, what the President thought ; and, certainly,
the feeling toward Johnston, Lee well knew. Realizing that
he occupied a position scarcely other than secretary to the
railitary head of the governraent, bis professional training and

SENATOR YANCEY. 659
the natural bias of his mind towards the rule of order in all
things were circumstances of powerful influence in deter
mining his utterance in a fearful crisis. If error there and
then be comraitted, it must be irreparable. The armies of
lawyers, doctors, merchants, planters, coUegiates and univer
sity men never seriously compared the Intellectual force of
Lee and Joseph E. Johnston, who apparently differed -In the
councU. An enthusiastic devotion of the heart of the army
and a boundless confidence of the judgment of the army, in
both leaders, left no room for such comparison. The hold that
Joseph E. Johnston held on the aff'ections of his army was
due, in no small measure, to the public knowledge of his
opinion on public affairs. If the reflections of General Lee
on public affairs reached beyond their Influence upon his
campaign, the public knew little of them. Lee's equipoise of
temper, his immovable idea of order was well adapted to the
nature and fancies of the President, who preferred him to
Joseph E. Johnston ; the wider sympathies of the vice-Presi
dent lead hira to declare that of all Confederate Generals,
Joseph E. Johnston possessed the clearest comprehension of
Confederate conditions of warfare.
The President dissolved the council at one o'clock in the
morning, with instructions to Johnston to adopt the recom
mendation of Lee, that defensible positions for his inferior
army be chosen and the Peninsula be held. Johnston knew
full well the Peninsula was indefensible. Did the conclusion
of the council mean that the Confederate States was to pursue
Avar without an original plan ? Two original plans only were
open to adoption : (1) Concentration and transfer of the seat
of war to the enemy's soil ; (2) concentration and driving back
on the frontier the enemy's invasion. To recommend the
former, Joseph E. Johnston had invited the President to the
council, in November, at Fairfax Court House : to recommend
the latter, Johnston had met the council in the President's
office the following April. The President overruled both
original plans. Confederate resources of war, in raen and
material, were thus doomed to steady exhaustion and the
resources of the enemy alloAved opportunity for ceaseless
augmentation. The Confederacy, so rich at the outset, was
to be impoverished by the waste of defensive warfare, feeding

660 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
its own army as well as its invaders. Confederate general
ship in the future must be the generalship of Fabius and
Washington, and be, withal, unappreciated by the civil author
ities. The Congress commanded Washington to defend the
territory and hold a position, viz., the city of New York.
Washington abandoned the position and saved his army.
The Congress dispatched a brave and experienced officer.
General Lincoln, to defend Charleston. Lincoln occupied the
city with an army of seven thousand men, but allowed the
British to approach It by slow degrees and to be§lege It. The
position fell and the Congress lost his entire army. Three
States thus left unprotected were entirely overrun. Finally,
Washington escaping from Clinton's front, in New Jersey,
ordered LaFayette, in Virginia, to unite with him, abandoning
the whole country to concentrate the whole array upon Corn
wallis. The British commander was overtaken, on his way to
Clinton, at Yorktown and in his capture the war was termi
nated. The raoveraent of the Araerican revolutionary leader
will be reckoned araong the highest exaraples of grand
strategy known to warfare. The repetition of grand strategy
allied to it, and urged by Johnston, was refused by the council
sitting in the President's offlce at Richmond.
The Northern soldier had now been taught to keep his
saddle and take aim AA'lth his rifle, without shutting his eyes.
Time had accomplished so much towards bringing him up to
the original soldierly qualities of the Southern soldier. Enthu
siasm, always the result of an invasive warfare, assisted the
United States. Europe had quickly learned to expect nothing
from the comraercial advantages possessed by the Confederate
States. The test of Confederate generalship becarae capacity
to sustain the retreat of armies. To save the army, as Wash
ington had saved his, and not to lose it, as General Lincoln
had lost his, and saving the army, to conflne the eneray to
narrow tracks of invasion, was the intellectual problem in
volved, after the action of the council of April, 1862, in the
defensive war of the Confederate States.
Beauregard's defense of Charleston and a long sea coast
presented a display of genius unrivalled and startling, stand
ing off to Itself, an achievement in the science of war without
a parallel.

¦'<ENA'TOR YANCEY. 661
Discouraged at his attempt to approach the President, as a
counselor, Mr. Yancey resolved to place evidence of the apa
thy of the Treasury Offlce and of the capricious and destruc
tive course of the War Offlce before the Senate. Three days
after the date of his last letter to the President, he addressed
a letter to Major Huse, In London. He asked for such general
reports of his transactions, on account of the governraent,
there as a Senator might have the right to know and an agent
have the right to communicate. The nature of the letter of
inquiry will be seen by the expressions of the reply. It is to be
observed that Major Huse knew that cargoes passing between
the Confederate ports and ports of Europe, as late as the mid
dle of .luly, 1862, Avere rarely overtaken by the eneray. It
will appear from his letter that, while he was diligent In the
exercise of the unlimited authority granted blm, under his
plenary powers, he was not an offlcer suited to the very
responsible position he held. To prove the nature of the in
structions sent to Huse, and to prove that Huse Avas not the
right man in his place, seems to have been an easy task to the.
Senator. Major Huse wrote the following letter.* The confldentlal
tone Is remarkable : ";i.S Clakendon Eoad, jSTotting-Hill, )
"London, July .3, 1862. /
''Hon. WUliam L. Yuncey:
" Ma- Deak Sir: I have before me your kind letter of April 20,
and beg to thank you for your interest in regard to my embarrassments.
For I certainly have been embarrassed in regard to my operations since
I have been in England. It would be improper in me, however, to
endeavor to cast any censure upon my official superiors, excepting it
were necessary for me to do so in defending myself against direct
charges. This necessity has not arisen and I trust it will not, I have
heard, from private sources of information, of very grave charges hav
ing been made against me by individuals who, in every instance that has
yet come to my notice, have been men holding contracts from the gov
ernment. In some cases my course has been calculated to offend
men holding contracts from the government, and I flnd that they have
endeavored to injure my character in the most shameful manner since
their return to the Confederate States. I shall not, however, give to
these indeflnite aspersions any consideration. So long as such good
fortune attends shipments of goods made by me, as has been the case,
* From the original MS .

662 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
with the single exception which it would not be prudent to mention,
it will not be necessary for me to attempt any defense. The results
tell a better story than mere words could.
" You ask whether I have had my operations limited for want of
funds — •or rather, you state that I have, apparently with the expectation
that I will confirm what you state. Most certainly twice as much can
be done with two million dollars as with one million, and in Europe
there appears to be no limit to the amount of money that can be used.
"1 may say that my operations have always been more than com
mensurate with the funds on hand. I have not allowed money to
remain in bank idle for a day more than has been necessary. My orders
have all the time been far in advance of my receipts. At present they
are largely in excess of what has been received, or I can even expect for
some time to come. I hope, however, that everything will come out
right, and I have little doubt on the subject.
" As regards my having misappropriated money: It is in a measure
true that I have done so. I have done so to this extent — My first
instructions were from Secretary Walker to purchase certain arms, and
ammunition and accoutrements. These instructions were given in
April, 1861, within a few days after the attack upon Port Sumter, at a
time it was supposed by every one the war would be a trifling afiair in
comparison with what it has actually become. Under these instruc
tions my operations would have been very limited. Subsequently I
received instructions to consider my original orders binding, but to
exercise my own discretion as regards purchases to be made. * *
The army was to be provided with blankets, shoes, clothing and medi
cines as well as with arms. Contracts appear to have been promptly
given out to a very large extent to different parties for these articles.
Most of these parties failed entirely in carrying out their intentions,
and it seemed to me of the highest importance that these supplies
should be had at any sacriflce of money. It appeared to me even to be
more important that such an army as we were sending to the fleld
should be well clothed and equipped than that the arms should be
increased. And I think you will agree with me, upon a little consider
ation of the matter. Since the war first began our citizens, from the
highest to the lowest classes, have exhibited an eagerness to be sent to
the field that nothing but the want of arms could control. If there had
been in the Confederate States 500,000 rifles at the time of the battle of
Manassas, nothing could have prevented 500,000 men rushing into the
fleld, and I believe that within six months from that time they would
have suffered the most miserable and disheartening defeats conceivable.
An army must be shod and clothed and blanketed as well as armed.
Napoleon said, that army would win which was best provided with
shoes. " I fully appreciated the importance of these supplies and I knew,
perhaps better than most of the inhabitants of the'South how skillful,
and rich, and determined a people we had taken up arms against. I
knew how dependent the South had been in almost everything upon

SENATOR YANCEY. 663
the North. But little reflection Avas needed to present the whole matter
clearly before my mind. The city of Boston alone sent, some years
ago, 3,500,000 pairs of shoes to the Southern States. There was not in
the whole Southern country a single blanket manufactory. The South
bad always obtained its woolen goods from the North. The military
schools in Virginia and Alabama obtained all their supplies of every
description from Xew York. The South Carolina schools purchased
most of their supplies in Europe. All medicines came either from New
York or England. In short, almost every article that can be mentioned,
needed for the protection and comfort of an army, had to be obtained
from a foreign source.
"What, now, would have been the result had our armies gone to
battle without these supplies? They would have gained just enough
battles to have infuriated the whole Northern people and even greater
efforts would have been put forth by them than has been the case.
Our armies would soon have been only disorganized bands of sick and
worn-out men. The North, with its immense resources of men and
materials, would have found us occupying positions even more exposed
and more distant from our supplies than Donelson was, and the result
could not have been otherwise than disheartening and disastrous. As
the case has been, we have had in the fleld quite as many men as we
could provide for. If we had had more arms we could not have pro
vided a corresponding supply of clothing. It never could be shown to
tho people that anything but arms and ammunition are necessary to an
army. A General having to surrender because his men had no shoes
would be laughed at. But when it is said the army had not rifles, the
people understand the difficulty. Those who have to stay at home look
kindly upon the troops that suffer disaster and applaud those who gain
victories under such difficulties. * * Defeat from any other cause
than want of arms would have caused our people to lose confidence in
the wisdom of leaders and in the bravery of their men. It was there
fore of the highest importance that those supplies of clothing and
blankets should be supplied to our armies, even at the expense of a few
thousand arms. * * *
"The risk and expense of getting a bad musket into the Confed
eracy are quite as great as for the best rifle and the difference of cost in
the first instance is comparatively small. The confidence and satisfac
tion of troops with good arms certainly adds greatly to their efficiency.
It has been, theref oi e, in accordance with my own judgment that I have
purchased only good arms. I have not been embarrassed by conflicting
orders nor with too stringent orders as regards quality. * *
" I should have no hesitation in informing you what operations are
now going on, but as you are doubtless aware one of my letters ap
peared in a New York paper lately and this may be intercepted also,
I shaU therefore avoid all allusions to that subject. * *
"The sympathy for the South in England is universal. In this
particular there is perhaps some change. No one can see, however, in
what way the government can Interfere. * * The simple admission

664 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
on the part of the North that Halleck has had to assume the defensive
and that Pope has given up the pursuit of Beauregard is better for us
than anything our friends can write for either purely English or Anglo-
Confederate papers. If we succeed against McClellan at Richmond and
at Charleston I cannot see how recognition can be deferred. All that
any one has to say against recognition in England is : ' What good will
it do you?' This is, of course, begging the question.
"I am, dear sir, with great I'espect, "Yours truly, " Caleb Huse."
The Senator^ familiar with his people and their resources,
knowing that the looms, which had supplied many thousands
of men in the ranks with their clothing from infancy, sat
under the back shed of the residences of their fathers ; that
every great plantation could readily be converted Into a man
ufactory of stout woolen jeans, as well as cotton, on ten days'
notice; that each Confederate soldier had a home whence
the blanket of bivouac, at least at that early stage of the war,
could be obtained, if he desired one, was in no small degree
alarmed and oppressed with the views of the Quartermaster
in Europe. The theory of Major Huse, based on his " polished
militai-y education," lead to the abandonment of great areas of
country by the Confederate armies. The policy of war recom
mended by the Johnstons, and Beauregard and Smith, and
the operations of Jackson, Forrest and Wheeler were calcu
lated, in the flrst named example, and realized in the last, to
provide clothing and arms and commissary stores to their
invading troops. General Beauregard relates that about dark,
a cold auturan night, a youth of seventeen years, belonging to
Hood's army on its way to Nashville, came into his head
quarters, wet and half shod. He did not know the General,
who sat at the flre. Beauregard offered to order supper for
him, but was assured he had lately enjoyed that meal and did
not need more. An order on the Quarterraaster for a pair of
shoes was declined, with the apology : " Oh, we are going to
flght in two or three days and I will get shoes enough."
The following letter contains sorae thoughtful suggestions :
"Madeid, April 7, 1862.
"Hon. WiUiam L. Yancey:
" Dear Sie: Since I wrote to you by the steamer of 25th ultimo I
have seen the announcement of your safe ariival at New Orleans; for
which I most sincerely congratulate you and our co-intiy.

SENATOR YANCEY. 665
"Everything stands as it did then: no news; no hope of any kind
until the federal government is ready to treat with us as an independent
power. Wh'en this occurs, no matter from what motive, the federal
government will be our natural ally, and it will be to our interest to
make all proper concessions to strengthen that alliance. We shall have
an enormous war debt and the annual interest and the gradual extinc
tion will have to be provided for by a war tax. It is therefore nothing
but fair that the amount necessary for those purposes should be raised
by duties on imports from those nations whose reluctant and tardy
action in our affairs has protracted the war and caused our financial
embarrassment. Why should uot the South intimate to the Northern
government to agree, for a limited time, to raise its tariff to the rates
that will yield the greatest amount of revenue, said rates not to be
under a minimum flxed upon, with reference to the Northern tariff at
any time existing, aud that with such an arrangement the North and
South dispense with frontier custom houses and have free trade
between them. While Northern goods would thus be admitted free of
duty by us, under a moderate tariff we would import and receive duties
upon a large proportion of the foreign goods the North consumes.
Besides, our cotton, rice and tobacco would be free from the tax which
the North has imposed, or is about to impose, on them. If, as many
believe, the main object of the North in this war is to retain their old
home market for their goods, why not give it to them on these terms
and thus avoid frontier troubles and secure a lasting peace with them?
" I throw out these suggestions for your consideration, believing
that their adoption would facilitate the settlement of our dispute. We
must not forget that however intensely our people may hate the Yan
kees, after we have conquered our independence it will be our interest
as well as our duty to view them in all that relates to our foreign
relations as a favored nation. Should other nations complain of our
preference given the North, we will remind them, as a sufficient
justiflcation, of the course they saw flt to pursue in the hour of our
need and of the evils it has brought upon us.
"I have nothing to communicate that would interest you. I have
suffered from cold much more than in Paris. On April 5 the temper
ature of Madrid was precisely the same as of Moscow. Mr. Fearn and
my sons wish to be remembered to you.
" I am, with great respect, " Your friend, " P. A- Host,"
The argument of Commissioner Rost was the argument of
the Unionists in the Alabama secession convention, spoken
there by Mr. WUliara R. Smith and answered at length by
Mr. Yancey, from the standpoint of the Secessionists. Indeed,
a comraercial alliance with Europe was the favorite foreign
poUcy of the Secessionists, while a commercial alliance with

666 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the United States was preferred by the LTnionists, at the
outset of the Southern movement. Mr. Rost's letter was not
without justiflcation in the " extremity " in which the United
States found itself, in the winter of 1861-2. It is interesting
evidence, going to show to what extent the Confederate gov
ernment held itself aloof, from the thought of the people,
busied with the details of the army in the field.
When the President visited the army at Fairfax Court
House to attend the famous council, much complaint carae to
his ears frora Regiraents brigaded with others not from, the
same State. He heard the pleas of offlcers and men for
reorganization, to correct the assignment of troops in this
respect, with secret pride in the spirit which prompted them.
Rivalry of States to furnish troops to honor their States, was
a wholesorae indication of public faith in the cause of the
army, which he justly appreciated. Returning to Richmond,
General Johnston soon received an order from the Secretary
of War to brigade the Regiments by States and to go so far
as to place the Brigades from the same State in the same
Division, and to raake the change at the earliest day practi
cable, in his judgment. Johnston was unwilling, without
positive orders, to reorganize Brigades and Divisions in the
face of the enemy, whose centre was nearer to his centre than
either of his wings was to his centre. Awaiting the oppor
tunity, left at his discretion, the President became Impatient
at his delay and repeated the order, still leaving the General
to act upon it at his discretion. When the twelve months
expired for which the early volunteers had enlisted, there
were a number of Colonels from Alabama who had discovered
high soldierly qualities, while the troops frora Alabama were in
the enjoyment of a good name unsurpassed, even if equalled,
in the whole array. The Alabaraa troops desired Alabama
officers ; the President hoped to attain certain beneficial results
to the cause by appointing officers, above the rank of Colonel,
to command them, without regard to their desire. The troops
raade known their preference, in respect to officers, to their
Senators in Congress and, under the Constitution, the Senators
were the advisers, ultimately, of the President. It was an
army of citizen soldiery, with political duties to perform, calcu
lated to preserve poUtical rights. Under these circumstances

SENATOR YANCEY. 667
the following correspondence took place, adding at least one
letter to the record of the month, showing Yancey's activity
in his new office : * "Skxate Chamber, April 21, 1862.
"The President:
" Sik: Including the late call for 12 Regts., Alabama has 40 Regts.
in the fleld and but five Brig Gens. — Withers, Rodes, Wood, Leadbetter
and Forney. We are informed that two Brigades of Alabama troops in
late battles at Shiloh were lead by Brigadiers from other States. It is
certainly natural and reasonable that men should prefer leaders from
their own State; and that thoSe (officers) who think themselves quali
fied by education and experience to command should feel mortified and
disappointed when they are overlooked and postponed; and Brigades
from their own States are placed under the command of officers from
other States who are their juniors in years, and in time of service,
below them in rank and undistinguished on the field of battle.
" We should not think the aspirations for (the rank) of General
officer by mere civilians, deserving much consideration when in compe
tition with those educated and experienced in arms. But they seem to
us entitled to respectful consideration in competition with other civilians
from other States which have already their full proportion, or more, of
General officers. We "have heard that you objected to the promotion of
some of the Colonels from'Alabama, that they had not shown them
selves in action worthy of a Brigadier General's command: and that
your rule was, or in future would be, in respect to such officers, that
one must win his spurs before he could secure such an appointment.
We concede the justice and sound policy of the rule, when enforced in
practice. "Some of our friends from Ala. in command of Regts., to whom we
have stated your rule as a reason for their not having been promoted,
think the rule departed from in your last nomination of Col. Pryor for
a Brigade Generalship, t Entertaining the same opinion and thinking
there are Ala. Cols, whose commissions are of older date (than his) and
whose experience and previous course of life give them higher claims
to confidence, we have felt it due to them and to our State to call your
attention to them. And, in accordance with their expectations and our
own feelings, we respectfully recommend for appointment, as Brig.
Gens. Sydenham Moore, Tennant Lomax, Thomas J Judge and Eli S
Shorter— all in command of Regiments of Alabamians.
" We are most respectfully " Y'r. ob't. s'v'ts.
" C C Ci.ay Jr
. "W L Yancey
"N. B--We think it proper to say further, that some of our Ala
Cols served in the Creek war, of ':37 in Ala. and 12 or more months iu
*The letter is in Mr. Clay's handwriting. . „ ., ,
tPryor, a newspaper editor, was put in command of a Brigade ot Aiaoaiiia
troops.

668 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Mexico. And furthermore, that we do not esteem Gen Rodes or Gen
Leadbetter as Alabamians: The latter is a Northern man who has been
resident in Ala only a few years and the former is a Virginian, who
was only sojourning in our State while superintending the construction
of a railroad of which he was engineer. We do not think he claims
Alabama as his residence but regards Virginia his home and intended
returning to it when his employment as engineer was completed.
"Most respectfully, " Y'rs &c &c
" W L Yancey
" C C Clay Jk."
This was an official letter, making such suggestions to the
President as he was liable to receive frora officers or citizens
at all tlraes. Its tone was respectful. The authors of it had
been for many years, especially as to Mr. Clay, warm personal
friends of Mr. Davis. In the " old " Senate no Senators were
more intimate, perhaps, than Clay and Davis. The authors of
the letter, writing officially, expected their communication to
go on file for the use of the President. But Its receipt gave
him the highest offense. His anger was so intense that the
letter was Indignantly returned with the following discipli
nary indorsement drawn across the back :
" It is the province of the Executive to nominate and of the Senate
to confirm or reject. Recommendations are willingly received and
respectfully considered by me, but I will not argue as to their propriety
and do not recognize the fairness of the Avithin statement of my course,
and assumption as to what it should be. " Jeff'x Daa'iS-
" W. L. Yanoey, | „ ,. ,,
'-C.C.Clay, '[Senators."
The unsettled condition of the mind of Europe, In respect
to America, and the revolutionary state of affairs in the United
States, held out hopes to the people and armies of the South
ern Confederacy. In the United States House of Representa
tives Mr. Norton, from Missouri, said :
" If the Republican party had never been born we should to-day be
a happy aud united people. Before peace can return, justice, mercy
and right must be established, superseding prejudice, passion, vindic-
tiveness and hate. I would disband both armies and ask for a National
Convention to arrange the trouble aud restore the Union as it Avas."
To these remarks Mr. Bingham, from Ohio, replied at
once. He said :

SENATOR YANCEY. 669
" This talk about a National Convention is a side-door arrangement.
How is is to be done?"
Mr. Norton: " Through the Legislatures of the States."
Mr. Bingham: " It is the scheme of Mr. Vallandingham to divide
the country into four parts. The speech ot the gentleman from Mis
souri (Mr. Norton) is a lame and impotent apology for the most wicked
rebellion ever witnessed among the children of men. The gentleman
has argued in a carefully written speech, that if a portion of the Ameri
can people had not exercised their rights under the Constitution this
land would not have been drenched with blood. The Republican party
would overthrow the meanest, the most aristocratic and most contempt
ible despotism on the face of the earth; and the vast territory of the
Nation Avould not longer turn pale under the manacled foot of the
bondsman." President Idncoln regarded with anxious mind, but calra
demeanor, the bitter strife of the political leaders about hira,
members of his own party, lead by the ambitious and disalp-
polnted Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Chase. Secretary
Seward's correspondence with Minister Adams received a
full share of adverse public criticism.
In England the newspapers were filled with rumors of
mediation and intervention. The distress among the manu
facturing classes in France was so great that a Government
loan to relieve them was discussed. Earl Russell and Messrs.
Bright and Schofield of the House of Commons addressed the
English mUl workers. Earl Russell declared that :
"The Southei-ners had the right to determine for themselves
whether the time had come for secession; the Northerners were waging
a war for empire and the Southerners for independence. The duty of
England was to recognize the Southern States. (Tremendous applause.)
Intervention meant war, and mediation means failure. He was for
neither, but he was for recognition as a policy and a question of pru
dence, on the ground that the South had already shown her ability to
maintain herself and the North could not subdue her."
"Mr. Bright spoke in defense of the North and in violent denuncia
tion of slavery, but, with the single exception of the Star, all the
English papers condemned the speech. The government of England
has considered a proposition coming from the Emperor of the French
to join France and Russia in mediation." *
The Confederate Commissioners, while offering nothing of
advantage in a treaty, continued to urge the moral right to
recognition on the part of their government. Comraissioner
•London Correspondence of the New York World.

670 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Mason, writing to Lord John Russell under date London, July
24, 1862, said:
"The Confederate States ask no aid from nor intervention by
foreign powers. * * But if the principles and morals of the public
law be, when a nation has established before the world both its capacity
and ability to maintain the government it has ordained, that a duty
devolves on other nations to recognize such fact, then, I submit, that
the government of the Confederate States of America having sustained
itself, unimpaired, through trials greater than most nations have been
called on to endure, and far greater than any it has yet to meet, has
furnished to the world sufficient proof of stability, strength and re
sources to entitle it to a place among the independent nations of the
earth." On the sarae day Mr. Mason wrote a note to Lord John
requesting a personal interview. The British Premier replied
on August 2, declining the interview. Lord John further said
that while the Confederate Comraissioner claimed his govern
raent had a population of 12,000,000 to sustain it, he had an
official dispatch from the Secretary of State of the United
States declaring that a large portion of this population had
been restored to the Union, that the white population of the
Confederacy did not exceed 5,000,000 and that the only hope
of the Confederacy was in European intervention. JiOrd John
said, also, that while the Union army had failed at Richmond
and at Charleston, it had captured New Orleans, Memphis and
Corinth. In the judgraent of her Majesty's governraent any
proposal frora it to recognize the Southern Confederacy would
irritate the United States and any proposal to the Confederate
States to return to the Union would irritate the Confederates.
The policy of war recoramended by the Generals of the
Confederacy and approved by statesmen, Mr. Yancey among
the latter, contemplated Invasion of the United States, partly
In anticipation of the effect upon Europe of a reverse policy.
They referred to the successes and reputation gained by
Napoleon, fighting his enemies on their own soU, whereby,
too, the spirit of France was preserved to continue the unequal
struggle for half the allotted life of a generation.
The perseverance of the Confederate government In its
original policy, to off'er no commercial alliance to European
States, based on discrimination in their favor, left it now
uncheered by the slightest offlcial sympathy, so much coveted.
More than this ; the liberal principles which had regulated the

SENATOR YANCEY. 671
conduct of European powers towards other struggling de facto
governments, for many years, was disregarded In the example
of the Confederacy. When Great Britain and France, In the
early months of the war, agreed to recognize the Confederate
States, as a belligerent, they invited that government to assent
to certain international propositions based on the treaty of
Paris. The assent was given. Now, and without notice.
Great Britain refused to observe Its own propositions ; and
these related to the protection of either belligerent's goods
under her flag and to the safety of British goods under either
beUigerent's flag. So, as time progressed, the Confederacy
was thrown more and raore on its own resources, unaided, as
all usage forbid.
April 16, a bill to raise arraies by conscription carae up in
the Senate. Mr. Yancey voted for the bill, but he did not
think so extreme a measui-e necessary at that time. He
preferred to call on the States for volunteers. He did not,
however, oppose the measure, except to express his opinion on
it as a matter of policy. So soon as the conscription adopted
had brought the desired result — that is, to retain in the fleld
the army now facing tbe enemy — he moved that the army be
further increased by a call on the States. Congress did not
assent to his motion, but, on September 27, passed another
and more general conscript law. In the sarae connection,
a statute passed known as the Exeraption law. -Governor
Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia, took the position that Congress
had no right to conscript soldiers in that State. The laws
and Constitution of Georgia, he held, gave the Governor the
right to " draft " railitia, and the conscript act, if enforced,
would render nugatory the Governor's authority. He clairaed,
therefore, the right to raise all troops required from the
population of Georgia, and avowed his readiness to send any
number, the State could furnish, to the Confederate author
ities. Every call the Governor had made for volunteers had
been responded to, so that, in the latest call, he had found It
necessary to send a special messenger to Richmond to request
the President to accept the surplus men off'ering, " which he
kindly did, or I should have been obliged to order a part of
them back to their horaes." An angry correspondence sprang
up between Senator Hill and Georgia politicians, on the course

672 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
of the Senator. Mr. Hill went to Milledgeville, the capital^
to speak to the Legislature in explanation of his course.
Governor Brown, in a published letter, criticised with great
severity the speech. The Senator confessed he had not fa
vored the passage of the flrst conscript act. Governor Brown
alleged his name could not be found on the records as having
voted at all on the passage of the second conscript act. But,
in the Milledgeville speech, the Senator had declared the act
had "saved the States and the country," and aU who had
opposed it were controlled by '' ambition, interest or caprice."
The Governor declared he would not review at length "a
speech which, so far as It attempts argument, has only repro
duced, in raore verbose form, what others had already given
to the public. Whether the extreme reluctance of the Senator
to place himself on record. In favor of the conscription act,
resulted from the over caution of the statesman or the subtle
design of the politician, who was in doubt about political
sentiment, is a question that the people may be as little
erabarrassed in deciding as is the Senator in reconciling his re
cord at Richraond with his speech at Milledgeville." Toorabs
supported Brown's view. The quarrel in Georgia and the
history of the conscript act add evidence to the prolonged
differences of the Secessionists and Unionists on a war policy.
While HUl spoke to the Georgia Legislature, on the con
script act, Yancey arrived at Montgoraery, and, in reply to an
invitation, addressed the Legislature of Alabaraa, December
2, 1862, on the same subject. In the opening sentence he
expressed regret that notice of the wish of the body to hear
him had not been given to him a few hours earlier, " for, in
that case, I should have been enabled to speak before you
soraewhat more methodically, judiciously, and with more of
brevity than I am now prepared to do."
The duty of Congress, the orator said, was to exercise the
sternest war powers conferred by the Constitution ; to place
every man in the field, that should be there, and, at the same
time, provide for the agricultural and manufacturing wants of
the country. Some good men and good lawyers alleged the
conscription law was unconstitutional ; that the only Constitu
tional right vested in Congress to raise armies was in calling
forth the miUtia of the States, and that to admit the authority

SENATOR YANCEY. 673
of Congress to conscribe the material of the militia was to
make null and void the right of the State to keep a miUtia.
If these propositions were true, then the authority vested In
Congress to make and declare war was, in fact, qualified by
the tacit consent of the States, one and all, to supply the
troops ; for, without authority to raise troops. Congress was
really without power to make war. The Constitution ac
knowledged a distinction between the State mllltla and the
army and navy of the Confederacy in the provision which
makes the President the coraraander, always, of the latter
forces and the commander of the former only " when called
into the actual service of the Confederate States." There
were other provisions of the Constitution which preserved
the distinction between the land and naval forces of the
Confederacy and the State militia, going to show that the
authority of Congress to raise and support an army was not
dependent on the State laws for maintaining a militia. In the
revolutionary war, the Confederation had no authority to raise
troops, save by an appeal to the States. The framers of the
Constitution, of 1787, were familiar with the peril into which
the cause was thrown by this circumstance, connected with
the struggle. Therefore they had sought to avoid it and had
avoided it. The Confederate States had copied their work of
avoidance. The militia of a State ! What was it ? It was a
body of citizens in each State, organized under act of Congress,
which act allowed the State to appoint the offlcers and train
the force, under the discipline prescribed by Congress. Con
gress could call out the militia for certain purposes, prescribed
by the letter of the Constitution, and for no other purposes.
These purposes were, Iqcal defense, involving protection frora
invasion, and the support of the civil authority in raaintaining
peace and enforcing the laws. On the other hand, Congress
had the right to raise " armies," and Congress had the right to
employ " armies," in other ways than the llinitatlons ordained
for the employment of the militia. If, in the exercise of Its
lawful powers. Congress should absorb In its armies the whole
arms-bearing population of a State, leaving none to create a
mUitia, that exercise of authority would be entirely consistent
with the powers delegated to the Confederacy by the States ;
for, whatever laws Congress passed, " in pursuance " of the

43

674 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Constitution, became the "supreme law of the land," "any
thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary
notwithstanding." He said the exemption law, whereby a
white overseer was allowed to every twenty slaves, was not
really an exemption from service granted to overseers, but a
security that the Confederacy should receive the benefit of the
labor of the slaves in supporting the army. The President
kncAV, and Congress knew, that to enlist every able-bodied
raan in the ranks of the army in the field, would result disas
trously. The exemption law was, in fact, an inseparable part
of the conscript law, and Avas mis-named. The law did not,
in practice, exempt any overseer of slaves, of military age ; it
merely directed In what way his services should be rendered.
The great mass of the white farmers could be sent to the
army, while a comparatively few were 16ft behind to direct the
negroes' labor, the fruits of which would feed the array and
all the people at home. Slaves should be organized and con
trolled, and thus constitute the peculiar strength of the war in
the Southern cause. Slaves were not a military weakness)
but a great military strength, under proper application of
their labor. *
The speech of Mr. Yancey was published and circulated
throughout the Confederacy. Its temperate tone and logical
defense of the constitutionality of the law, whose enactment
he did not approve, on grounds of public policy, quieted the
public ralnd. Speaking of the duty of the citizen to the
government, he said: "I have yielded my judgraent as to
the policy of this law, and most cheerfuUy submit to its
operation. There can be unity of opinion upon few things
in this world, and these, generally, of the least iraportance.
The raeans adopted by your public agents charged with pro
viding for your defense and safety may not always be the
best, but unity in an energetic support of those means is most
certainly wise, even when we think better could have been
adopted, so long as the law remains unrepealed. If, upon a
fair trial and due reflection, you do not deem your laws the
best that could have been made, change your representatives
» The Legislature provided bj- law a measure of support for families of non-
slaveholders, and Judge William M.Brooks was appointed Chairman of the Relief
Committee. The State distributed large quantities of corn under this act. The
.etter to secure its operatidn, Thomas H. Watts, then Attorney General of the
t nnfederacy, was elected Govfernor, against his wishes, as the text has alreadv cited

SENATOR YANCEY. 675
and enact new laws ; but review - the conduct of your public
agents as friends, not as eneraies." * *
" Yet some venture to look to the Northern Democracy to
make peace! Surely they must be few — the timid, wavering,
selfish few. There is, in my opinion, as much hope from the
Northern Abolitionists as from the Northern Democracy. If
Lincoln were to withdraw his proclamation of emancipation
to-morrow and announce his purpose to uphold slavery in
the States, the Northern Democracy would continue to rally
around his standard of war to enforce the restoration of the
Union, while the Abolitionists would. In ray opinion, offer
terms of peace. What are the terms of peace proposed by
Mr. Yan Buren and Mr. Bigler ? They are these : Proclaim
an armistice, if the South will agree during the armistice to
elect members of both Houses of Congress, who shall go to
Washington, take the oath to support the Constitution of the
United States, take their seats in Congress and pass propo
sitions to amend the Constitution. You will necessarily have
abolished the government of the Confederate States and have
gone back into the old Union, without a single guaranty, save
the promises of the Deraocrats of the North, who control only
one of the three branches of the government, and that by a
bare majority. These proposed amendments, remeraber, raust
be passed by two-thirds of the Deraocratic branch and ac
cepted by three-fourths of the States. Oh, what a name j.n
history would ours be. If such an event should happen by our ,
consent ! What a position of helpless degradation would ours
be, in that governraent of AboUtionists ! What a crushing of
the spirit and hopes of this people ! * *
" Upon the divisions of the enemy, let us build our own
unity — upon their fierce party strife and jealousies. Upon
their clashings of party interests, let us bind together our
patriotic energies. Upon their selfishness and folly, let us
base a prayer to God that He would enable us to exhibit in
behalf of our beloved country, a self-sacrificing wisdom, both
in opinion and action, in all matters appertaining to our
defense. "With unity, wisdom, faith in each other, and faith in
each Department of our government, we shall be prepared to
undergo more of trial and misfortune and to wrest the final

676 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
victory of our Independence from a wearied and bankrupt
foe; and no matter what of privation or of sufferings fate
raay have in store for us, there is but one duty for a free and
brave people which no circumstances ever can alter : It is to —
" strike till the last armed foe expires —
strike for your altars and your fires,
strike for the green graves of your sires,
God and your native land."
In order to present the views of Mr. Yancey, connectedly,
on the conscript laws of Congress, his speech at Montgomery,
referring to both, has been considered, leaving behind his
course in Congress. The chronological order of his public
services is now resumed. Yancey, Louis T. Wigfall, Benjamin
H. HIU and Henry S. Foote were debaters of the first rank. In
the Senate. Hill was the favorite charaplon of the Execu
tive, ready at all times and equal to all emergencies. His
nature was well adapted to the part he was expected to act.
With an instinctive veneration for power, he was bold enough
to shrink from no deraand upon him which partisanship
defense of power could exact. In Georgia, Toombs, Stephens,
Cobb and Brown were his bitter opponents. He had, there
fore, much to gain at horae, if put in control of the federal
patronage. None of the other three debaters could be counted
on as defenders of the Administration ; and Senator HUl be
came all the more dear to the President in the severity of his
self-assumed tasks against such opposition. Wigfall Avas a
remarkable man. His early life had been shadowed by a great
misfortune. In the maturity of his powers he became in
temperate in habit. A handsome and commanding presence
marked him in every assembly. Few members could match
hira In colloquy. He was original, prompt, aggressive and
possessed of a most poignant wit. He failed, where all the
others of the coterie excelled —he was indolent, or at least he
was wanting In industry. Foote had a wide experience in
offlce and was a lawyer in the front rank. He was pugnacious,
everywhere, always ready to raeasure his strength with ariy
foe on any fleld. It should be reraembered that, in the Con
federate States Congress, sat Senators and Representatives
from Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as the terri
tory of West Virginia, whUe the same States had a fuU

SENATOR YANCEY. 677
representation in both Houses of the Congress sitting at
Washington. It cannot be claimed that the influence of the
disputed territory was healthful to the purpose of either
belligerent, as it appeared, on the floors of its Congress.
Before, however, resuming the narrative of Yancey's career
in the Senate, a correspondence conducted with his old friend,
WiUiam F. Samford, by him is important to be considered.
After the fall of Roanoke Island and the fortified positions in
Tennessee ; after the falling back of Beauregard, from Corinth,
and the sudden and unexplained transfer of the command of
his army to Bragg, followed by extraordinary assumptions of
authority by that officer ; after the people had discovered the
incompetency of Mr. Meminger, and the resignation of General
Randolph, frora the War Office, had taken place ; after New
Orleans had fallen, by reason of the failure of the Secretary
of the Navy to provide for its defense by ships, and by reason
of bad management there, in other quarters; when it was
seen that the country was full of cotton while arms could not
be had to supply its volunteers, a general and deep complaint
sprang up everywhere. Two parties were formed, arising
from the discussion of the astounding want of appreciation in
the government; from a discussion of the magnitude of the
crisis and the glaring want of preparation to meet It.
General Johnston was withdrawing his army from Centre
ville. The defense of Richmond seemed so doubtful that the
family of the President had already made arrangements to
remove, and the authorities were believed to be packing the
government archives for hasty shipment to the interior. No
popular elections were pending. One party to the discussion
declared the resignation of the President and the retirement
of aU his Cabinet, should be demanded by the spontaneous
voice of the people; the other party, with equal firmness,
declared the Congress should retire and resign and Mr. Davis
should become Dictator. Yancey, at Richmond, received a
letter from Samford, editing a newspaper in the eastern part
of Alabama, where he had easy access to the capital of the
State and other political centres. Samford wrote that public
opinion was in a perilous state. He had watched the leading
newspapers and some of them openly called for a Dictator.
Almost every day, he said, he read Yancey's name proposed

678 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
for the office. He was not surprised to see it associated with
such " exorbitant mischief," for, " in the last two years I have
heard all other evil things of you, which I knew to be false,
and I could see no reason why the Devil, in this exceptional
instance, and in his peculiar work of slander, should abandon
an unfinished job. You will reraember that on our way home
from Baltimore, In 1860, how I doubted, and you apologized
for and defended, Mr. Davis. I pray daily and do not despair
that events may vindicate your superior judgment of him."
Yancey did not reply to this letter until he returned home. In
the summer. Then he wrote, under seal : " I urge the united
eff'ort of the people to prosecute the war on a scale more
enlarged and aggressively defensive than has heretofore char
acterized It. I am opposed to any moA'craent which will
derogate from the respect due to the authorities appointed by
the people. My estimate of the character of Mr. Davis is on
record. Perhaps, however, it would be as well for me to say,
that. In ray opinion, he is as conscientious in discharge of the
high duties of his office as the most exacting can require.
There is, probably, no man in the Confederacy who would
give so Uttle attention to any scheme to make hira Dictator as
he hiraself. As to Congress, should the records of this branch
of the governraent be given to the world, they would show
that it has not failed to raeet the crisis with all the energy
consistent with the fundamental character of its organizaticm.
I, therefore, deeply regret that the confidence of the people
should be In the least abated in either of the two existing
Departments of the government. * * I have seen a propo
sition, gravely suggested, by Mr. George F. Salle, to divest
Congress of all authority and to confer on Mr. Davis the office
of Dictator. I have heard from various sources of a raore
generally considered scheme to depose Mr. Davis and choose
another leader. Nothing could be more unwise and nothing
could raore completely demonstrate our unfitness for self-
government than any attempt to carry either of these mad
projects ihto eff'ect. It would prove Immediately destructive
of our cause to adopt either. Rent by internal factions, we
would fall an easy prey to the Invader. Both of these propo
sitions are but the outcropping of a feeling of dissatisfaction
at the progress of events since the fall of Fort Donelson. It

SENATOR YANCEY. 679
does not emanate, as sorae suppose, frora disloyalty, but rather
is it the outbreak of an alarmed, anxious and highly excited
patriotism. The men who participate in it will give the last
dollar they possess and readily spill their blood to sustain the
good cause. They are dissatisfied that so many misfortunes
have befallen our armies, that so much territory has been lost,
that so much secrecy attends the causes of our disasters, and
they know not where and upon whom to fix the responsibility
for these reverses. This is the secret of public discontent, in
my opinion. * * But, my dear sir, a better day Is dawning.
People win cease to complain Avith the success of our arras.
The battle of Shiloh Avas the dawn of that better day. Stone
wall Jackson displayed Napoleonic genius and power In the
Valley campaign. The reconnoisance of Stuart was one of
the most brilliant feats of modern warfare. The battle of
WilUamsburg and the battles on the Chickahominy indicate
the terrible conflict to take place around Richmond. * *
All will be well. Aye, I will say it, for I believe it, all's well
now, and a few months more of the long pull, the strong pull
and the pull all together will develop the glorious • fact."
After holding this letter as private for a month, Mr. Samford
gave it to the public.
Senator Clark, from Missouri, had corresponded with the
Secretary of War on the violations of the rules of civilized
warfare by the United States troops. The Secretary intimated
that war must be considered as Avaged between governraents
and that the people in their individual or private capacity
were not parties to it. Thus, when Congress met, late in
August, 1862, Mr. Yancey introduced resolutions in the Senate
contradicting the Secretary's views. He said the character of
the Confederate government depended on the individuality of
the people. While war between European sovereigns might be
termed a war of governments, in a moral sense, this was a war
of the people and the people are soA^erelgns. The government
was not their master, but their agent only. Conflscation, on
unpiecedented scale, imprisonment and death, to an extent
hitherto unknown, would follow the failure of this war of the
people. It was a war waged against the people, rather than
against a government, to conquer thera and to divest them
of the attribute of sovereignty. The government of the

680 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
Confederate States had never been acknowledged by the other
beUigerent. In his opinion,- a citizen of the Confederate States
had as much right to take up his rifle and make war upon the
invader of his country as a sovereign prince, in Europe, had
to buckle on his armor to meet the invader of his principality.
It was the duty of the Confederate government to announce
this right of Its citizens and to declare its intention to protect
them in its exercise. While the government of the Confed
eracy hesitated to pledge Its defense to its own citizens, who
raight slay the enemy Invading their homes, the governraent
of the enemy did nothing to prevent soldiers frora its armies
leaving the ranks to go into Confederate private families,
committing theft, arson and insults worse than death. "It
may bring the enemy (he said) to be content with the practices
of civilized war. But, if in his blind rage and maddened fury
at being foiled by an inferior, though braver and more skillful
army than his own, he shall choose to retaliate for a just
retaliation — if he has nerve enough to tread that terrible and
bloody path, and to brave the maledictions of the civilized
world, he raay be assured — should be fissured — by this Con
gress, that having counted the cost of this great movement
for self-government, Ave shall not turn back, nor be deterred
by any terrors from prosecuting It to a successful, though it
may be a most bloody conclusion." The speaker reminded the
Senate that the greatest Captain of history. Napoleon, invading
Spain with a grand and successful army, was driven out, not
by serried ranks of assailants, but by the Spanish people, con
cealed on his line of march and flring upon his troops from
mountain fastnesses ; that General Marion seldom had more
than twenty to seventy men, yet he had wrung from Lord
Cornwallis the expression of greatest admiration of his skill
and deepest apprehension from his ceaseless and silent attacks,
and Marion, with his few men, had made South Carolina im
possible of occupation by the British. Butler's infamous
order, at New Orleans, was only equalled by the record of the
invasion of Virginia, where, "in nuraerous instances, daugh
ters have been foully dishonored in the presence of their aged
parents, by commissioned offlcers of the United States army,
and, more than once, the broken-hearted father has been shot
to death on his own hearthstone for his brave attempt to save

SENATOR YANCEY. 681
the honor of his family. Sir, it is time this government
should no longer repress the yearning of our people to take
up arras to defend their homes, in such manner as may be
consistent with their right to maintain their families In the
ordinary pursuits of life."
The same day Mr. Yancey gave notice of his intention to
offer an amendment to the rules, which might be expected to
check the habit of the Senate to sit in secret session. He
would not aboUsh the secret session, but there were not many
questions which should be considered with closed doors by an
elective body. Military plans were not devised by Congress
nor campaigns planned by it. The results of deliberations
were published, but the votes of individual Senators, and the
reasons for their votes, were concealed. Plans that the people
knew to be wise and expected would be enacted into law
failed of adoption, and the exposure of the failure, whether by
negligence . of Congress or the veto of the Executive, was not
made. It was a mistake to anticipate a demoralization of the
public mind from public discussion. No people were ever so
united as the people of the Confederacy, even if individual
examples of discontent were known. The Confederacy was
far more united than the United States ; or than the people of
the colonies with Washington in the lead. "I further say
(continued the speaker), with the fullest sense of Its entire
truth, and in no carping spirit, of course, toward any Depart
ment of the government, that the great public sentiment of
our people to-day is of a higher cast of revolutionary energy,
wisdom and devotion than that of their government. And
the only fear Senators need entertain of the effect of giving
publicity to their proceedings is, that there will be a stern
demand that they eschew all reUance for success other than
upon their constituency, and that they shall call raore freely
for men and raeans to carry this war into the eneray's coun
try. . * * In the Convention which framed the Constitution,
Colonel Mason, of Virginia, said : ' The people will not give
their confldence to a secret journal — to the intrigues and
factions naturally incident to secrecy.' If any one doubts the
existence of such a state of things in Congress, let him refer
to its journals of 1778, 1779, 1780." Mr. Yancey then ex
plained that the theory of the government must necessarily

682 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
be perverted and the country thrown into a chaotic condition
when the people were required to elect officers of the govern
ment In total ignorance of the individual responsibility of
those officers for acts performed or omitted.
Senator Dortch, frora North Carolina, offered an araend-
raent to the conscription law, providing for the enrollraent in
array of Justices of the Peace. Mr. Hill said, under the war-
making power. Congress could even enroll the Chief Justice
and every meraber of Congress. Mr. Yancey said the Senators
had fallen upon Mr. Lincoln's excuse for all his usurpations —
the " National life " deraanded the act. Referring to General
Bragg's course, he said the Confederacy had one General who
had abrogated the municipal government of a city and set up
one of his own ( at Mobile ) ; had suppressed the press and
established martial law over whole States. He thought the
proper way to develop the war spirit araong the people was to
preserve their pride of citizenship. He had no fears of the
people, so long as they loved liberty. The exemption law
specifically named the judicial officers, and other civil officers
of the States, as not liable to conscription, but this special
designation he had regarded as only the confession, by Con
gress, of its want of authority. Congress had no authority to
destroy tl^e State governments by enrolling their officers in
the array, nor the Confederate governraent either. Mr. Simms,
frora Kentucky, and Mr. Phelan, from Mississippi, spoke
briefly in defense of Mr. Hill's suggestion, that Congress
could exhaust the population to save the " National _ life."
Mr. Yancey said in reply :
"Sir, we have no 'National life.' The province of this
government, its sole province, is to defend Constitutional
governraent — the Constitutional liberties of States and of
the people of States. There is no National life to defend.
* * When a people have lost faith in the power of free gov
ernraent to defend their liberties, and have lost that high
courage and tried virtue which can wrestle with danger and
meet disasters with fortitude ; when, in cowardly search of
ease, they discard the onerous and trying duties of self-gov
ernment and throw themselves and their all into the arms of
a vigorous despotlsra of their oavu choosing, in nine cases out
of ten that people are lost, forever lost. The recuperative

SENATOR YANCEY. 683
energy and virtue which would be required to throw off the
shackles, which they had thus placed upon their own limbs,
would be wanting, and they would undergo ages of suffering
before a new race of men would be born equal to a task of
such magnitude. No, sir. Far better, if the people are to be
governed by despotism, if free, Constitutional government is
to be overthrown, that it be by the hands of an open enemy.
Virtues fiourish in trials. The virtues of courage, patriotism,
of love of liberty, are not uprooted by the triumph of an
enemy or by defeat at the hands of a foe. The world's history
is full of the noble truth, the stern, bloody, practical truth
which poetry has almost consecrated by reason of the amber
of sweet numbers :
" Freedom's battle once begun.
Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son.
Though baffled oft, is ever won."
" There is hope for a people who are crushed by superior
power in their brave struggle for the right. There is no hope
for a people so destitute of courage and virtue, and wisdora, as
to flee to a despotlsra of their own to render their conflict
with an invader the easier. I, therefore, repudiate all thought
that we can safely abandon any of the safeguards of our lib
erties in order to contend successfully with our invaders."
Mr. Yancey sustained his argument by an analytical en-.
quiry into the Constitution, citing its provisions to show the
Interdependence of the parts of the government ; how, if the
Chief Justice be enrolled in the army, the right to impeach
the Chief ExecutlA-e by the Representatives of the people
would faU, for want of a presiding officer over the high court
of impeachment; how the guaranty of a Republican form
of governraent to each State would becorae impracticable, if
the officers of the State be enrolled to "save the National
life," and various other examples of the Inconsistency of Mr.
Dortch's bill with the only recognized forra of governraent in
the land. He feared such unwarranted assumptions of power
"more than a million Yankee bayonets."
"I have ever been of the opinion (he said) that it was
unwise ever to have permitted the war to have its seat and
progress in the midst of our institutions ; and that, while this
government should assail the liberty and existence of no other

684 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
people, we should defend our own, when assailed, on the very
hearthstones of our assailants. I have, in ray amendment, not
only authorized the President to call for troops, but I have
made it his ' duty ' to do so."
The Richraond newspapers received the speech with the
greatest favor. "We are glad ( said the Whig ) that Mr.
Yancey has directed popular reprobation to some very perni
cious ideas. His speech deserves to be read throughout the
Confederacy." Appreciation of the remarkable commercial possibilities
of the Confederacy and the extraordinary confldence in the
flnancial honor cf its government, found in European mon
etary centers, bring clearly into view the wisdora of the
recommendation, offered at its organization, that a treaty
dlsci-irainatlon in favor of the great coraraercial powers of
Europe, should be at once urged. The following proceedings
sustain the position :
The Senate Finance Committee reported a bill to endorse a
contract, the terms of which had been agreed on between the
Secretary of the Treasury and EmUe Erlanger & Co., of Paris.
The Secretary had agreed to take £3,000,000 sterling, at
seventy cents on the dollar, of Confederate twenty-year bonds,
interest payable semi-annually, in gold, in Europe, at seven
-per cent. ; and the bonds to be redeemed, one-fortieth part
semi-annually, in cotton at six pence on New Orleans classifl-
cation ; the cotton to be stored by the Confederate government
at New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah and Charleston, subject to
no charges, except one-eighth of one per cent, export duty.
Mr. Yancey objected to the resolution to comralt the Senate to
this contract for various reasons. First, it was desirable that
transactions of that character should be conducted by the
Executive Departraent without the special interference of
Congress. The Executive should assume the responsibUity in
such matters and be free to act according to its own judgment.
But, if the Senate intended to discuss the contract, his chief
objection to it was in the small amovint of the loan called
for. He would have the President authorized to negotiate
for £50,000,000 sterling, instead of £3,000,000 sterling, as
the bill caUed for, on terms acceptable to himself. He ob
jected to pledging cotton, at six pence, which had cost the

SENATOR YANCEY. 685
government one and a half cents In excess of that price. He
objected to the obUgation of the government to deliver a
considerable amount of cotton, immediately after peace, at a
number of sea ports, because the ordinary coramerce of the
people, at that time, would occupy all the transportation
which could possibly be controlled by the railroads. The
motion to increase the loan more than sixteen fold and the
motion not to pledge the cotton at six pence, failed. The
Secretary advertised for £3,000,000 sterling. At the earliest
practicable day bids aggregating £15,000,000 sterling were
received by the Confederate agents at London and Paris, and,
at London, flve per cent, premium was offered on at least one
bid. * The average price of American cotton, at Liverpool, of
the crop of 1859-60, was only 5.97 pence (Latham, Alexander
& Co.'s statement). It is seen that the aggregate European
bids, on the- call of the governraents for 115,000,000, was
$75,000,000, or nearly one-half of the total value of the cotton
produced in the South, of the crop of 1859-60, not estiraating
the premiura actually offered. It is not a little singular, that
the tirae fixed for the extinction of the bonds, given as se-,
curity for the loan, payable in cotton, was twenty years, or
the exact time fixed by the Chairman of the Committee on
Foreign relations for the duration of the proposed comraercial
treaty, offensive and defensive, with European powers, at
the birth of the government. There must have been little
room for doubt, that the Confederate States could have sold
2,000,000 bales of cotton, annually, on terms as favorable as
the terms offered in the bids for the £3,000,000 loan. At that
time, five-sixths of the cotton consumed by British raanufac-
turers was American growth. These transactions took place
after the fall of New Orleans, and when the Issue of the war
was of more promise to the United States than to the Confed
erate States.
Richard Taylor, Hampton, Rodes, Gordon, Law, Toombs,
of the Army of Northern Virginia, Forrest, Breckinridge,
John H. Morgan, Cheatham, Cleburne, Price, Mcintosh, Mc-
CuUoUgh, and scores of other civUians of all Confederate
armies, who had not received an education a:t West Point, had
already displayed the highest soldierly qualities in command
* Yancey's MS. memoranda.

686 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
of Regiments, Brigades and Divisions. Alfred Rhett, the
defender of Fort Sumter, knew^ the art of war only as he had
acquired it in the prevailing war. Knowing the phenomenal
aptitude of the Southern people for war, and well convinced
of their devotion to their cause, Mr. Yancey devoted his tire
less energy to their encouragement. Speaking to the Alabama
Legislature, he had said: "I have regarded the manner and
the circumstances under which I was elected to the Senate, as
the public judgraent of my State, pointing me to that post of
duty." Never an applicant for favors for himself, he had no
art in seeking them for others. When he came into the
Senate, therefore, with " a bill to regulate the noraination and
appointment of Brigadier-Generals, so as to apportion them
among the several States according to the number of troops
furnished by each," he believed he Avas bringing needful aid
to the invasive, aggressive theory of war, which he had
so often recommended. The President regarded the bill as
making an issue with that endorsement, which he had written
across the letter returned to the Alabama Senators. He was
deeply offended. The Senate referred the bill to the Judiciary
Committee, of wMch Senator Hill Avas chairman. A report in
due time foUowea from Mr. Hill, reaffirming the exclusive
right to nominate and appoint Brigadier-Generals in the Exec
utive and the exclusive right of the Senate to confirm, or
reject. Mr. Yancey had discovered that of the five members
of the coraraittee, ostensibly making the adverse report on his
bill, only three had ever considered it, and, of the three, one
Avas outspoken in its favor. On September 22, 1862, the
report came up for consideration. Rising to resist the report,
he said that the failure of the President to regard the rule
laid down in the bill, had an injurious effect upon the army
and the people. Officers must be chosen by the claims of
their States or they raust be chosen by the claims of a class.
The report declared his bill unconstitutional. This charge
was surely untenable. The cadets from West Point were
regularly assigned to positions In the United States army.
They were assigned, not by the pleasure of the President, but
by the law of Congress. The law went so far as to require
the President to commission just so many, and no raore, from
each State. When the bonscript act was passed, a provision

SENATOR YANCEY. 687
required the President to till vacancies of regimental officers,
with the advice and consent of the Senate, but the President
could not go out and find the officers he might fancy. He
must take them from the material within the Regiment where
the vacancies existed. Here Senator Semmes, frora Louisiana,
interrupted to say that, the Congress, at its last session, had
created the offlce of Admiral, and the President was "in
structed " to fill it " from the grade Immediately below." The
creation and organization of an army, the designation of grade
and rank in offlcers, and the rules and regulations of discip
line were by authority of law. The Senator from Georgia
and the Senator, Mr. Orr, frora South Carolina, asked to
know Avhy the appointment of Brigadier-Generals should not
be confined to counties, towns or particular famlUes. He was
disposed to respect the right of the Senate and would, there
fore, reply that, the question before it was a proposition to
establish citizenship of a State as a quaUfication precedent to
the assumption of command of a Brigade of troops, frora that
State. It would be useless to argue that counties and towns
had corresponding claims. A Georgia lawyer, like a Phila
delphia lawyer, as he was informed, held nothing in reverence,
not even the cross, which interfered with his cheap ridicule.
The gist of the arguraent was that, the bill was not unconsti
tutional, as the committee had reported. Continuing to speak
against the report, Mr. Yancey said :
" From the flrst hostile movement by Alabama troops upon
Pensacola, to the late great battle of Sharpsburg, no battle
has been joined, on this side of the Mississippi, that Ala
bamians, both as privates and regimental commanders, have
failed to demonstrate that they possess in a high degree the
military spirit, genius and the greatest endurance. In the
flrst great flash of arms, upon the field of Manassas, the
gallant Fourth Alabama, by the enemy's report, broke four
regiments of the foe in four successive charges upon it. In
one of the recent and raost important engagements before
Richmond, though having a less number in the action than, at
least, two other States, the killed and wounded frora Alabama
Regiments far outnumbered those frora any other State. In
the name of her heroic dead — her Lomax, her Bullock, her
Moore, her Jones, her Woodward, her Balne — in the name of

688 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
her gallant and neglected living, I denounce tbe bare thought
that she Is unable to furnish Brigadier- Gen erals, to be slander
and an outrage on her character."*
Among the adherents to the Administration in its trials,
as a supporter of Mr. Hill, was the Senator, Mr. Simms, from
Kentucky. Mr. Simms had spoken thirty minutes in favor of
Hill's report; Mr. Yancey was in his seat and heard the
remarks, which he considered proper and decorous. Three
weeks later Senator Simms published, in a Richmond news
paper, an elaborate arguraent alleged to have been delivered
by hira on that occasion from his place in the Senate. The
published speech was bitter in denunciation of Yancey's course
toward the Adrainistration, warning hira that " it is not wise
to beard the lion in his den." Yancey rose to make an expla
nation the day the publication of Mr. Simms' speech appeared.
He said : " I submit to every Senator present, did the Senator
make any such allusion or Intimate any such sneer in this
Senate? I pause in order that should any Senator have heard
it he raay rise in his place and say so. * * Perhaps the
Senator may not be able to appreciate the relation which
exists between the President and myself. I will state it. On
my part, there is admiration for his personal worth and for
his many high qualifications for public life. There is a frank
and raanly difference with hira, on some public questions.
Occupying this relation to the President, I ara able, with
sincere pleasure, to praise hira when he is right, to screen him
from unjust imputations and to condemn his policy Avhen
public considerations. In my judgment, demand it. * * The
Senator's remarks on this subject. In his published speech,
are unworthy of his offlcial station as a member of this body ;
his Insinuation that I fear the President, is worthy of every
honorable man's contempt."
A committee of the Senate reported that the reporter of
the Richmond Enquirer had violated the privileges granted to
him by the Senate, advising that he be excluded from the bar
thereafter. Mr. Yancey and Mr. Clark voted to lay the com
mittee report on the table. Mr. Yancey said the Senate should
reraember it was accuser, witness and judge, in the case, and
* Alabama had six Brigadier-Generals ; Virginia twenty-four ; Tennessee eleven .
Kentucky, with only eight Kesiments in the field at that time, had eight Brigadiers.
South Carolina had eleven, Louisiana ten, Maryland six.

SENATOR YANCEY. 689
should be tardy to exercise Its authority. The complaint was,
that the reporter had expressed an opinion about what he saw.
That was true, but the opinion was marked in brackets and
signed " Reporter." The Senate could not afford to complain
of a newspaper's opinions, and there was no que^stion of the
correctness of the report, nor was there any Interpolation of
the reporter's criticism in it. He thought the Senate should
be careful not to infringe upon the liberty of the press. The
committee report of censure of the reporter was sustained by
a large majority.
The military Committee reported a bill to give 15,000,000
to indigent families of private soldiers. Mr. Yancey said this
was clearly a bounty. It was discrimination in favor of a
class and In violation of an express provision of the Constitu
tion. He would cheerfully vote to increase, largely|>the pay
of soldiers, but Congress should act within its rights. He
had not examined the point, as he would like to do, but he
was inclined to believe no pensions could be granted under
the Constitution. Therefore, there A<'as additional reason to
increase the pay. The currency was already enormously
depreciated and the soldiers should receive more of it.
The appearance of John Archibald Campbell in the Ad
ministration of the Confederate government raust be allowed
an occurrence of the utmost significance. Except Secretary
Benjamin, he was by far the most astute intellect possessing
the confidence of the President — "a man all head and no
heart : frigid, taciturn and repellant." Mr. Campbell was at
the head of the bar of Alabama, Avhen called by President
Pierce to the Supreme Court of the United States. He had
been, for a single term, a member of the Alabaraa Legislature.
He had earnestly supported President Jackson, in his quarrel
with South Carolina, but, in 1850, he pronounced in favor of
State Rights. Soon after his elevation to the federal, Court, he
emancipated his slaves, but years before he had published an
appeal to the slave States to remove the legal prohibition to
the education of the blacks, to abolish sales of slaves, under
legal or judicial process, and to take other advance humanita
rian measures in the interest of the degraded race. Justice
Campbell had protested earnestly against the Southern move
ment. To his former law partner at Mobile, Daniel Chandler,

44

690 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
he wrote, on November 26, 1860, that the slave States would
not be justified' In surrendering the benefits of the Union,
because society in the free States existed in a condition of
violent hostility to their domestic institutions, so hostile.
Indeed, that. even a kind word of a slaveholder was generally
met with reproof. The South should consider that all classes
composing a civilized coraraunity continually tend toward the
same standard of intelligence, and submit, ultimately, to the
same rule of opinion. The South could gain nothing by a
reorganization of its federal Union ; slavery had been put
upon the highest ground, to which law could elevate it, by the
Constitution and the Dred Scott decree; Lincoln's election
was not cause for revolt, and secession should not be thought
of by a Avise people. After the publication of this letter the
author bfecame so obnoxious to his friends, in Alabaraa, that
few would recognize hira even on the streets.
Four months after the Senators and Representatives, of
Alabama, and most of the cotton States, had retired from the
Congress of the United States, Justice Campbell resigned,
with great reluctance, and returned to Alabaraa. The outlook
for the continued authority of the Supreme Court, as a Consti
tutionally acknowledged branch of the government of the
United States, on May 1, when he resigned, was, at least,
exceedingly doubtful. War had been declared, an army had
been called for and hostilities had begun, but Chief Justice
Taney and Justice Campbell, In private consultation, had
agreed that the government could not constitutionally under
take to restore the Union by force. Merryraan, a citizen of
Maryland, against whora no defined legal offence was charged,
was arrested by the military ; Chief Justice Taney had issued
the writ of Habeas Corpus in his case, and the President, Mr.
Lincoln, araong his early acts of war, had ordered it denied
by the railitary. The blockade proclamation, against the ports
then claimed by the Union ; the threat already made to enact
a statute annulling the Dred Scott decree, were among other
evidences, convincing to the quick perceptions of Justice
Carapbell, that the usurpations of the Executive and Legis
lative branches of the governraent would endanger or practi
cally suppress the Judicial branch, of which he was a devoted
raeraber. Revolutionary conditions were far less rife in the

SENATOR YANCEY. 691
Confederate States than in the United States. His intentions
were to avoid the strife ; his anticipations were, an ultimate
restoration of the Union ; his private property was situated
at Mobile. To Alabama he returned, making no concealment
of his reluctance nor pretending to any change of his opinion,
often expressed, that slavery should be sacrificed and the
Union preserved. The income from his property assisted
him to support his family, and, for eighteen months after his
arrival in the Confederacy, while repeatedly refusing to enter
the President's Cabinet and withholding all practical encour
agement of the Confederate cause, he devoted much time to
alleviating private distress, incident to the progress of the
war, especially in the assistance of hospitals for the wounded
soldiers. Meantime, his former friends, knowing he had re
canted In nothing nor renounced his theories which held to
the ultimate faUure of the Confederacy, lived aloof from him.
They charged, " Judge Campbell has done more to induce Mr.
Lincoln to undertake the subjugation of the South than any
one man in the whole country, by carrying letters received by
him, from Union raen of the South, about with him, showing
thera to leaders of the war party at Washington, which
declare the people were tricked into secession and Avere only
aAvaiting an opportunity to go back into the old government."
The Albany Journal, edited by Thurlow Weed, commenting
on the unexpected resignation of Justice Carapbell and his
return to the South, said : " If he has been acting, in Wash
ington, with the leading enemies of the Union, he has been
misunderstood. * * That Judge Campbell reported to the
Confederate President half that he said, or intimated, in his
interview with Secretary Seward, is more than doubtful."
The relative equality of the two Republics which had
appeared at the initial of the war had been steadily overcome
by the more vigorous conduct of the government of the
United States, and the persistent inappreciation of the gov
ernment of the Confederate States, when, late in October,
1862, Judge CampbeU consented to accept the post of Assist
ant Secretary of War. The neutrality of England, so readily
pledged at the outset of the conflict, had been changed to a
manifested sympathy with the United States ; the Confederate

692 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
finances were in hopeless decay ; the conscript and impress
ment laws were hurrying into the army men and resources
destined to be consumed in great battles, fought without a
plan of war; New Orleans and Galveston, nearly all the
Atlantic coast, all the Western rivers and more than half
of the territory of the Confederacy were possessed by the
eneray. Secretary of War Randolph invited Judge Campbell
into the Department, with an apology for the act whose
significance was ominous. Randolph, in despair, soon re
signed. But Campbell had not accepted a lower post, while
refusing for more than a year urgent solicitations to fill a
more exalted one, for the purpose of bolstering up a cause he
had never espoused. His object was to ease down the falling
fortunes of the Confederacy, to the end that humanity might
be measurably relieved of the errors of the Confederate lead
ers, and the Southern people be restored, with the least
measure of affliction, to that older government which he had
never ceased to trust and venerate. Spurning the cause he
served, ostensibly, holding in disdainful contempt the talents
of its Chief Executive, his position at once inducted him into
an influence which must appear as one of the most anomalous
of examples which illustrate the tragical disappointments of
the Confederacy. The administration of the War Offlce, from
which General Randolph had retired, because he was not per
mitted to infuse vigor and coherence Into its operation, and to
which Judge Campbell adhered, because of his desire to be on
hand to palliate the public affliction which its fast approach
ing extinction carried in its train of circumstances, became,
with Randolph's retirement in disgust, and Campbell's adher
ence with a purpose, the refineraent of misconduct, equivalent
in effect to an ingenious discouragement of the Avar. A true
policy of war, from the Confederate side, being reduced to
the saving of armies which embraced well nigh all its material
for war, it so happened that with the opening of the first
campaign, after these changes in the personnel of the War
Offlce had taken eff'ect, that great disasters in the field began,
traceable to the interference of the War Offlce with great
commanders in the field; and, in something over a twelve
month of the duration of this interference, three great Con
federate armies were practically removed from service, leaving

SENATOR YANCEY. 693
the field to the*enemy. (1.) Johnston, attempting, in the
summer of 1863, to save his army of forty thousand superb
troops in Mississippi, as Washington had saved his army after
its defeat on Long Island, was countermanded from the War
Office, and, as General Lincoln had lost his army at Charleston,
General Pemberton was empowered to lose the garrisons of
Vicksburg and Port Hudson and tens of thousands of brave
Uves in useless battle, by the interference of the civil author
ity. (2.) In May, 1864, General Richard Taylor, having, by
skillful retreat, drawn General Banks and a fleet of gun boats
into favorable position, attacked Banks, at Mansfield, drove
him from the field in full retreat, and, continuing the pur
suit — the only example of Confederate pursuit after a great
victory — would inevitably have captured the invading army
and the gunboats supporting it, when he was instantly super
ceded by order of the War Offlce, the pursuit checked and the
imminent military success, which must have- restored New
Orleans and the entire lower valley of the Mississippi and the
western rivers to the Confederacy, was changed into useless
sacrifice and 'the retirement of the trans-Mississippi forces
from active service for the remainder of the war. (3.) In
July, 1864, Johnston was removed from command, against
earnest protests of his army, rank and file, and the people,
with absolute unanimity — at a time when discontent through
out the Northwest seemed only waiting on Sherman's fate to
ripen into revolt against the government at Washington —
the result being the speedy annihilation of his army, under
command of another, following the interference of the civil
government. Against each of these three citations of distructiveness,
issuing from the civil authorities, stand the generalship and
valor of Confederate armies upon the page of history ; the one
marking the source of the catastrophe in which the Con
federate cause finally dissolved; the other vindicating the
reasonableness of its inception. *
When Mr. Yancey insisted that the power to nominate
Brigadier-Generals should be restrained by law, so as to

• For facts as to Judge Campbell, I rely upon letters of General Thomas J.
er and Henry G. Humphfies, leading citizer - -' """-'" - ~  -"''•¦ "' ^¦"•'•"'
_-_ jLse In secret session ol the Senate; Taylo
to Curtis, in Century Magazine, October, 1889.

Butler and Henry G. Humphries, leading citizens of Mobile ; memoranda of Yancey,
for use In secret session of the Senate; Taylor's autobiography; CampbeU s letter

694 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
require the President to select them from th« States supplying
the troops to be brigaded, he kncAV of the vindictive influence
which the Assistant Secretary of War would exert against
Alabama Colonels, whose political antecedents were offensive
to that offlcial. The nomination of Carapbell to a position so
determinate of the character of the war, in view of his sur
passing ability and activity, excited a profound feeling of
chagrin in Congress and in the country. Protests were sent
by telegraph and by mail to the Alabama Senators against
confirmation by the Senate. " If the Senate has not lost all
self-respect. Judge Campbell's utterances are sufflcient to kill
him. His assignment by the President has met the raost gen
eral condemnation, but it was believed to be only teraporary.
Mr. Forsyth and Governor Winston and other promifient
men have expressed great surprise to hear his narae is to
come before the Senate for confirmation. There was talk on
the streets of a public raeeting to protest, but It was believed
that the letters I send you would surely sufflce. I assure you
that such is the feeling against him, in all this region of
country, that his confirmation would be regarded as a public
calamity." So wrote Henry G. Humphries, one of the largest
merchants of Mobile, to Yancey. "Why place a man in posi
tion by which he may defeat tbe end we had in view when we
brought about this great revolution ? The eleventh hour men
and the Yankees seem to prevail in our affairs," wrote General
Thoraas J. Butler to Yancey. Hill espoused the nomination ;
Yancey resisted; the President grew angry.
The Senate took up a bill, January 26, 1863, authorizing
the President to turn over to the several States, to be pun
ished under their crlrainal laws, any officer of the United
States captured in any way who might have violated the laws
of the State. This bill had special reference to the inciting of
servile insurrection and the enforcement of the Emancipation
Proclamation of Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Yancey opposed the meas
ure. He would sustain the principle of retaliation, and had
introduced a bUl, months before, to that eff'ect. He could not
admit that municipal law, the law of a State, could be con
strued to check or Interfere with right of the government of
the United States to prosecute war. If a soldier of the enemy
was amenable to a single State law, he raust be amenable to all

SENA'TOR YANCEY. 695
the laws of every State. It Avould be absurd to hold a captive
offlcer of the United States amenable to the State laws against
burglary, or arson. Where would the Senate draw the line?
Where would the principle proposed to be appUed commence ?
He would not admit that one law Avas more sacred than
another. "The offense is against the Confederate government
(he said), and It is alone the duty of this government to take It
in hand and resent it by proper retaliatory measures, and not
shift the responsibility on to the shoulders of individual
States, by whose municipal laws these offenders, acting under
command of their government, may escape punishment." He
would have no quarter shown In battle to such offenders.
In the House, on the sarae day, Mr. Crockett, frora Ken
tucky, said he had inforraatlon of the raost reliable character
that a plan was on foot to establish a Central Confederacy of
States, bordering the two Republics. He would soon bring
out some startling facts. Mr. Foote, frora Tennessee, (then a
meraber of the House) said he had been denounced by Legis
latures and newspapers because he proposed to off'er terras
of amity to the Northwestern States. This he would say :
" From New England he wanted to be eternally cut off ; but)
if Illinois or Indiana would withdraw their troops frora the
South and unite their fortunes with the Confederacy, he
would favor sending an army there to protect the people
against the Lincoln goverument." Mr. Perkins, fi-om Louis
iana, said he had been informed that a soldier from his
State, charged with desertion, had been sentenced to receive
thirty-nine lashes, quarterly, during the continuance of the
war, to be branded with the letter D in the left hand and to
be confined at hard labor for the war. If a law existed justi
fying such barbarity, he would move its Immediate repeal.
The Senate had a bUl under consideration to regulate the
Impressment of private property, slaves included, by offlcers
of the army. Mr. Yancey said he objected to the bill, and
the amendment, of Mr. Wigfall, because the authority granted
was not sufficiently defined and, at least, was excessive. There
was a Constitutional guaranty to "life, liberty and property,"
none of which could be taken " without due process of law."
It would not be competent for Congress to transfer its right
to proceed by law, to ascertain "just compensation" for

696 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
property, to the discretion of officers of the army. It was
one thing to bring into the public service the resources of
war, existing in the country, and another thing to see that
the people who must prosecute war should not be reduced to
a despotism. In his opinion, the public good did not require
the impressment of slaves and live stock, engaged in raising
provisions for the army and the families of soldiers in the
field. On the contrary, the public good demanded that -prop
erty of that description should be safe from impressment, not
only while actually at labor at the plow, but also at all other
seasons. The bill and the amendment, of the Senators from
Louisiana and Texas, were objectionable in detail, even grant
ing that the amendraent of the latter removed some of the
more obnoxious features of the bill. The bill, as it came from
the Judiciary Coraraittee, allowed the irapressment of private
property under any " case of absolute necessity." What should
be the test of " absolute necessity ? " The energy and fidelity
of a quartermaster or commissary might overcome conditions
and the Indolence and neglect of a quarterraaster or commis
sary might Impose conditions, contemplated by the bill. The
bill of the Judiciary Committee simply reduced the measure
of security of the property of every citizen to the standard of
fidelity, and honesty and economy maintained in the quarter
master's and subsistence departments of the army. Not only
did its provisions allow every bonded officer, in those depart
ments, to go out and supply garrisons, camps of instruction,
or armies in the field, with whatever the people possessed, but
the bonded officer was authorized to appoint any individual
he himself raight select to make such Impressments. A proper
precaution against abuse, in such cases, might be easily in
serted, requiring the coraraander of the military Department
to order the impressments. The amendment, of the Senator
from Texas, provided that the right of impressment of private
property might be exercised by bonded officers in the emer
gency " of immediate and impending danger," or when " im
portant military operations " demanded. This was a great
improveraent on the bill of the Coraraittee, empowering resort
to that harsh measure in " case of absolute necessity," leaving
the fact of "necessity " to the officer's discretion. He would
cheerfully vote for Mr. Wigfall's amendraent, should it be

SENATOR YANCEY. 697
amended in two particulars. The bill of the Judicfary Com
mittee further provided for the appointment, by the President,
of three Commissioners, for each State, whose duty it shall be
to determine what price the governraent shall pay for property
impressed, and the Commission shall sit at a place to be named
by the Secretary of War. This provision would never be
acquiesced in by the speaker. Under it, every piece of prop
erty in the State could be, arbitrarily, assigned a value by the
Executive branch of the government, from whose decree no
appeal could be taken. It was said the President would take
care that careful and honest appraisers should be appointed.
Perhaps so, but a greater than he. General Jackson, had mad
orders for the deposits of the revenues theraselves, not pro
vided by law. There was a principle involved, and he would
never consent to give power to the President to fix the value
of the private property of the people of Alabaraa. While the
Senate deliberated, corn was ninety cents at Huntsville, an
other price at Montgomery and four dollars at Mobile. Would
the value of the corn seized bythe government, be determined
by the Commission at the time and place of seizure ? Or
would a standard of value be found, based on the elements of
prices in various parts of the State, under the various circum
stances prevaiUng? The amendment, of the Senator from
Texas, provided further that, " three disinterested citizens " of
the locality should appraise private property before assess
ment. He would ask the Senator to accept a substitute for
his amendment, providing that an auditor of the government
be appointed to appraise the property impressed for the use
of the army, "in immediate and impending danger" or when
necessary to prosecute successfully "important military opera
tions." If the appraisement of the auditor should be unsatis
factory to the owner, then the owner should be allowed to
institute suit "in some proper tribunal of the Confederate
States." Correspondence, by letter, between the Confederate States
Commissioners in Europe and Lord John Russell continued in
the winter of 1862-3. Mr. Mason assured Her Majesty's Chief
Secretary for Foreign Affairs that he was "instructed emphat
ically to disclaim any policy in the Confederate States govern
ment to prohibit or discourage the export of cotton. It has

698 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
been the policy of the enemy to propagate such belief and,
perhaps, to some extent it raay have obtained credence in
Europe. On the contrary, I ara instructed to assure Her
Majesty's Governraent that If Europe is without American
cotton it is because Europe has not thought flt to send her
ships to America for cotton." Mr. Mason also informed Lord
John that the blockading squadron, off Galveston, had been
dispersed and driven away by the Confederate attack, on
January 1, 1863, the enemy's fiag ship captured and another
of his ships destroyed; that on the morning, of the last day
of the sarae month, two of the enemy's ships blockading
Charleston had been destroyed by the Confederate attack, a
third disabled and the others driven off. In reply to Lord
John's remark that, the manner in which the blockade had
been enforced gave neutrals no excuse to allege that it was
not efficient, these facts were Interesting. The blockade had
been entirely lifted, by hostile demonstrations of the Confed
erate forces, from two ports far separated. Moreover, it was
a notorious fact that, in all the latter months of 1862 and the
month of January, 1863, the departure of vessels, most of
them steamers, from various ports of the Confederate States
had resulted In a large and prosperous commerce. The col
lector of the port of Charleston had officially reported that
the revenue accruing to the Confederate States government,
from duties on Imports collected at the Custom House there,
for 1862, was more than double the revenues ever collected at
the same place in one year on account of the United States
government. That this remarkable fact proved the existence
of a greatly Increased foreign commerce, through that port,
would be admitted, when it was explained that the rate of
duty was far less under the new than the old government. A
single steamer had evaded the blockade raore than thirty
times, usually, but not always, from Charleston. In the month
of January, at least two steamers from Europe had safely
arrived at Wilmington. The facts cited proved that while
the United States blockaders were on the coast, at the ports
selected by themselves, they either could not hold their
positions, by reason of hostile attacks of the Confederate
States forces, or that, holding them, they were inefficient to

SENATOR YANCEY. 699
establish an effective blockade under the terms of the declara
tion of Paris prescribing the law of blockades.
Mr. Yancey's speeches in the Senate, up to this time, had
been on practical subjects, relating to the army, and rarely
exceeding ten to twenty minutes in delivery. Thus he spoke
very often, always with a complete mastery of the subject in
all details. Those who had known hira longest and best were
unprepared to discover the method, ceaseless Industry, wide
information and practical ideas which controlled his Senatorial
course. " Mr. Yancey is no professional alarmist (said the Eichmond Whig
of September 11, 1862,) — at least such is not the part he is now acting.
He is no prophet of inevitable woe. He is simply one of the guardians
of public liberty."
•The Examiner, of the same date, said :
"Mr. Yancey's protest in the Senate yesterday against further
usurpation of power by tbe Confederate Government was neither need
less or premature. * * It will not do for the Confederacy to lose
sight of the principles of free government, for which it is contending.
It is time there should be a pause in this career of usurpation. It has
resulted from different causes. The temper of the States and of the
people has been, to make every honorable sacrifice for the prosecution
of the war with vigor. They have not only been willing to make every
sacrifice for this purpose, but they have been exceedingly unwilling
to complain of unreasonable exactions or unwarrantable usurpations.
This is precisely the time which has been seized by the adversaries of
the Constitution to break through its restrictions and to trample down,
under the plea of public necessity, its most sacred principles."
" We wish every man, woman and child in the Confederacy to read
Mr. Yancey's speech (said the MontgoineTy Advertiser). It cannot be
accounted untimely or claimed as an impracticable issue when a states
man turns to combat such assumptions of authority on the part of the
government." It was Yancey's hope to sustain the spirits of the people,
the better to keep the army up to fuU numbers and invincible
deterraination. " I deny ( he said ) in toto that the war power
in this government is superior to the civil power. All history
teaches that in time of war the civU sinks in the back ground
before the fiercer bearing and more energetic action of the war
power. Such, in fact, is the state of things in the Confederacy
to-day. Even, in the very citadel of the civU power sorae of
its chosen guardians seem to yield to the usurpations of

700 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
leaders of armies and to palliate, if not justify, them. I am
not one of those. I here assert the war power is of the civil
power ; a means belonging to it, to be used by it to maintain,
and defend and preserve the fundamental elements of civi
government ;¦ that, to raise armies, to conduct war, to determ
ine the duration of war, are all within the scope and control
of the legislative power — the only supreme poAver in this
government." Such questions were necessarily extremely del
icate, under consideration. Yancey demanded that every man,
physically able to bear arras, should be legally placed in the
service of the Confederacy. He declared from his place that,
the power to raise armies was a power to exhaust the re
sources of the country, and even "to hire foreign mercenaries,"
in the prosecution of war. The civil government, in force, was
not of the character he would have preferred for the emergen
cy, but it was the civil government, and was superior to all
other government, and necessary to be respected, as it was
found, as the sole dependence for success in the cause.
In the first raonth of the year, 1863, the Senate was lead to
consider a purely Constitutional question involving the powers
of a co-ordinate branch of the government — the organization
of the federal judiciary. Mr. Yancey delivered sevei;al elab
orate orations, each several hours long, on the bill. The series
display, better than any previous speeches of his, perhaps, the
analytical power of his mind and his ability to arrest and
hold tlie attention of his audience, on an abstruse subject, for
an indeflnite time. They are the most finished addresses that
remain of his published oratory. The last of the series, in
order of delivery, will doubtless be accounted the most satis
factory, and it is beUeved to be the last speech of his life.
The Judiciary Committee of the Provisional Congress, of
which Benjamin H. Hill was chairman, reported a bill to
organize the Judiciary Department of the Confederate States ;
providing that appeals might be taken frora the Supreme
Court of a State to the Federal Court of last resort. Mr. HIU
denied, on the fioor of the Senate, that he had signed his
Coraraittee report, nor did he submit a minority report. He
confessed he knew the bill would be reported, consented that
it should be reported, and did not there, or thereafter, consider
it unconstitutional In Its recomraendatlons. Mr. Clay, from

SENA TOR ^ YANCEY. 701
Alabama, offered to amend the bUl to organize the Judiciary
of the Confederate States by repealing the Section of the law,
enacted by the Provisional Congress, conferring appellate
jurisdiction on the Confederate Supreme Court, over State
Supreme Courts. Hill, and Phelan, an able laAvyer, from Mis
sissippi, were the leading opponents of Clay's raeasure of
repeal and the leading defenders of the course of the Judiciary
Coraraittee, presided over by Hill.
Three reports, frora this Committee, had been brought
before the Senate, recently, all obnoxious to the standard of
statesmanship set up by the State Rights school. The con
sideration of the first two had brought Yancey and Hill into
collision, well calculated to embitter the debate on the last of
the series, now up. The first report of the series recommened
a law to regulate, or suppress, the press and free speech, under
specified circumstances. Mr. PIIU denied that he had brought
in that report or had signed it ; but he admitted he knew it
would come forward, as frora his Committee, that he had in
Committee consented to its appearance before the Senate, and
that he had not offered a minority report. Indeed, he said
he accepted the constitutionality of the report. While this
report was being debated, Mr. Wigfall arose and, without
introductory remarks, in mock solemnity, read the Sedition
Act of John Adams' Administration, and instantly resumed
his seat. The sentiments, and even the language, of the report
were found to be similar, and to so impressive a degree, like
the Sedition Act hateful to the history of free government,
that the bill was immediately dropped and not again referred
to. The second report, of the series, was the endorsement of
the nomination of Judge Campbell for Assistant Secretary of
War. While the States Rights men contended against these
reports of the Senate Committee, the regular Democratic
Convention, of Kentucky, met at Frankfort. The House of
Representatives denied the Convention the customary privi
lege of using its hall. The theater was rented ; forty counties
assembled and David Meriwether was elected Chairman. As
the roll was about to be called a regiment of United States
troops, under command of Colonel Gilbert, with fixed bay
onets, formed at the door. Colonel Gilbert entered, went upon

702 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
the stage and Informed the members, in a few words, that no
candidates for civil office would be permitted to appear whose
loyalty to the United States government was doubted. He
also advised the Convention to disperse and the members to
return quietly to their horaes, as a peace proceeding.
Mr. Yancey began, on January 30, to speak against the
organization of a Confederate Supreme Court, with appellate
jurisdiction over the State Supreme Courts. His exordium
was :
" Me. Peesident : If the sections of the Judiciary Act of
March, 1861, proposed to be repealed, are unconstitutional, it
is our duty to repeal them. If power to have passed those
sections is even doubtful, in my opinion, they should be
repealed; for, under our form of government, I believe it to
wise and expedient that dopbtful" powers which shall corae In
confiict with States and State tribunals, involving questions of
their respective sovereignty and Independence, should not be
exercised at all. Believing, as I do, that the powers conferred
by the sections are unconstitutional, I shall vote for their
repeal, and I proceed to give sorae of the reasons which will
actuate me in so doing.
" The Constitution, Mr. President, provides, not only the
rule, but the only mode of Its interpretation. If we undertake
to go out into the wide fleld of precedent and seek for the
opinions of others, no matter how distinguished they may
haA'-e been, or however exalted the official positions they may
have held, and upon precedents and opinions of others base
the constitutionality of this or that measure, we shall enter
the land of mist, and shadow and doubt. But, If we hold to
the clear, narrow track Indicated by the Constitution, in which
all should travel who wish to give an interpretation to that
instruraent which shall keep the States frora clashing with
the Confederate government, there will be peace within our
borders and the preservation of this government, upon pure
Constitutional principles."
Elaborating the argument, that precedents were invaUd to
the law maker striving to construe the Constitution, he said
the Senator from Mississippi, Mr. Phelan, had said the First
Congress, of the United States, had enacted just such a, law
as was now proposed to be repealed, and this early legislation,

SENATOR YANCEY. 703
by raany who had fraraed the Constitution approved by
Washington, was a valid precedent to establish the consti
tutionality of the act of the Provisional Congress of March,
1861. The Senator, Mr. Phelan, had argued also that deputies
of the Confederate Provisional Congress, who had enacted the
act of 1861, had framed the present Constitution. It was then
asked: "Did not the men of 1787 and of 1861 know their
work ? " The answer to this question was in the laws enacted
and their practical eft'ects upon the liberty of the country
Intended to be secured by the Constitution. He did not
believe the men of 1787 or of 1861 understood or sufficiently
took heed of the Constitution in their acts. Would Senators
allege that the Allen and Sedition laws, enacted before the
Constitution had been in operation ten years, and repealed
before it had been in operation twelve years, were evidence
that the fathers understood the Constitution better than the
living generation ? The party most distinguished in American
history for virtue, intellect and high social influence, with
Washington at its head, had enacted those laws and had been
cast down in consequence. The United States Bank Act was
an example of early construction of the Constitution by Con
gress, not now accepted as correct; so was the Missouri
compromise ; John Tyler, of Virginia, alone had voted in the
Senate against the bill advised by Jackson to reduce South
Carolina by force. No Senator uoav would approve any one of
those measures. "Mr. President (said the orator), we may
safely assert that we are wiser than the men of those days.
The statesmen of the early days speculated merely upon the
practical results of this or that doctrine. We have the bitter
fruits by which to judge of the tree they planted. We have
the fiood light of experience of seventy years of mal-adminis
tration of the federal government, upon the principle that
powers not expressly delegated, but implied, may be exer
cised ; upon the principle that the federal government may be
strengthened against the State government ; upon the princi
ple that whatever promotes the welfare of the majority must
be Constitutional. " One other view of the plea of precedents for construing
our Constitution : It is nothing but a , plea of the law of
custom. If ours was not a written Constitution, if it were

704 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
but a bundle of customs, like the EngUsh Constitution, even
then this principle before the Senate, having been frequently
brought into question, would be lacking in the main element
of valid custom — Invariable usage. But when our ancestors
discarded the British Constitution and adopted a written
compact, they repudiated the idea, as anti- American, that the
rights of States or of the people of States should be deter
mined either by custom, usage or any other mode than by
that compact. It was written, for the purpose that no custom,
no usage, no acquiescence, no legislation, no opinions of men
might change it or its meaning. It was written, in order that
its language alone should interpret its meaning and that
every citizen should have the means before him of judging it
for hiraself.
a* * * I think it unfortunate that a permanent Consti
tution and government was instituted before the close of the
war. In the very remarkable circumstances that surrounded
us, entailing the necessity, almost, of exercising extraordinary
powers upon unlooked for emergencies, the country needed a
Provisional war government, restricted only by the nature and
extent of its necessities. Such a government existed during
the greater period of the revolution — a Congress, with a
leader of armies and no President. The Constitution we have
adopted has been found, in practice, to be an unrelaxing re
straint upon the exercise of the whole power of the country."
The orator proceeded to show that, under the Constitution,
a direct tax could not be levied before a census had been
taken, and so large districts, in ¦ almost every State, were
occupied by the eneray that the census was impracticable. A
long enumeration of Constitutional inhibitions of the exercise
of powers necessary to the prosecution of the war, was given.
Among others, a majority of Congress could not appropriate
money, not asked for by the head of a Department, " and thus
the views of the danger and emergency of the country, enter
tained by that body, are cut down to and squared by the will
of the Executive."
The technical question raised by the bill was, in what
provision of the Confederate States Constitution could the
power be found, vested in Congress, to organize a federal
Supreme Court, with appellate jurisdiction over State Supreme

SENATOR YANCEY. 705
Courts ? Mr. Yancey, denying the existence of the power, and
Messrs. HUl and Phelan, affirming its existence, debated the
biU. Article 3 of the Constitution contained the power, Mr.
Yancey said, if it could be traced at all. This Article de
clared :
" The judicial power of the Confederate States shall be vested in
one Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as Congress may from
time to time establish."
Here were two classes of courts, authorized, both, to be
organized by Congress, Avlth no mention raade of State courts.
The axiom of the law excluded all not mentioned. The juris
diction of the courts of the Confederate States was defined
and prescribed by the Constitution. The Supreme Court was
given original jurisdiction in certain cases and appellate juris
diction, " both as to law and fact with such exceptions and
such regulations as the Congress shall make." Appellate
from what ? An appeal could only come from an inferior tri
bunal. What inferior tribunal? The Constitution expressly
provided for its creation. Under the axiom of the law, expres-.
sio unixis, exclusi alterius, the State courts could not enter the
question. Would Senators who opposed his view inform the
Senate upon what principle of construction they proposed to
limit appeals, to the Confederate States Supreme Court, to that
class of State courts called supreme? Why should an appeal
not lie from a Circuit Court of the State or from a Probate
Court ? Why allow the privilege to one class and not allow
It to all ?
The Senator, ( Mr. Phelan ) from Mississippi, had argued
that the clause of the Constitution, providing that the author
ity of the federal Supreme Court should " extend to all cases "
arising under the Constitution, etc., justified the authority of
Congress to vest jurisdiction in that Court over the State
courts. The orator would not assent to the allegation that
the words " extend " and " all," in the clause cited, possessed
the meaning of unlimited jurisdiction. The Constitution used
the phrase " all crimes," for example, but no Senator would
say that the federal Supreme Court had any power over per
sons charged with crime before State courts. The docket of
the Confederate States courts only contained "all crimes"

45

706 'THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
which could be brought before those courts. The Constitu
tion provided that " every law and resolution " should be sub
ject to specified conditions of legislative procedure. State
Legislatures considered laws and resolutions and if the Sen
ator's was a correct interpretation of the word "all," why
should not " all " laws and resolutions of a State Legislature
fall under control of Congress 'i " All " Is collective : " every "
Is distributive, say the philologists :
" By all the nymphs that nightly dance
Upon thy streams, with wily glance."
" My definition of the word (said Yancey) Is one found to
be consistent with the Avhole Article of the Constitution
establishing the Judiciary branch of the government ; one
which can be uniformly applied wherever the word occurs.
Under the rules of logic and construction, that is something in
its favor." Mr. Yancey devoted the latter half of this oration, not
less than three hours long, to invective addressed to Senator
Hill. Judge Arthur F. Hopkins, of Alabama, having been
admitted, by courtesy, to the floor of the Senate, whispered
to his companion. Senator Foote, repeatedly, as the speech pro
gressed : " There can be no doubt that Yancey is the greatest
of living orators." This speech was pronounced March 14,
1863. "The Senator has said (continued the orator) that I am
dissatlsfled with everything and everybody. ' With every
body ! ' I have no social relations with the Senator and never
had. We never meet, save in this chamber, and he can have
no personal knowledge of my relations with others. Few
Indeed have so much cause for satisfaction as myself, not with
'¦ everybody,' but with the great mass of the patriotic people of
the country who have espoused the great principles I have so
persistently asserted, in opposition to the Senator and his fol
lowing. In time past." As to the charge of dissatisfaction with
" eA^erything," the Senator frora Georgia alluded, probably, to
his well-known views on the policy of erecting a full clvU
government, at an inopportune moment. "But (continued
Mr. Yancey) the Senator says I have thrust a lance into the
thigh of the dead Hotspur ! Of that I Avas unaware. I was

¦SENATOR YANCEY. 707
unaware that the gallant Hotspur was a subject of the Sen
ator's admiration*. His courage was lively, enduring and
feared no encounter. He was sensitive of bis honor and could
brook no insult. He loved to cross a lance, with a foe worthy
of his steel. He delivered his blows in front and would have
deemed it most unknightly, raost cowardly to have assaulted
his enemy in personal combat by a foul blow when none was
expected. He was brave and magnanimous ; courteous and
just. He was the soul not only of honor but of truth — the
pink of English chivalry. Who is the Hotspur of this Sen
ate, that I have assaulted ? I could not, surely, suppose hira
to be the Senator frora Georgia, even should I give him credit
for sufflcient modesty not to compare himself to the distin
guished hero of English story. Did he mean that I had sent
a thrust at a dead party? * * But, I turn the tables on the
Senator. Is he well satisfled? Far from It. He complains
that Senators, on this side of the question of this debate,
should rely upon their old opinions, opinions maintained for
many years. He says they should reconsider. Indeed! Sir,
those Senators whom the Senator from Georgia so admonishes,
for long years predicted these 'new circumstances.' Had
their opinions been heeded the Union would have been pre
served upon the assured basis of the Constitution, Equality,
Justice, Fraternity. Has the Senator found it so necessary to
change or modify his views that he thinks others must do so
too ? Is it a matter of chagrin and mortification to the Sen
ator that he has no 'old opinions ' upon great Constitutional
questions to which he can refer with pride and pleasure ?
Human nature is the same, Mr. President, as it was in the day
of the wag ^Esop, who portrayed the mind of the Senator,
when he Avrote of the fox who having lost his caudal append
age moved a resolution in a convention of foxes that, in order
to be In the fashion, all should be docked. * * Although I
have heard the Senator assume to be a State Rights man-
since the fashion leads that way— he has, in ray opinion, worn
his assumption awkwardly enough.
" Probably, under the circumstances, the Senate was not
surprised to learn the Senator was specially dissatisfied with

* HiU had made a violent and sudden personal assault on Yancey a few days
hefore the scene described, "surprising hhn from tlie rear."

708 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
me: Neither my opinions or the free utterance of them ; not
the course of my life, or the measure of my intellect has been
satisfactory to the Senator. He is not particularly fastidious.
I presume his discontent arises from the fact that we are very
unlike. Commencing with my intellect, he describes it as a
/rent shot bag, with the shot pouring out loosely, and running
aimlessly around.' Of the truth of the Senator's analysis, or
of his own belief in it, I have nothing to say, except that it
stands as a fair test of the Senator's mental resources.
" But, Mr. President, in returning the compliraent, drawing
with a free hand the Senator's raental portrait, it shall not be
left to speculation whether I exercised candor In the act, or
covered up a want of knowledge of the subject with unmean
ing generalities. GilfiUan says there are six classes of intel
lect : One of them Legion, respectable people who often flnd
their way into town councils, religious associations, sometimes
into legislative bodies, lifted occasionally by sorae strong hand
into cabinets. These bear with thera the stamp of mediocrity
so deeply set that their highest flights and most labored eft'orts
cannot eradicate it. To this class belongs the mind of the
Senator. But the Senator does appear above mediocrity in
sorae particulars. Without originality, never creating or con
trolling events, he is acute in rapid changes to suit the
changing aspect of affairs ; shielding hiraself frora the charge
of inconsistency by a perpetual indeflniteness of expression.
Never distinguished for the appUcation of general principles
of statesmanship to measures as they come up, he has been
marked for the laxity of his Constitutional views, for his
facility of arguing In specious generalities, for or against any
question, regardless of all system of Constitutional philosophy.
As I have said, with no original poAvers at aU, the Senator
possesses the art of a wonderful imitation, which enables him
to absorb and appropriate the ideas thrown out by others.
Like the mocking bird, with no original note but a squeak, he
sends forth very clearly the finer notes of others; and, like
the songster, giving them no appropriate connection nor 'hav
ing a clear understanding of what he so boldly and skUlfuUy
appropriates. In this debate he has performed through the
whole political gamut — running on the same key from Ham
ilton down to Phelan.

SENATOR YANCEY. 709
" The Senator was specially dissatisfied with what he chose
to call my autobiography. I do not know that one could have
been surprised that there was nothing in it to aff'ord him
pleasure. It consists of one unvarying history of words
spoken and acts done, since the year 1848, under most dis
heartening circumstances, in behalf of my native South —
warning my countrymen of the fatal tendencies of Northern
legislation and arousing thera frora the lethargy into which
their party divisions were lulling them. In all this, I had
never the aid of a single act of co-operation, or of a warning
word, from the Senator. On the contrary, in the midst of a
most trying period of our career, when, repudiating party ties,
party ambition and party rewards, I rang out over the land
words of prophetic warning — when I was writing the ' scarlet
letter ' and resolutions to unite all parties, in defense of the
South for the sake of the South and of the Constitution, that
Senator was groping his way amid the secret dens of party
by means of signs, grips and passwords, resting himself and
the South upon that false and delusive platform — ' The L^nlon,
the supreme object of patriotic desire.' While I was denounced
by Northern writers and Northern orators as a Catallne, the
infamous calumny was re-echoed in lodges in the South where
the Senator was in high repute. It is true, sir, my political
life is a continuous censure upon that of the Senator. I can
at all times refer to it with pride and pleasure, and it is
because, at times, I may have weakly indulged in the pleasant
retrospect that the Senator's spleen has been vented. I will
do the Senator the justice to say that, if I have been in bad
taste in this, I have never heard from him nor do I expect to
hear like exhibitions of 'bad taste' in respect to his own
political history. Whether he has been deterred by a question
of taste or by the character of the facts to be disclosed. Is a
matter no need to be decided here.
" Were every line of my past poUtical Ufe written in living
light, there is not an act that I cannot gaze upon with pride.
There is no record that I need shrink frora seeing placed in
comparison with it."
Extracts from this memorable philllplc, the closing exara
ple of Yancey's oratory which these pages flnd to reproduce,
would not be sufflcient evidence of the peculiar style of the

710 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
orator unless they should go farther and show the perfect
naturalness and imperturbable self-poise which raarked his
most serious and elaborate discourses. There was not an
apparent lapse from dignity, but rather an enjoyable variation
of method when Yancey, in almost all his speeches, intro
duced jocular illustrations of his points. The markedly con
versational tone of his speech assisted the hearer's mind to
accept, without protest, and even with complete satisfaction,
these idiosyncratic episodes. Hill had charged that Yancey
had been tbe victim of Wigfall's joke, the reading of the old
Sedition law. Yancey now showed that it was in continuation
of the argument of his speech against the bill before the
Senate, at the time, that Wigfall had read the old law, and
that the joke fitted Hill and not him. Taking this contre
temps as his therae, the masterful speech of the day was
closed by relating, in an amusing way, the feats of the Senator
from Georgia in political legerdemain. The orator recounted
a visit he had made to a side show on some public occasion,
an agricultural fair, perhaps, in Georgia, where he saw the
thimble-rigger, in charge of the table, prove to an honest
countryman that he could not tell, for a dime, under which of
the two silver cups a fantastically dressed little image could
be found, after seeing it placed by the operator. The coun
tryman's dirae was put up, he selected the cup, the cup was
turned up, but there was no image found. It was under the
other cup, however. Hill was always to be found fantastically
attired in other men's ideas, but the trouble with plain people
was to find the cup he was under. For Instance, when the
conscript law was proposed, In the April before, Yancey had
voted for it, alleging, in secret session, where the bill was
considered, that he gave a reluctant support to it in face of a
perilous military situation ; the enemy being almost at the
gates of the capital. Hill had spoken earnestly against the
measure and voted against it when put on its passage. The
law had divided Georgia public opinion and Mr. Hill was
called, in December, to speak to the Legislature of that State
on his position. All waited to see under which cup Hill
would be found. It was cup number two, where plain ob
servers had least thought of seeing him. He stood there in all
the fantastic drapery of the "little joker," as if unconscious

SENATOR YANCEY. 711
that there had ever been any doubt about his position.
Before the Georgia Legislature he had eloquently recited the
arguments, he had heard in the Senate, in support of thp biU,
where he opposed its passage, and now claimed them as
his own !
In the early part of the debate just narrated, to organize
the Supreme Court, the Senate passed a vote of censure on
Yancey, under the following circumstances : It was on Feb
ruary 4, 1863, that the Senator frora Georgia, Mr. Hill, had the
floor. In his peroration, he spoke bitterly and disparagingly
of Mr. Yancey, in open session, for, perhaps, flfteen minutes.
HUl was not called to order. As he resumed his seat, Yancey
rose, saying he had been taken corapletely by surprise by the
malignity of the Senator's remarks. He had no conception
that any such feelings were entertained towards him. While
what had been said was not amenable to the charge of a
personal insult, it could not be expected by the Senate that he
would allow it to pass unnoticed. When the debate on the
bill before the Senate had been completed, other Senators who
desired to speak having spoken, he would ask to be heard in
reply to the Senator from Georgia. That would not be to-day,
but at some convenient time in the future. But he desired, in
justice to himself, to have a single remark go out along with
the report of the proceedings of that day. Including Mr.
Hill's speech: What had been announced by the Senator
as comments on his (Yancey's) "autobiography" were "mis
statements, known by the Senator to be false when he spoke
them." Neither was Yancey now caUed to order. Hill rose,
as Yancey ceased, disclaimed any personal aniraoslty, or any
animosity at all, but would say that remarks alleging rals-
stateraents by him in his speech were false. HIU was not yet
called to order. The Senate soon resolved Itself into secret
session to consider a finance biU and other legislative business.
This work consumed, perhaps, fifteen minutes. A pause in
the proceedings followed, there being no further business of
an executive character. A personal attack of Senator HUl
upon Senator Yancey now took place. * It was several weeks
after the personal difflculty between the Senators that Yancey
delivered the speech of March 14, just quoted. There was ho
* Appendix A.

712 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
other personal difficulty than that referred to. Mr. Hill was
known to be opposed to a resort to the field of honor for the
settleraent of such troubles, while Yancey considered himself
absolved from the duty of calling him to it, for obvious
reasons. The bill to organize the Judiciary branch of the Confeder
ate government failed to pass the House of Representatives,
and the failure was attributed to the unwillingness of that
body to have John A. Campbell made Chief Justice, for it was
well understood that the President would, if allowed, send his
name for that high office to the Senate for confirmation.
Mr. Yancey in the Senate raaintalned an extensive corres
pondence with his constituents and citizens of other States.
From Bluff Springs, Florida, a committee of citizens sent a
request for his advice concerning the choice of candidates to
be voted for at the approaching elections. He replied that he
did not consider the utmost energy in support of the war
inconsistent with public liberty ; that little attention paid to
resolutions and an earnest purpose to select reliable and
capable civil officers would embrace his advice to voters. A
common soldier, having failed to arrest the attention of the
Secretary of the Navy, wrote to the Senator, describing his
Invention of a fire ship — a low boat, carrying a revolving
turret, from which funnels Avould throw spirits of turpentine
over a blockader and imraediately throw a fire ball upon deck,
the result looked for being a rapid destruction of the invader.
Rev. Dr. Williara H. Mitchell, having been arrested in his
pulpit at Florence, Alabaraa, by a United States offlcer for
offering a prayer for the civil authorities of the Confederacy,
was carried to a Northern prison and treated with utraost hard
ship. He solicited the Senator's offices of intervention. James
R. Powell sent, through his attorney, Samuel F. Rice, to the
Senator a proposition for submission to the government. He
would establish a wagon line from the interior of Texas to
Matamoras, delivering at that point a large quantity of cotton,
a moelty of which would be there consigned to the government
agent, in return for the privileges of the cimimerce. The offer
was declined, because the governraent intended, at a future
time, to establish the same character of trade on its own
account. P S. Gerald offered, through the Senator, a high

SENA'TOR YANCEY. 713
price to the government for the privilege of shipping cotton
through the port of Mobile.

Having now completed an imperfect and inadequate ac
count of Senator Yancey's labors in the civil aft'airs of the
Confederate government, it will not be amiss, in the same
connection, to examine, however briefiy, public opinion as it
was found under the institutions which prevailed, respectlA-ely,
in the Confederate States and the United States, tried by the
exigencies of absorbing war.
The government of the Confederate States endeavored to
limit itself to the charter of its rights. The legislators most
determined to preserve the Constitution and the substance of
liberty were the original Secessionists, and foremost in their
ranks was Yancey, the leader of secession. The habeas corpus
was not suspended, until the cause was virtually lost and the
war was almost concluded; and only then by the Constitu
tional proceeding.
On the other hand, civil governraent was practically sus
pended in the United States, so soon as the energies of the
government were concentrated In the pursuit of war. All
protection to life and liberty were subordinated to the task of
" saving the Nation." The polls, in the border slave States,
were openly controlled by the soldiery in a season free from
hostile invasion. At the initial of the conflict. President Lin
coln assumed the power, constitutionally vested in Congress
alone, of suspending the habeas corjnts. He also proposed
that Congress should, without any amendment of the Consti
tution, enter the States to deterraine the rights of property of
their citizens and to establish social institutions of its own
devising, by a raeasure enacted for the purchase of slaves, at
an arbitrary price fixed by itself, and for transporting the
freedmen beyond the bounds of the United States. Although
the authority of the courts had never been interrupted by an
invasive war, citizens were constantly tried and sentenced by
military courts in the most populous regions. Citizens of the
highest standing and raost eminent services. If of the party
opposed to the Republican party, were arrested on military

714 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
orders and, without trial of any kind, were consigned to miU
tary prisons. Forts in Boston harbor and Baltimore harbor,
the old capltol at Washington and other places were crowded
with political prisoners from alraost every State — "raen A\'ho
had represented their government at foreign courts, had ad
dressed the United States Senate, been Governors of States,
Representatives in Congress, State legislators, farmers, doc
tors and indeed almost all departments of business, not one
charged with crime." * By order of the President, the Secre
tary of War created a corps of Provost Marshals, with author
ity to arrest citizens at discretion for acts done, words spoken,
or alleged to have been spoken, or for opinions expressed or
suspected to be entertained. Democrats only were found to
fall under this order, t Offlcers making arrests of this class
were protected from common and statute law by an act of
Congress providing that, " any action begun In a State court
against an officei;, civil or military, for any arrest or imprison
ment made, or other trespass or wrong done or committed, or
any act omitted to be done at any time during the present
rebellion, by virtue of or under color of any authority derived
from or exercised by or under the President of the United
States or any act of Congress," might be transferred to the
federal courts from State tribunals. This act is in special con
trast with Yancey's argument against Hill's report, to allow
appeals from State Supreme Courts to the federal Supreme
Court. Under it the President and all the constabulary, or
military offlcers or soldiers Avere practically absolved from
responsibility in arrests and convictions for crime, or acts of
oft'ense. An adroitly worded banking act practically united
the purse and the sword. Senator Charles Sumner introduced
a bill to forfeit the Constitutions and governments of such
States as Congress raight see proper. In Ohio the Demo
cratic candidate for Governor, Clement C. Vallandingham, was
arrested in the privacy of his chamber in his own house, by
the side of his wife, at midnight, by order of General Burn
side. The oft'ense alleged in the case was, a criticism, of the
ordinary character of public speeches, on the public acts of
the President, then an avowed candidate for re-election. The
*American Bastile, p. 516.
t Harris' Political Conflict.

SENA TOR YANCEY. 71 5
distinguished prisoner was carried far frora home to be con -
signed to a cell in Fort Warren. Alarmed at the outburst of
public indignation, the President ordered him to be taken to
the frontiers, there to be delivered to the Confederate picket
posts. Mr. Vallandingham traveled extensively in the Confed
erate States, declaring, upon his return to the United States,
that he had not seen a man, woman or child in his travels who
was opposed to the prosecution of the war. The Confederate
States, as early as thfe winter of 1862-3 began to communi
cate with the " copperheads," or the disaffected of the West
Among the early emmissaries to them was Major W. P. Gor
man, an Irishman, a commissioned offlcer of the Confederate
army. He found enrolled and organized 30,000 men in Illinois,
16,000 in Indiana, 4,000 in Ohio, 5,000 in Pennsylvania, an
army of spies reporting to the government at Richmond.
Besides these in the free States, there were 12,000 in Missouri.
Gorman went to Cincinnati and coramissioned a Quarter
master-General for this Northern Confederate contingent, of
67,000 men, having already delivered a commission as Lieu
tenant-General to a United States Senator, at Washington, to
command it. *
Even while the civil administration of the Confederate,
States proved most disappointing, tbe people held fast to their
ideal of Uberty. There was never a moment of time when a
respectable vote among non-corabatants, much less In the
army, could have been obtained for a cessation of the war,
save on honorable terms. Recognition of their independence,
recognition of the justice of their cause, or the utter exhaus
tion of their resources of warfare was the universal demand
of the Southern people, from the first to the last battle of the
fearful conflict they had entered upon.
Having discussed, somewhat, the coraparatlve resources
possessed by the two Republics at the initial of their war and
the general disposition of their respective populations toward
Uberty, it will not be araiss to consider the personal character
istics of the Executive head of each government. Mr. Lincoln
lead the sectional demand for social revolution; Mr. Davis
lead the sectional resistance to social revolution. It was a
*These facts were published by W. L. Hawley, a journalist, of Birmingham,
Ala., by authority of Major Gorman, who now lives at that city.

716 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
profound remark of Yancey's, in debate with Hill that, in the
formative period of Araerican political organism, the party
most distinguished for virtue, intellectual attainment and
social position, with Washington at its head, was thrown out
of power, and that to the less reflned social element fell the
task of preserving the Constitution. " How miserably weak
(he said), with all these facts before us, must be all argument
based on precedent to interpret the Constitution."
Mr. Davis' military education was' a passport to social
rights ; his service in the fleld, his marriage with the daughter
of an army officer of high rank and distinction, rich in slaves,
his retirement to the planter class, his aptitude in politics and
rare gift of oratory presented a toiit ensemble of the Southern
social hero. But there had come about a flery emphasis and
depth of social collision. There was needed for it, not so
much of erudition as ability ; a vital type of statesraan, who,
by native dlscernraent, could bring upon the on-rushlng course
of CA'cnts a faculty of "seeing the essential point and leaving
all the rest behind as surplusage ; seizing the very type of a
thing, presenting that and nothing more."
When the RepubUcan party met in convention at Chicago,
in the spring of 1860, to norainate a candidate for the Presi
dency, it has been shown that only half the States of the
Union were represented. Those States represented had been
declared by the conservative States, in national Deraocratic
convention at Charleston, to be In a condition of practical
rebellion. The Chicago Convention was, in fact, the head of
the revolution, and there were two factions represented by
delegates upon the floor. One of the two factions was cora-
posed of the richer and raore cultivated social eleraent of
the coraraercial and raanufaoturing Northern Atlantic States,
AA'hlch preferred the scholarly and experienced statesraan,
William H. Seward, for the nomination. The other was cora-
posed of the North- Western States, a commercial and agri
cultural eleraent, dorainated by recently naturalized voters,
who preferred the original, rugged yet artful leader, Abraham
Lincoln. lincoln becarae the typical leader of the revolution
at its source. It is not proposed here to present an analysis
of Mr. Lincoln's character in the offlce of Chief Executive. It
is sufflcient to say that history will preserve his narae as the

SENATOR YANCEY. 717
impersonation of the energies placed at his disposal. He was
a great leader of conditions made ready for him. So soon
as bis election transpired he chose bis rivals, for this office,
Seward and Chase, because they were the greatest men of his
party, to the two highest places in his Cabinet. Months before
bis induction iuto office, he entered upon a most skillful
preparation for the pai-t he Avas to act. When Greeley,
hitherto the exponent and central figure of his party, de
manded of the President-elect a conciliatory policy, toward
the Southern movement, Lincoln, with a deeper party sagac
ity, declared he would give his life rather than make such a
concession. But, when he was urged to a secret raidnight
journey to the national capital, to be in waiting for inaugura
tion to office, although asharaed of the fears of his advisers
and believing, not a word, of the idle threats of bodily peril,
en route, which they Insisted he should take steps to circum
vent, he fell cheerily into their plans, with no Avord of protest.
Carrying In his pocket a carefully prepared inaugural address,
which he well knew the civilized Avorld awaited with anxiety,
his first act was to comralt the manuscript to the candidate he
had defeated, Mr. Seward, for laborious review and amend
ment, and the paper was read as Seward amended It. But, a
few weeks later, when the Secretary of State offered, virtually,
to lay doAvn a chart of conduct for the Adrainistration, his
effrontery was rebuked Avlth tact not less consummate than
phenomenal. Never alarmed, he was never without a settled
plan of action ; never cast down, he was diligent to keep his
hope before the country he ruled, free from the shade of
doubt. He never lead his party, but he adroitly followed the
most advanced steps of his party, in the ripeness of time. If
the people under him demanded absolutism in their govern
ment, beyond which the wit of man could devise nothing
more absolute, their President never quaUed In the execution
of their wUl. But, when the Senate sent Charles Sumner at
the head of its committee of seven to the President's mansion
to demand the removal of Seward, on the charge of excessive
conservatism of conduct, Lincoln laughed with the Secretary
over the scene and refused his proffered resignation. Quite
conscious that Secretary Chase, whose ability had overcome
the supreme peril of the enterprise of Southern subjugation.

718 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
was diligent in writing letters, pleading with politicians, argu
ing with army offlcers with the selfish purpose of securing
for himself the Presidency, so soon as the party action had
disappointed the Secretary, he was promoted by the President
nominated for the coveted place, to be Chief Justice. In the
autumn he revoked General Fremont's emancipation procla
mation in the West, with a severe reprimand ; the following
winter he revoked General Hunter's emancipation proclama
tion In South Carolina, with asperity ; before the year closed
he pledged hiraself to the country to usurp the power of a
general emancipation proclamation.
There were three decisive concessions, made by President
Lincoln to bis party, involving war ; the nature of Avar ; and
the result of war.
(1) He permitted party pressure to determine upon the
reinforcement of Fort Sumter, expecting the resistance which
followed and opened war : (2) He obeyed the demand of his
party for the removal of General McClellan, preraeditating
thus to change the character of the Invasion : (3) He surren
dered his wise, original and huraane theory of the political
result of the overthrow of the Confederate States, to the dic
tation of his party.
General McClellan, Immediately after his abandonment of
the siege of Richmond, following the " seven days " battle
wrote a letter to the President :
" Headquarters Akmv of the Potojiac, |
"Camp Nkak Harkison's Landing, Va., July 1, 1802. (
' Mr. Peesident: * * I cannot but regard our condition as crit
ical and I earnestly desire, iu view of possible contingencies, to lay
before your Excellency, for your private consideration, my general
views concerning the existing state of the rebellion, although they do
not strictly relate to the situation of this army, or strictly come within
the scope of my official duties. These views amount to convictions
and are deeply impressed on my mind and heart. Our cause must never
be abandoned ; it is the cause of free institutions and self-gov40.-nment.
The Constitution and the Union must be preserved, whatever may be
the cost in time, treasure and blood. * *
"The time has come when the government must determine upon a
civil and military policy covering the whole ground of our national pol
icy. * * This rebellio-n has assumed the character of a war: as such
it should be regarded and it should be conducted on the highest princi
ples known to Christian civilization. It should not be a war looking to

SENATOR YANCEY. 719
the subjugation of the people of any State, in any event. It should not
be a war upcin populations, but against armed forces and political
organizations. Neither confiscation of property, political executions of
persons, territorial organization of State or forcible abolition of slavery
should be contemplated for a moment.
"In cai-i-ying out any system of policy which you may form you
will require a Commander-in-Chief of the army; one who possesses
your confidence, understands your views and who is competent to exe-
<!ute your orders, by directing the military forces of the nation to the
accomplishment of the objects by you proposed. I do not ask that
place for myself. I am Avilliug to serve you it such position as you may
assign me, and I will do so as faithfully as subordinate ever served
superior. " I may be on the brink of eternity; and as I hope forgiveness from
my Maker, I have written this letter with sincerity towards you and
love for my country. " A'ery respectfully, your obedient servant,
"George B. McClellan,
" Major-General Commanding.
"His Excellency A. Li}icoln, President."
This letter was instantly seized by the advisers of the
President as a political assault upon the Republican party. It
was well known throughout array circles that the suggestions
of General McClellan would operate to the disadvantage of his
professional standing with the Administration. Knowledge of
this result of his advice carried a deep Infiuence into the army,
in all ranks.
The remoA^al of McClellan was imraediately determined
upon. His successes in the field had far out-stripped any
other coramander of the armies of the United States. He had
defeated R. E. Lee in West Virginia ; he had compelled J. E.
Johnston to evacuate Northern Virginia, had driven him up
the Peninsula to the gates of Richmond ; he had conducted a
masterly retreat in face of Lee, after seven days' fighting, and
was quite as ready as was the Confederate commander to con
tinue the battle at the close. In fourteen days after the rout
of Pope's army at Manassas he re-organlzed it and was suc
cessful in leading it at South Mountain. "With a halter
around his neck"* he followed Lee into Maryland and fought
the drawn battle of Sharpsburg— called by him " Antietam."
Apart, too, from an eminent personal success, relatively, as
* McCleUan's Owu Story.

720 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
compared with other commanders on his side, he was the com
mander of the armies of the United States Avhen Albert Sidney
Johnston was driven out of Kentucky and Tennessee. McClel
lan alone of the high commanders of the arraies of the United
States inspired that personal devotion and confidence in rank
and file which so distinguished the feeling of the Confederate
armies toward the Johnstons, Lee, Beauregard and Jackson.
When President Lincoln determined to abandon the at
tempt to capture Richmond, by way of the Peninsula, he
ordered General John Pope to prepare to renew the march
toward that capital, by way of Manassas, leaving McClellan
practically deprived of command, while his army was sent to
reinforce Pope. Within a few days after taking command.
General Pope published the general order, which was calcu
lated to expose the families in his army lines to great priva
tion and to give a poUtical character to the invasion, which
remained the rule of war enforced by all of the comraanding
officers who, from that time forward, received the countenance
of the civil head of the United States army :
" Headquaetees Army of Virginia, )
" July 23, 1862. )
" General Orders No. 11. —
"Commanders of army corps, divisions, brigades and detached
commands will proceed immediately to arrest all disloyal male citizens
within their lines, or within their reach in rear of their respective com
mands. Such as are willing to take the oath of allegiance to the United
States, and will furnish sufficient security for its observance, shall be
permitted to remain at their homes and pursue in good faith their
accustomed avocations. Those who refuse shall be conducted South,
beyond the extreme pickets of this army, and be notified that if found
again anywhere within our lines, or at any point in rear, they will be
considered spies and subjected to the extreme rigor of military law. If
any person having taken the oath of allegiance, as above specified, be
found to have violated it, he shall be shot and his property sold and
applied to the public use. * * « "John Pope,
"Major-General ('ommanding."
In completest contrast with the character of invasion laid
down in General McClellan's letter to President Lincoln, stands
the letter of General W. T. Sherman, conveying an order to a
subordinate officer. General Sherman's promotion to the com
mand of the second great army of the United States followed

SENATOR YANCEY. 121
the date of his letter, and the sentiraents of his letter, received
the raost distinguished approbation of the political party
waging war on the part of the United States :
"Heaixj'ks Department of Tennessee, 1
VuKSBUEG, January 1, 1864. |
"Major R. M. Sauujer, A. A. G. Annij of Tennessee, Huntsville:
"Deae Saavver — In my former letter I have answered all your
questions save one, and that relates to the treatment of inhabitants
known, or suspected to be, hostile or 'secesh.' This is in truth, the
most difficult business of our army, as it advances and occupies the
Soutliern country. It is almost impossible to lay down rules, and I
invariably leave this subject to local commanders, but am willing to
give them the benefit of my acquired knowledge and experience. In
Europe, whence we derive our principles of war, as developed by their
histories, wars are between kings and rulers, through hired armies, and
not between peoples. These remain, as it were, neutral, and sell their
produce to whatever army is in possession.
" Xapoleon, when at war with Prussia, Austria and Russia, bought
forage and provisions of the inhabitants, and consequently had an
interest to protect farms and factories, which ministered to his wants.
In like manner, the allied armies in France could buy of the French
whatever they needed, the produce of the soil or manufactures of the
country. Therefore, the rule was and is, that wars are confined to the
armies, and should not visit the homes of families or private interests.
"But, in other examples, a different rule obtained the sanction of
historical authority. I will only instance that, when, in the reign of
William and Mary, the English army occupied Ireland, then in a state of
revolt, the inhabitants were actually driven into foreign lands, and were
actually dispossessed of their property and a new population intro
duced. To this day, a large part of the north of Ireland is held by the
descendants of the Scotch emigrants sent there by William's order and
an act of Parliament.
" The war which prevails in our land is essentially a war of races.
The Southern people entered into a clear compact of government, but
still maintained a species of separate interests, history and prejudices.
These latter became stronger and stronger, till they have led to a war,
which has developed the fruits of the bitterest kind.
"We of the North are, beyond all question, right in our lawful
cause, but we are not bound to ignore the fact that the people of the
South have prejudices which form part of their nature, and which they
cannot throw off without an effort of reason or the slower process of
natural change. Now, the question arises, should we treat as absolute
enemies all in the South who differ Avith us in opinions or prejudices —
kill or banish them? Or should we give them time to think and grad
ually change their conduct, so as to conform to the new order of things
which is slowly and gradually creeping into their country?

46

722 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
"When men take arms to resist our rightful authority, we are
compelled to use force, because all reason and argument ceases when
arms are resorted to. When the provisions, forage, horses, mules,
wagons, etc., are used by our enemy, it is clearly our duty and right to
take them, because, otherwise, they might be used against us.
" In like manner, all houses left vacant by an inimical people are
clearly our right, or such as are needed as store-houses, hospitals and
quarters. But a question arises as to dwellings used by women, chil
dren and non-combatants. So long as non-combatants remain in their
homes, and keep to their accustomed business, their opinions and
prejudices can in no wise influence the war, and, therefore, should not
be noticed. But if any one comes out in the public streets and creates
disorder, he or she should be punished, restrained or banished, either
to the rear or front, as the officer in command adjudges. If the people,
or any of them, keep up a correspondence with parties in hostility,
they are spies, and can be punished with death or minor punishment.
"These are well established principles of war, and the people of
the South, having appealed to war, are barred from appealing to our
constitution, which they have practically and publicly defied. They
have appealed to war, and must abide its rules and laws. The United
States, as a belligerent party claiming right in the soil as the ultimate
sovereign, have a right to change the population, and it may be, and is,
both politic and best that we should do so in certain districts. When
the inhabitants persist too long iri hostility, it may be both politic and
right that we should banish them and appropriate their lands to a more
loyal and useful population. No man will deny that the United States
would be benefitted by dispossessing a single prejudiced, hard-headed
and disloyal planter and substitute in his place a dozen or more patient,
industrious, good families, even if they be of foreign birth. I think it
does good to present this view of the case to many Southern gentlemen,
who grow rich and \\'ealthy, not by virtue alone of their industry and
skill, but by reason of the protection and impetus to prosperity given
by our hitherto moderate and magnanimous government. It is all idle
nonsense for these Southern planters to say that they made the South,
that they own it, and that they can do as they please — even to break
Aip our government, and to shut up the natural avenues of trade, inter
course and commerce.
' ' We know, and they know, if they are intelligent beings, that, as
¦compared with the whole world, they are but as flve millions are to one
thousand millions — that they did not create the land — that their only
title to its use and enjoyment is the deed of the United States, and, if
they appeal to war, they hold their all by a very insecure tenure.
" For my part, I believe that this war is the result of false political
doctrine, for which we are all as a people responsible, viz. : that any
and every people has a right to self-government; and I would give to
all a chance to reflect and, when in error, to recant. I know slave
owners, flnding themselves in possession of a species of property in
opposition to the growing sentiment of the civilized world, conceived

SENATOR YANCEY. 723
their property in danger, and foolishly appealed to war; and, by skillful
political handling, involved with themselves the whole South in the
doctrine of error and prejudice. I believe that some of the rich and
slave-holding are prejudiced to an extent that nothing but death and
ruin will extinguish ; but hope that as the poorer and industrial classes
of the South realize their relative weakness, and their dependence upon
the fruits of the earth and good will of their fellow-men, they will not
only discover the en-or of their ways, and repent of their hasty action,
but bless those who persistently maintained a constitutional govern
ment, strong enough to sustain itself, protect its citizens, and promise
peaceful homes to millions yet unborn.
"In this belief, while I assert for our government the highest
military prerogatives, I am willing to bear in patience that political
nonsense of slave rights, State Rights, freedom of conscience, freedom
of press, and such other trash as ha\'e deluded the Southern people into
war, anarchy, bloodshed and the foulest of crimes that have disgraced
any time or any people.
" I would advise the comraanding officers at Huntsville aud such
other towns as are occupied by our troops, to assemble the inhabitants
and explain to them these plain, self-evident propositions, and tell them
that it is for them now to say whether they and their children shall
inherit their share. The government of the United States has in North
Alabama any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war — to
take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything, because they
cannot deny that war does exist there, and war is simply power unre-
sti-ained by constitution or compact. If they want eternal Avarfare, well
and good; we will accept the issue and dispossess them, and put our
friends in possession. I know thousands and millions of good people
who, at simple notice, would come to North Alabama and accept the
elegant houses and plantations there. If the people of Huntsville
think different, let them persist in war three years longer, and they
will not be consulted. Three years ago, by a little reflection and
patience, they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity,
but they preferred war. Very well. Last year they could have saved
their slaves, but now it is too late — all the powers of earth cannot
restore to them their slaves any more than their dead grandfathers.
Next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and
rightfully too; and another year they may beg in vain for their lives.
A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to
know the consequence. Many, many people, with less pertinacity than
the South, have been wiped out of national existence.
" My own belief is, that even now the non-slave-holding classes of
the South are alienating from their associates in war. Already I hear
criminations. Those who have property left should take warning in
time. " Since I came down here I have seen many Southern planters who
now hire their negroes, and acknowledge they knew not the earthquake
they were to make by appealing to secession. They thought the

724 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
politicians had prepared the way and they could depart in peace. They
now see that we are bound together as one nation by indissoluble ties,
and that any interest or any people who set themselves up in antago
nism to the nation must perish.
" While I would not remit one jot or tittle of our national rights in
peace or war, I do not make allowances for past political errors and
false prejudices. Our national Congress and Supreme Court are the
proper arenas in Avliich to discuss conflicting opinions, and not the
battle field.
" You may not hear from me again, and if you think it will do any
good, call some of the people together and explain these, my views,
Tou may even read to them this letter, and let them use it, so as to
prepare them for my coming.
"To those who submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentle
ness and forbearance; but to the petulant and persistent secessionists,
why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better.
Satan and the rebellious saints of heaven were allowed a continuance of
existence in hell merely to swell their just punishment. To such as
would rebel against a government so mild and just as ours was in peace,
a punishment equal Avould not be unjust.
"We are progressing well in this quarter Though I have not
changed my opinion that we soon may assume the existence of our
national government, yet years will pass before ruffianism, murder and
robbery will cease to afflict this i-egion of our country.
"Truly your friend, W. T. Sherman, Maj. Gen. Commanding."
The assumption of power on the part of a portion of the
States to destroy the social institutions of the others, and to
change the structure of the federal government, arbitrarily, to
correspond with the usurpation, must stand confronted with
certain provisions of written corapacts between the States,
relating to their reserved rights of self-defense. In force from
tbe earliest periods of their federal relations. The concluding
paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, first in order
of the federal compacts, declares :
" That these united colonies are and of a right ought to
be free and Independent ,States; that they are absolved from
all aUeglance to the British crown, and that all connection
between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to
be totally dissolved."
The rights and privUeges of the free and Independent
States are immediately enumerated as follows :
" They have fuU power to levy war, conclude peace, con
tract alliances, establish commerce and to do all other acts
which Independent States raay of right do."

SENATOR YANCEY. 725
Did the powers here enumerated attach to the government,
only, of " these united colonies," or to the separate colonies,
become States? When the mother country recognized the
success of the Declaration, the treaty of peace was not entered
Into by her with a confederation of States, but with the sep
arate States, by name, and so each State "concluded peace,"
Virginia, Massachusetts, etc. Under the Articles of Confed
eration and Perpetual Union, the second federal organism,
each State contributed, under its own laws, its own army and
quota of taxes to the federal governraent; each State "estab
lished commerce," under its own regulations, with other States
and all the world. The war power, declared to be possessed
by the States in the Declaration, was modified twice — first
by the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union and
next by the Constitution for the United States. Article VI. of
the former compact ordained that : " No vessels of war shall
be kept up in time of peace by any State * * ; nor shall any
body of forces be kept up by any State in time of peace * * ;
but every State shall always keep up a well-regulated and
disciplined mUltIa, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall
provide and have constantly for use, in public . stores, a due
number of field pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of
arms, ammunition and camp equipage." The Avarllke powers
here secured to the separate States were modified by Article
I., Section 7, of the Constitution, Avhlch provides : " No State
shall, without the consent of Congress, keep troops or ships of
war in time of peace," etc.
By the test of hazard of endeavor, respectively, on the
part of the two warring American Confederacies, there was
no arguraent against the Southern raoveraent, for the whole
time, frora 1861, to the last months of 1864. The United
States was in direst extremity of peril in the whole of that
time, both internal and external. Soon after the battle of
Sharpsburg, in September, 1862, in which General McClellan
had commanded the forces engaged, on the part of the United
States, beyond the bounds of the territory assigned to hira
and without the sanction of the Secretary of War, "with a
halter around his neck,"* the result of which Avas the retreat
of General Lee back to Virginia, McClellan was ordered to
* McClellan's Own Story-

726 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
repair to Trenton, to the rear of army lines. The order was
Intended to banish him from the service. In course of time
he resigned. Late in the summer of 1864, long after the
nomination of Mr. Lincoln for re-elec.tlon to the Presidency,
he consented, after rauch solicitation, to become the rival
candidate for the same office, to be nominated by a conven
tion of tbe Deraocratic party of the United States. This
Deraocratic Convention met at Chicago and, on August 29,
nominated General McClellan for President and George S.
Pendleton, of Ohio, for vice-President. The second resolution
of the platforra adopted declared :
" Resolved, That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense
of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the
Union by the experiment of war, during which, under a pretense of a
military necessity of a war power higher than the Constitution, the
Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty
and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the
country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and the public
welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hos
tilities, with a view to an ultimate Convention of all the States, or
other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable
moment, peace may be restored on the basis the federal union of all
the States "
Mr. Lincoln was greatly alarmed by the awakening of the
opponents of the policies of his party and their organization
under so strong a leader as McClellan. The Republican party
was Itself divided In two contending factions. Fremont had
been ceaselessly engaged with projects for his own political
promotion, amidst the uninterrupted failure of his military
career. He accepted the nomination for the Presidency
awarded to hira by a Convention of the dissatisfied eleraent
of his party convened at Cleveland, and this event annoyed
Mr. Lincoln exceedingly. The battle of Gettysburg had been
fought the year before, but even yet the President realized
that the only hope of his re-election lay in successes, not yet
attained, of the United States arraies. In the spring and
summer of 1864, General Grant had pushed Lee from the Wil
derness toward Richmond, but Grant had narrowly escaped
destruction on more than one occasion and the battles he had
encountered had cost his army more raen than were carried
on the roll of Lee's effectives. When Sherman set out to

SENATOR YANCEY. 121
follow Johnston frora Dalton he stood as eleven to four, as
compared to the Confederates, but when he reached the
vicinity of Atlanta, before Johnston's removal by President
Davis, he stood as eleven to eight, without any power of con
trolling his array raoveraents except to continue to follow
Johnston, assured of an ever augmenting difflculty of re
tracing his steps, of keeping up comraunlcatlon with his
receding base and of preserving his army from a disastrous
general engagement. "One hundred days of war costs us
$400,000,000 ; why not pay this sum to the South for its
slaves and let this strife cease'?" exclaimed Mr. Lincoln.
Europe was yet uncertain in its relations to the United States,
however inconvenient to the Confederate States may have
been its course. Ten days before the capture of Atlanta, an
event which General Sherman did not anticipate with any
measure of assurance while Johnston confronted him, Mr.
Lincoln wrote the following memorandum, sealed it, had It
endorsed by several members of his Cabinet, with instruc
tions that the seal should remain unbroken until after the
pending Presidential contest closed :
"Executive Mansion, I
" AVashington, August 23, 1861. )
"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly proba
ble that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my
duty to co-operate with the President-elect so as to save the Union,
between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his
election on such grounds that he cannot possibly save it afterwards."
" A. Lincoln." *
The election was controUed by the military authority
amidst ceaseless persecution of the Democrats. The vote, as
counted from the polls, both in the army lines and without,
returned 1,808,725 for McClellan and 2,216,067 for Lincoln
— none for Fremont. A considerable part of the vote for
Lincoln was cast in the border slave States, but McClellan
received small support in those States, because of the sympa
thy of the Democrats there with the Confederate States.
The third and last concession of Mr. Lincoln to his party,
which has been intimated as one of three most memorable
poUtical events in the course of the revolution, had not the
*A. K. McClure's Sketches ol Lincoln, Pliiladelphia Weekly rimes, November
21, 1891.

728 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
apology of a war measure. Imraediately on the evacuation of
the Confederate capital, AprU, 1865, the President of the
United States hastened thither. At the head of a committee,
of citizens of Richmond, Judge John A. Carapbell went to
meet him on the Jaraes river. *No army of the Confederacy
had surrendered, but none of the leaders, east of the Missis
sippi, on the Confederate side, saA'e President Davis and Secre
tary Benjamin, had the least expectation of protracting the
struggle. Mr. Lincoln arrived at Richmond, animated by a
sincere desire for an immediate restoration of the Union, as it
had been. Exhilarated by the evidence of the final triumph
of the cause he had lead, he was prompt, nevertheless, in
promising that liberty should be restored to the conquered.
He received the committee cordially. In reply to their request
that Governor Pierpont, of West Virginia, should be sum
moned to assume control of civil affairs, over all Virginia, the
President replied : " No, the State of West Virginia is a tem
porary creation, raade necessary in the progress of war. I
intend to have summoned the Legislature of Virginia, now in
offlce, and if that body shall see fit to obey the Constitution of
the United States, accepting in good faith the Emancipation
Proclamation, no other government will be required In Vir
ginia. The government that took Virginia out of the Union
is the governraent to bring her back. I shall direct General
Weltzel to Issue you passes through his Unes, and, I presurae,
you AvUl need none through General Lee's, that you raay go
and summon aU the members you can and they shaU have safe
conduct to and from the capital. They must corae here, to
the very place they went out from, to get back ; and your peo
ple will all return and we shall have old Virginia back again."
Tbe President added, jocularly, that he "would pardon Jeff'
Davis himself, if he were to ask for it." A more just appre
ciation of responsibility and a more Avise conclusion never
controUed a statesman and leader. " I have my pass now,"
Avrote Judge Thomas raany years later, referring to the Presi
dent's course in summoning the Legislature. On April 12
and 13 an Address was pubUshed in the Richmond morning
papers, signed by many merabers of the Legislature, and also
prominent citizens of the State, calling upon aU members to
meet, AprU 25, and this call Avas countersigned by General

SENATOR YANCEY. 729
Weltzel, United States Array. Later In the day, April 13, .the
people of Richmond were astounded by a railitary order
rescinding the President's plan, in summoning the Legislature,
and commanding those members who had arrived to leave the
city within twelve hours, ou penalty of arrest and confine
ment. This sudden and inexplicable reversion of a Southern
policy, on the part of Mr. Lincoln, was due to the machina
tions of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. The Secretary
testified on oath, before a committee of Congress, that iinnie-
dlately on the return of the President from Richraond, he
himself sought the Chief Executive and protested, with great
earnestness, against the course he had promised the people of
Virginia to pursue, in the matter of their restoration to the
Union. He urged that the States, now subjugated, should
remain solely under the control of Congress. The Attorney-
General was called in to consider the legal aspects of the
situation. The President seeraed exceedingly anxious and dis
heartened. An hour or two after the Secretary had left him
at the Executive Mansion, he walked Into the Secretary's
offlce, about the middle of the afternoon, and renewed the
discussion of the vexed subject. Mr. Stanton again argued,
that the Legislatures then in offlce, in the Southern States,
were composed of " rebels " and should be dispersed, and that
the State authorities should be subordinated to the federal
army and that " rebels " should not be allowed to participate
in the government of the States by any plan of political reor
ganization. The President, thus importuned and defied, took
a seat at the Secretary's desk and writing a telegram, revoking
the proclamation of General Weltzel, passed it to Secretary
Stanton, with the exclamation : " There ! I think that will suit
you!" Unhesitatingly, Stanton replied: "No, It does not go
far enough." The President re-wrote, under the Secretary's
dictation, and this was the order published on the streets of
Richmond, late In the afternoon, AprU 13, which practically
abolished civil government in ten States and established the
course of revolution, to which the Republican party had
aspired at tbe outset of Its ascendency. It must remain a
profound speculation of history. In view of Mr. Lincoln's rec
ognition of the radical eleraent of his party, what raeasure of
resistance his prolonged career in the Presidency would have

730 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
brought against the advantage that element gained in the
recantation of his Southern policy. Before another sun had
risen, the assassin had closed the President's life. * Danton,
at the head of the French Departraent of Justice, publicly
thanked the raob that they had afforded him the delight of
wading through the blood of massacred thousands, flowing on
the streets of Paris. Edwin M. Stanton, by devices of inhu
manity more malicious than slaughter, committed the South
ern people to seven years endurance of a refinement of
despotism, possible of attainment only by the ralnd already
stored with knowledge of the adrainistration of high author
ity and directed by a vindictive nature. The anarchy he
sought to raake prevail was his chosen agent to destroy that
tranquility which was most earnestly desired by the people of
ten prostrate Commonwealths. To turn backward, as he did,
the promises of peace; to compel enduring waste, where
every aspiration of the afflicted millions turned to labor and
recuperation, was to afflict thera with a living death.
Every prophecy of Mr. Calhoun's Address, of 1849, not
already fulfilled, was now speedily realized in the marvellous
fullness of absolutism of governraent.
When the armies of the Confederate States surrendered^
the terras recognized the separate State governraents ; the
soldiers on parole took obligations to obey the laws of their
respective States, to deliver captured property to their re
spective State authorities, etc. This recognition of the States,
" lately in rebellion," as they were terraed by the victorious
Republic, occurred in the spring of 1865. Each State of this
class Iramedlately prepared to resume its federal relations,
with the United States, by acts of its Legislature and by
amending its Constitution to abolish slavery. In Alabama,
every prisoner awaiting trial for crime was discharged with
out trial, because of the inapplicability of the slave laws and
Constitution, under which arrests and committals had been
made, to the changes in laws and the Constitution touch
ing emancipation. Before the Thirty-ninth Congress met, in
December, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendraent of the federal
Constitution, abolishing slavery, Avhlch had been proposed
*Riclimond JT/ii.?, April 8, 1865 : J. A. Campbell's PamplUet: Paper bv Robert
stiles in Magazine of American Histor'y, September, 1887-

SENATOR YANCEY. 731
during the progress of hostilities, but not ratified because
the assent of three-fourths of the States of the alleged Union
could not be obtained, had been ratified by the Southern
States. When Congress met the votes of the Southern States,
necessary to ratify and place the Amendraent in operation,
were counted, and the legal status of those States was thus,
for the second time since the cessation of the armed confiict,
recognized. In accordance with the Proclamation of President
Andrew Johnson, and with tbe assurance of Secretary Seward
that the empty seats of the absent Senators and Repre
sentatives were ready for them, the Southern States elected
Senators and Representatives, who appeared to take the oath
of office. It was now discovered to what ends the dictation
of Secretary Stanton to President Lincoln had lead. A joint
committee was appointed to consider the reappearance of the
Southern States in Congress. The committee reported, in
effect, that the enormous expenditures of blood and treasure
to restore the Union did not justify restoration. The Southern
members elect to Congress, were refused admission. The
Southern States were divided into five mUitary districts ; over
each a Major-General was appointed, with absolute power
over life, liberty and property. Churches were closed, schools
abandoned. Governors, sheriffs, mayors of towns, deposed.
Judges of all classes of courts were driven from their seats
and Legislatures dispersed at the point of the bayonet. Local
taxation, which had been ample, was now suddenly multiplied,
whUe aUen knaves and unlettered Africans dominated organ
ized society.
Without hesitation and with due promptness, the Southern
States consented to the usurped power of President Andrew
Johnson, who had issued a proclamation calling their Legisla
tures together for the purpose of ratifying the Thirteenth
Amendment to the federal Constitution, abolishing slavery.
If the State be qualified, in its attribute of sovereignty, to
pass upon the Amendment, how comes it that the State is
reduced to the low plane of obedience to the President's
orders, was the question asked. The several States, however,
not only ratified the Amendment, but, guarding against any
future issue to be raised upon usurpation of power in the
process, each State abolished slavery by its own act.

732 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
After the Thirteenth Amendment had been accepted at the
hands of the Southern States, Congress, having refused to
admit the Senators and Representatives of ten of those States,
proposed the Fourteenth Amendment as a condition precedent
to their restoration to the Union. Tennessee ratified, July 12,
1866. No other Southern State ratified. At the next session
of Congress the Reconstruction Committee reported a bUl,
Avhich was adopted, placing tUose ten States under military
rule, already described, "untU loyal and RepubUcan State
Governments can be legally estabUshed." In order to estab
lish " loyal and Republican State Governments," preliminary
to the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, a mUltary
order issued commanding the election of a State Convention
in each of these States. Negroes were not citizens of the
United States or of any Southern Si ate. They were not raade
citizens by the Thirteenth Amendment. They had no right
to vote on the Fourteenth Amendment giving them citizen
ship, or any other proposition. The commanding General of
each Military District in the South, nevertheless, issued an
order permitting the freedmen to vote for members of the
State Convention in each State at the forthcoming election,
also ordered 'oy him. The Convention called for Alabama
raet, in November, 1867, composed largely of illiterate ne
groes, and sat a few days. A Constitution was adopted
endorsing the Fourteenth Amendment, and was subraitted to
the people for ratification. In February, 1868. The act of
Congress required that a raajority of the "registered voters"
must approve the Constitution at the polls, to give the instru
ment validity. It was ascertained, on a count of ballots, that
a raajority of the " registered voters " had not voted for it, the
bulk of the opponents of the Instruraent not having voted at
all, on the question of ratification. By resolution. Congress
declared the Instrument, framed In 1867, to be the Constitu
tion of Alabama and that the Fourteenth Amendment had
been ratified by the State. Mr. Seward, Secretary of State,
alarmed at the rapid progress of absolutism, omitted to certify,
in the usual phraseology, the ratification of the Amendment.
He announced It had been " ratifled by newly constituted and
ncAV established bodies avowing themselves to be and acting as
Legislatures." President Grant, making offlcial proclamation.

SENA'TOR YANCEY. 7,33
in 1870, of ratification of the Amendment, alleged that It had
enfranchised a race, whereas the "race" had been enfran
chised three years before, by a military order, preceding the
pretense of State ratification. In Mississippi, one McArdle,
the proprietor of a newspaper, oft'ended the military authority
by free discussion in its columns. His arrest being ordered,
he appUed for the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus to the
judge of a United States court in that State. The court
denied the AA^rit on the ground that, the act of Congress vest
ing authority iu the Major-General of the District Avas superior
to the jurisdiction of the court. The case was appealed to the
federal Supreme Court, but before the appeal could be heard
Congress came to the relief of the court below by enacting a
statute estopping the higher court frora hearing cases of that
nature. Not a raoraent's suspension of legal State govern
ment had justified the military subordination of the people.
The laws were enforced with promptness and regularity,
unbroken peace and good will prevailed araong the people.
But the corrupting infiuence of absolutisra in government
developed at this period was not linrited to the Southern
States. Many millions of dollars were stolen frora the gov
ernment revenues, offlcers of high responsibility and close to
the President were condemned and consigned to the peniten
tiary, members of Congress of the highest standing were
entangled in governraent contracts, bringing great scandal on
the institutions of the country.
The Southern States had so far redeemed themselves. In
1876, from the destructive local power of the Republican
party, as to appoint Presidential electors opposed to the can
didate of that party. The party, however, being In control of
the outgoing Executive, the Congress resolved to continue
itself in power. The outgoing President, General Grant, re
inforced the garrison at Washington and an act of Congress
was passed, approved by him, to substitute a partisan Com
mission to count and determine the electoral vote. In Ueu of
the Constitutional College. Rutherford B. Hayes was seated
in the Executive offlce, to which Sarauel J. Tilden had been
elected chiefly by the Southern vote. Of all States, South
Carolina and Louisiana were In deepest humiliation and ruin,
arising from negro and robber rule. Louisiana was alraost a

734 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
despairing Commonwealth, her people in flight, her del)t run
up from an unimportant sum to the aggregate of 1125,000,000.
The people had petitioned the federal government ; the vener
able Bishop WUnier, of the Protestant Episcopal Church of
Louisiana, visited President Grant to intercede ; the people
interceded. The desperation of the people was made known
to the Republican candidate for President, Rutherford B.
Hayes. It was agreed that if the electoral vote of the State
should be given to Hayes, the Deraocrats might seat Nich-
oUs, whom they had elected Governor, at the same time
their electors for President had been chosen. In order to
carry out the conditions of the arrangement the Deraocrats
were warned to keep tbe peace. The Democratic managers
went to the Lottery Company, at New Orleans, obtained the
money and with that purchased a sufflcient number of negroes
and adventurers from the Republican or " Packard " Legisla
ture to break the quorum of that body and compel its disso
lution. In 1890-91 the Republican federal House of Rep
resentatives passed a bill Intended to reduce the elective
franchise in the United States to military control. In the
same Congress federal taxes were enormously increased. The
single item of pension expenditure made by that Congress was
equal to three fold the entire revenues of the governraent
in 1860. Population, frora 1860 to 1890, increased, in round
nurabers, 100 per cent., but federal taxes Increased, in round
numbers, 800 per cent.
Had the generation of 1861, in the Southern States, been-
motlveless and nerveless, whence would have come the devo
tion to liberty which distinguishes the generation, of 1891, in
its struggle against absolutism in government ? If liberty be
safe in the Union restored, it can by no means be estabUshed
that that part of the people who consummated the Southern
movement, of 1861, are not necessary to its security.

Mr. Yancey returned to his farm house, near Montgomery,
in the spring, prostrated by ill health — a disease of the
bladder. In the last week of July he felt the end approaching
and sought his bed. His physical sufferings became intense.
In paroxysms of pain, his reason lost its balance; his voice

SENATOR YANCEY. 735
rose in loud commands as the battle of serried hosts passed
before his vision. Three of his sons, lately arrived from the
paroled garrison of Vicksburg, came to his side. As one of
them entered the door of the sick charaber, he called to hira,
saying : " I am dying ; all is well ; it is Goa's will." His wife
was with him ; his daughter was en route to him ; his fourth
son was on army duty ; his brother was in the field confront
ing the enemy. In whispered tones, he called, " Sarah " (his
wife), and ceased to breathe.
At the early age of forty-eight years, eleven months and
thirteen days, at 4 o'clock on the afternoon of July 27, 1863,
the leader of the Southern movement, of 1861, passed away.
The citizens of Montgomery vied with each in offlces of
personal attention to him in his last days ; the best physicians
devoted themselves to his bed side ; the road to his farm was
lined with carriages of visitors and horsemen at all hours of
the day and night, seeking knowledge of his condition.
The body was interred in the city cemetery, and the pro
cession which followed it from the Presbyterian church, in
the city, was the most imposing, it was believed, ever seen in
Alabama. An Newbern, Alabama, a Regiment of Alabama cavalry,
under comraand of Colonel Joseph Hodgson, was quartered.
The commander delivered to the men and the citizens an
eloquent oration on the dead leader. The Confederate Con
gress took appropriate action over the loss of a Senator.
The awful portent of passing events cheapened the public
estimate of any single life. Tidings of death, the loss of great
men, came daily. The beleaguered people of the South heard
in sorrow and in silence of the closing of the grave upon the
tongue which had given to their cause Its Inspiration.
The surviving family left by Mr. Yancey were, the mother
of his children; the sons Benjamin Cudworth, WUUam Earle,
Dalton Huger and Goodloe Harper, all of whom were minors,
save the first named, and all of whom were in the field of war ;
a daughter, the wife of John L. Harrell also in the Confeder
ate service.
A tomb over his grave, erected by his faraUy, bears the
following inscription,:

736 THE LIFE OF YANCEY.
"Called to public life in the most critical hour of his
country''s fortunes, he was a man whose love of truth, devotion
to right, simple integrity and reverence for manly honor -made
him a leader among men. Virtue gave him strength, courage
upheld his convictions, heroism inspired him with .fearlessness,
his sense of responsibility never consulted popularity nor did
his high p)Osition claim homage save on the ground of worth.
Justified in all his deeds, for his country''s sake he loved the
South; for the sake of the South, he loved his country."

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX. 739
PROTEST OF W. L. YANCEY, A SENATOR FROJI ALABAMA.
In open session of the Senate, on the 4th February inst., 1863, the
question before the Senate being an amendment to the bill to organize
the Supreme Court of the Confederate States of America, offered by
Hon. C. C. Clay, Jr., a Senator from Alabama, which amendment was to
repeal the forty-fifth and forty-sixth sections of the Judiciary Act of
March, 1861, the Hon. B. H. Hill, a Senator from Georgia, had the floor,
and for some time, as near as protestant can judge, about a quarter of
an hour, in his peroration, indulged in terms of sarcasm and disparage
ment of the protestant, in the opinion of protestant, using language
reflecting injuriously upon the character and motives of the protestant, a
senator from Alabama, no attempt was made either by the President, pro
tempore, then occupying the chair, or by any Senator to call the Senator
from Georgia to order. AVhen the Senator from Georgia took his seat,
protestant arose and addressed the chairman and said as follows: "Mr.
President, it cannot be expected that 1 shall permit the very remarka
ble speech of the Senator from Georgia, in reference to myself, to pass
unnoticed. It was characterized by an amount of malignity and long
cherished spleen, in a high degree offensive, though not, perhaps, per
sonally insulting, which I had no conception was entertained towards
me by the Senator from Georgia. I have already spoken in this debate,
and do not arise to reply now to that Senator. When other gentlemen,
w-lio desire to speak and who are entitled to be heard first, shall have
addressed the Senate, I shall ask the Senate to hear me in reply, and I
trust to do justice to myself and also to the Senator from Georgia.
Before I sit down, however, I wish to send forth simultaneously with
the remarks of that Senator this — that many of the statements made
by the Senator as to what he has been pleased to denominate my ' auto
biography ' are mis-statements which that Senator, at tlie time he made
them, knew to be false."
While making these remarks, I was uninterrupted by any call to
order. Upon taking my seat, the Senator from Georgia took the floor,
and said, in substance, as near as I can remember, that in what he had
said he had not been actuated by any long cherished animosity — or,
indeed, any animosity — and the remark that he had wilfully made any
mis-statements was false. The Senator then resumed his seat, not hav
ing been called to order.
Another Senator then took Ihe floor, and, after some brief discus
sion as to the right to close the debate, between Senators, and as to the
order in which the Senate would consider a finance bill and an exemp
tion bill, the Senate resolved itself into secret legislative session. Some
business was then transacted in secret session, when, in perhaps a
quarter of an hour, the Senate took up in an informal way the difficulty
between protestant and the Senator from Georgia. The manner and
matter, as it was thus taken up, was purely personal ; there being no
motion before the Senate upon the subject, by common consent a con
versation as to the matter took place, originated by a Senator from

740 APPENDIX.
South Carolina — Hon. R. W. Barnwell— with the expression of a hope
that the matter could be, and would be, amicably adjusted. The Sena
tor from South Carolina assumed that protestant had, in a previous
speech, given cause of offense to the Senator from Georgia, and asked
protestant to disclaim an intention to do so. Protestant felt that he
had^given no cause of offense — that what was deemed such was legiti
mate argument used to repel a proposition pertinent to the issue, and
that his language and manner had been decorous and not susceptible of
being justly considered as personal. Therefore protestant declined to
say anything in mitigation of his remarks on the occasion referred to
by the Senator from South Carolina. That occasion Avas in debate on
the 30th January. The Senator from South Carolina, with much ear
nest persuasion, persisted in pressing protestant to make an apology
to the Senator from Georgia, and protestant felt compelled in a decisive
manner to put a stop to a scene which, under the circumstances, doing
all honor to the generous motives of the Senator from South Carolina,
he felt was placing him in an embarrassing and false position. Protest
ant therefore replied that, after having been assailed as he had been by
the Senator from Georgia, he had no option as to his course. He should
stand upon occurrences as they had transpired. So far from feeling it
incumbent upon him to retract any part of his remarks on Friday last,
after what had occurred, he only regretted that he had not on that
occasion used language of greater severity. As protestant was about
to resume his seat, the Senator from Georgia sitting in his chair, in
violation of the third Rule of the Senate, addressed protestant in a
defiant tone in these words: "You had better, then, do so now."
Protestant replied to the Senator from Georgia: "I have said all in
that way that is consistent with my character as a gentleman to say,"
and was in the act of resuming my seat — stooping down, with my
hands upon the arms of the chair, my knees bent, and my eyes upon
my desk, when I was shocked by a blow of great severity upon my
cheek bone, just below the outer corner of my right eye and the temple,
which immediately fiooded my collar, neck and bosom with blood. As
I rose to look at the Senator from Georgia, frora whom I felt conscious
the unexpected blow had come, I saw him in the act of throwing again,
and immediately a heavy tumbler flew close by me, breaking itself into
powdered atoms on the lower part of the window sash, close by my
seat. Protestant at once made an effort to reach the Senator from
Georgia (who stood about twelve feet distant, with several desks be
tween us) proclaiming aloud, "It was a coward's blow " Several Sena
tors promptly intervened, and seized protestant, while the President
was demanding that the parties should be seized by the Sergeant-at-
Arms. The scene was thus terminated. The weapon thrown at
protestant and which inflicted the wound upon the cheek, Avas a heavy
glass inkstand with a metallic top. It was broken into fragments and
fell at Protestant's feet. After these occurrences, the Senate took
Senatorial jurisdiction of the matter — and not before. A committee
was appointed, who reported resolutions of censure, which were

APPENDIX. 741
adopted without amendment on the 4th inst. Protestant begs leave to
have them and the proceedings thereon considered as a part of this his
protest against the action of the Senate as far as it affected him. The
amendment offered' by the Senator from Arkansas, Hon. R. W. Johnson,
was lost on a diA-ision by a vote of 8 yeas to 9 nays. The next amend
ment in order, offered by the Senator from Mississippi, was lost by a
like vote — neither of the Senators, parties to the difficulty, voting.
The protestant offers the above enumeration of facts as his protest
against the resolutions of the Senate above referred to, for the follow
ing reasons :
I. The tenth Rule of the Senate inhibits the use of language by any
Senator reflecting injuriously upon another Senator, and the sixth aud
eighth Rules provide for the enforcement of the Rule.
The President and every Senator present acquiesced in the attack
made upon protestant by the Senator from Georgia, in his speech iu
open session of the Senate,' thus impliedly leaving to protestant his own
redress. II. The same Rules apply, and the same conduct was observed by
the Senate, with reference to the reply made by protestant in open
session. III. The same Rules apply, and the like conduct was observed by
the Senate, with reference to the rejoinder of the Senator from Georgia.
IV. The conduct of the Senate was a condonation of any violation
of its order and decorum, which took place in open session, under a
unanimous acquiescence of every Senator; and, therefore, such sup
posed breach of its order and decorum could not be made the subject
of investigation and censure by the Senate, in secret session, under new
rules or resolutions made after the occurrence.
V. By the Rules of the Senate, the President is alone constituted,
the judge, in the matter of " exceptionable words." In the matter of
occurrence in open session, the President did not call protestant to
order; nor did any Senator call him to order, nor did the President
decide him to be out of order.
VI. The Senate having prescribed rules to govern cases of "excep
tionable words spoken," that is the only mode by which such cases can
be governed, until the Rule is repealed — and no Rule can be repealed
save on one day's notice given. See Rule XLVIII.
VII. The conduct of the protestant, in secret session, even if it
would have been a breach of order and decorum of the Senate when the
Senate was sitting as a, Senate, was not in the Senate, though in the
Senate chamber, in presence of Senators. The Senate had no question
before it as a body, but by common consent were in an informal recess,
indulging in private, unofficial conversation upon matters over which
the Senate had not proposed to take jurisdiction, and over which the
Senate, protestant respectfully submits, could entertain no jurisdiction,
viz: the question of an apology of one gentleman to another. There
fore, protestant could not be made liable to official censure for words
spoken in such unofficial conversation.

742 APPENDIX.
VIII. But, even if the conduct of the protestant be considered as
in secret session of the Senate, yet as all his offense consisted, if offense
was committed, in "exceptionable Avords spoken," the same Rules and
principles cited as applicable to his conduct in open session, forbid that
the question of a breach of order and decorum shall be decided in any
other way than in that pointed out in those Rules, and that any other
censure be passed than that provided in those Rules.
IX. The words of respondent, in secret session, in response to the
Senator from South Carolina, were not in violation of any Rule of the
Senate. They cast no reflection upon the Senator from Georgia. The
remarks made in reference to him in protestant' s speech on 30th Jan
uary are not pretended to be of the character described in Rule X.
Therefore, a regret expressed that they had not been more severe, was
not in violation of Rule X.
X. The words, in secret session, elicited by an uncalled-for remark
and a defiance from the Senator from Georgia — "I have said all in that
regard which is consistent with my character as a gentleman" — surely
cannot, under such circumstances, be considered as "exceptionable
words spoken in debate." They were as mild as language could make
to enable protestant to state to the Senator from Georgia that pro
testant was determined not to be drawn into a wordy Avar of crimina
tion and recrimination, and by no just construction can they be held to
be any other than an expression reminding the Senator that there had
been enough of personality in words, and I should not follow his defi
ance and repeat or enlarge upon what had been said.
XI. For these reasons, and in as much as the Senate has, by a
minority of its members — nine out of its whole number — placed upon
its record its judgment that protestant was a party to " a disgraceful
scene in the Senate," and has placed protestant upon a footing of
equality of guilt with the Senator from Georgia —
Protestant asks that his protest may be spread upon the records of
the Senate. The acquiescence of tlie Senate in all that was said by
protestant, its failure to enforce any rule against him, known to it&
Rules of Order, together with a consciousness that in all that was said
and done in secret session by protestant he maintained in the simplest
language and most reserved bearing his character as a gentleman, — is a
shield through which an unjust censure, even of the Senate of the
Confederate States, cannot pierce. But that his conduct may be known,
he deems it due to his own honor that he should make and submit to
the Senate this his protest and ask that it be spread upon the records of
the Senate. W. L. YA.TSCEY,
A Senator from the State of Alabama.
The following is the fuU endorsement on the back of this
paper, both the paper and the endorsement in the handwriting
of its author. Senator Yancey :

APPENDIX. ' 743
" Protest of W. L. Yancey against report of Com of Senate.
The vote reconsidered and protest read and withdrawn."

C. C. CLAY, Je., TO W. L. YANCEY.
Richmond, Va., May 2, 1863.
De-AJI Yaxcey: Yours on eve of departure and yours since reach
ing home both came duly to hand. Judge Chilton will have told you
of the state of the case as to your postoffice. I had two or more
interviews with Reagan before the nomination was sent in, and did not
anticipate any difficulty. Indeed I did not know that Burton's name
had been presented for the office until it was sent to the Senate. I had
it held up until you were telegraphed and had answered, and until I
had two interviews with the President, and had vainly endeavored to
persuade him to recall the nomination and send in Glackmayer. He
said, as objection was made to  ¦ and to G. (one man saying he was
a foreigner and should not be preferred to B., a native), and none to B.,
and as you recommended G. and Fitzpatrick recommended  , he
supposed Burton was the partisan of neither and objectionable to no
one, if not acceptable to all. He did not recognize the duty to respect
the wishes of the Senators and Representatives, even where the office
was in the town of a Senator and a Representative. I told him I would
not vote for B. He said: " Very well. If you think it right to reject a
good man because you and your colleague preferred another, do so." I
said: "I think the Senate will reject him." Whereupon he became
excited and vehement — said the Senate could not dragoon him into
nominating their choice, etc., etc. I left him in a bad humor with you,
Chilton and myself. I had the nomination continued till next session.
I could have had it rejected, but it might have lead to the nomination
of  or of some one more unacceptable than Burton. It might, too,
have caused the offlce to be vacated, and left you without postal facili
ties till December next. I doubt whether Burton can be put into the
office constitutionally; bat determined to take the hazard rather than
let the President override your and Chilton's wishes, without let or
hindrance. I have not said a word for Dalton, because I am satisfied that Davis
is not disposed to oblige you or me, at this time. I am sorry you have
written to ask a favor of him, if you have done so.
He is a strange compound which I cannot analyze, although I
thought I knew him well before he was President. He will not ask
or receive counsel, and, indeed, seems predisposed to go exactly the
way his friends advise him not to go. I have tried harder than I ever
did with any other man to be his friend, and to prevent his alienating
me or other friends, I have kept my temper and good will towards him
longer than I could do with any other than an old and cherished friend.

744 APPENDIX.
If he survives this war and does not alter his course, he will find him
self in a small minority party.
Some of his nominations were rejected by the Senate, but they
were mainly of no importance. He will feel some of them, however.
One was that of Dr. Cartwright, of N. O., for Adjutant and Inspector-
General of Hospitals, on Pemberton' s staff, with the rank of Colonel.
There is no such office known to our law, and hence that rejection. He
nominated no other person for such an office; but C. is a dear friend
and his choice of all doctors; is regarded by him as a prodigy of wisdom
and genius. Hence he was willing to lift him above all others, notwith
standing he is as deaf as a horse-block and near seventy years old, and,
therefore, physically unfit for such a position.
The Senate did not act on the mission to Russia; which, therefore,
constitutionally, is defeated, for it was not even continued till next
session. But during war the laws are silent, and I suppose Lamar will
be kept there, enjoying a sinecure, until rejected, or until the Senate
advises his recall and refuses to vote him another year's pay. My bill
to enroll aliens was postponed in secret session, from fear of offending
foreign nations. Orr, Barnwell, Semmes and others opposed it with
great vehemence. I was only aided by Clark. I think we prevailed in
the argument, but fear carried the votes against it. The same unmanly
passion caused postponement of the bill to repeal the naturalization
laws. There was nothing else of general interest in secret session. I
Avill try to send you the bills you desire, if printed.
I stayed here to bring up my correspondence, attend to some busi
ness in the Department, and take notice of any friends who might be
wounded in the impending battle at Fredericksburg. Although it
began on Saturday and closed on Monday, I am not able to learn the
fate of my friends. It is uncertain wheu I will get off, as I will stay,
if necessary, to take care of my friends. It has been like most all our
battles, a fruitless victory. Hooker still holds on to this side of the
river, and is fortifying, so that he cannot be driven out without great
loss. Lee will probably fall back to the junction at Hanover and have
to fight there ere the end of the month. How little we owe to our
Generals, and how much to our soldiers! I expect to go home; to
Macon, Ga., and thence to Huntsville. I will write you when I get to a
stand. With respectful salutations for Mrs. Y., I am, .
Truly your friend, C. C. Clay, Jb.
I have just learned that my cousin, Thomas Adams, is here, with
four wounds, received on Monday.

SENATOR YANCEY TO PRESIDENT DAVIS.
MoNTGo-MEBY, Ala., 6 May, 1863.
Sir: Entirely unaware that you entertained any personal enmity
towards me, a short time since 1 requested you as the President to con
fer a commission upon my son, Dalton H. Yancey.

APPENDIX. 745
Though holding that you are but the trustee .for the people in dis
pensing the offices of the Government, and, therefore , that one, even
your euemy, may, consistently with his self-respect, lay before you an
application for one of the places at your disposal, I am also aware that
places are often conferred as rewards to friends and refused as punish
ment inflicted upon enemies.
Most assuredly I should never have placed myself in the position
of asking a place for my son, if I had entertained the least idea that a
conscientious difference of opinion with the President upon some
points of his administration had caused him to indulge towards me
personal dislike.
I have not heard from you relative to that application, and I there
fore sieze the earliest moment after receiving information as to your
personal feelings, to Avithdraw the application made to you in behalf of
Dalton H. Yancey, a cadet in the University of Alabama.
I am, etc., etc., W. L. Yancey.
Hon. Jefferson Davis, President of the C. S. A.

PRESIDENT DAVIS TO SENATOR YANCEY.
Richmond, Va., June '20, 1863.
Sir: On the 6th of last month you wrote me that you were
informed I " entertained personal enmity" towards you, aud that you
"siezed the earliest moment after receiving the information" as to my
"personal feelings" to withdraw the application previously made in
favor of your son.
Surprised that you should have been so informed, I replied on the
26th that "not having made any declaration to that effect," I thought
I had a right to inquire of you how you acquired that information. 1
went further and said "Iwas sure you had no right to feel personal
hostility to me and hoped you might not."
I have now received your letter of 11th inst., in which you not only
omit entirely any answer to my enquiry, but make the very grave
charge that in my official action I have been "influenced by feelings of
personal hostility " to yourself, and not satisfied with reporting that
this charge is based on information received by you, you add that you
' believe" it.
Repelling this charge as utterly untrue, I again claim the right of
inquiring on what information it is based. Notwithstanding your
avowal that you have now "allowed a natural resentment to gain an
ascendency in your breast," I can but expect that you will deem it due
to yourself, if not to me, to answer the inquiries of my former and the
present letter.
I would be glad to be able here to pause in my answer, but there
are various statements in your letter which, if unanswered, might be
supposed to be admitted, and to which I feel compelled to give a
decided dissent.

746 APPENDIX.
I am not aware. of the existence of any such usage in relation to
the appointment of post masters as you allege to have prevailed. In
my whole official life, both as an executive officer and as a Senator, no
such usage was to my knowledge recognized or acted on. I will add
that if such a usage had actually existed in Washington, I should not
for a moment have doubted as to the propriety of discontinuing it here,
nor will I consent to be influenced in the exercise of the appointing^
power which I hold as a trust for the public good, by personal favor or
personal resentment. I must add that the Senate is no part of the
nominating power, and that according, as I do, the highest respect to
the opinions of Senators when they recommend applicants, I decline to
yield to any dictation from tlierp on the subject of nominations.
Your statement that the Post Master appointed for Montgomery
was "recommended by an insignificant number of persons in Mont
gomery and hardly identifled with the place," is so far from accurate as
to satisfy me you have been misinformed in this as in almost every
other particular connected with the nomination. I am gratified to per
ceive, however, that you do not disparage the appointee as being other
wise than an upright, competent and meritorious officer, nor do you
state him to be at all unfriendly to yourself, and I would readily have
stated to you, as I did to others, my reason for selecting him, if in like
manner you had made the enquiry: although I must deny the right ot
any one to demand my motives for the nominations which I think
proper to make, and which are subject to no other control than the
approval or disapproval of the Senate.
Your statement, in relation to the letter about the appointment of
Brigadier-Generals from Alabama, is entirely incorrect. If you will
refer to my endorsement on it, you will find that it was not considered
as a recommendation for the appointment of officers, but as the as
sumption of a right to question my motives in making nominations and
to dictate the rules which should govern my action. Viewed in this
light, I declined to retain it.
I am gratified to learn frora you that any opposition you may have
manifested to the administration of the government was uninfluenced
by personal considerations, and accept your assurances on the subject
none the less readily because you express the belief on secret infor
mation that my own action as Chief Magistrate is based on opposite
grounds. I likewise appreciate to the fullest extent your expressed
purpose to preserve independence even at the expense of personal
regard, while I regret that you should suppose the preservation of both
to be impossible.
I conclude in the hope that you will recognize the obligation to
state the authority on which your allegations have been made, instead
of replying to my inquiries on the subject by statements justifying
yourself for receiving these allegations as true. It is surely not at the
preset time that unfriendly relations should be allowed to spring up
between those to whom the people have committed their interests in
this great struggle. For myself, all of hostile feeling that I possess is

APPENDIX. 747
reserved for the enemies of my country, not for those who, like your
self, are devoted to our commim cause. You promise a candid judg
ment and generous support to my administration so far as demanded
by the interests of our country, Avhatever may be our personal rela
tions. I accept your promise with pleasure as worthy of a patriot, and
even were these relations of the most cordial character, could desire
nothing more than the redemption of this pledge.
Very respectfully, etc, etc., Jeff'n Davis.
To \V. L. Yancey, C. S. Senator, etc., Montgomery, Ala.

PRESIDENT DAVIS TO SENATOR CLAY.
Hon. C. C. Clay: June 20, 1863.
My Dear Sir: On the 21st of April last I returned to Mr. Yancey,
with an endorsement showing my construction of it, a letter signed by
him and yourself.
In a recent letter he refers to it as a recommendation which was
entitled to a place on official files. Do you chance to have the letter?
And if so, will you allow me to see it ?
Your friend,
[Signed] Jeff'n Daa^is.

SENATOR YANCEY TO PRESIDENT DAVIS.
Montgomera', Alabama, 11 July, 1863.
Sib : Your letter of the 20th ult. in reply to mine of May 6 was
received by due course of mail. I have considered its contents, and it
seems to me to call for a reply. You state that you have not "made
any declarations to the effect" that you were inimical to me, but you
do not deny the correctness of the information I had received that you
were inimical. In such matters, actions are more significant than
words. Since the interview I had with you, shortly after my return from
Europe, in reference to your economic policy in the purchase of arms
and munitions of war generally abroad, I have noticed a change of
your manner to me, which repelled advances on my part, and I have
particularly noticed your selections for nominations for office from
among the most inveterate personal foes I had in Alabama.
Whatever doubts I may have entertained as to your feelings towards
me, and I did entertain them, unwilling to believe that mere political
differences of opinion would disturb our former good relations, were
dispelled by your action in nominating Mr. Burton for Post Master at
Montgomery. A most unexceptionable gentleman, representing the
wishes of a large majority of the people of the town, was recommended

748 APPENDIX.
to you for that place both by Mr. Clay and myself, and received the
endorsement of Mr. Chilton. Montgomery is the postal town of Mr.
Chilton and myself. I have understood that it has been a usage and a
courtesy yielded to a Senator, as a part of the appointing power, to
nominate as po.st master in his postal town one agreeable to him. Yet
you overrode all these considerations, and appointed one unknown to
you personally, I believe, recommended by an insignificant number of
persons in Montgomery, and hardly identified with the place. I have
understood and' believe that you were influenced in the rejection of Mr.
Glackmeyer, whom 1 recommended, by feelings of personal hostility to
myself. Though a representative of the people and State, I have never
been consulted by you as to a single appointment made by you, in
Alabama. About a year ago, Mr. Clay and I joined in a letter calling
your attention to the fact that but few Brigadier-Generals had been
appointed by you from Alabama, compared with the number appointed
from other States, and that several Brigades of Alabama Regiments
were commanded by Brigadiers from other States. We presented you
with a list of names of Alabama Colonels and recommended them to
you for their fitness, in our opinion, for promotion. That letter of
recommendation, which, in my opinion, should have been filed, was
returned to us with your endorsement, to the effect that by the Consti
tution it was your province to nominate, and that of the Senate to
confirm or reject. The return to us of that paper and the endorsement,
I considered then, and do now, an act of grave discourtesy. Under
these circumstances, I consider that you are mistaken in the averment
made in your letter of the 26th ult. that "I had no right to feel per
sonal hostility to you." On the contrary, I think that the circumstances
evince a settled hostility on your part to me, and justify a return of
such feelings on my part. But I had not allowed a natural resentment
to gain ascendency in my breast till I learned of your action in the
appointment of a post master at this place and the reasons which
influenced you. There seems to be an excuse offered in your letter for
your inimical com se towards me, in the following sentence : " It is true
that for some time past an impression has been made upon me that you
were in opposition to my administration, and that it was not of that
measured kind which results from an occasional difference of opinion,
but does not disturb good wishes and desire to give support." Such an
impression must have been derived from communications made to you
by others, not friendly to me. It could not have been derived from my
conduct on public measures. A record of that conduct is upon file iu
the Capitol. I fearlessly and calmly appeal to it against the insinuation
that I have been influenced in the least degree by personal considera
tions. I have rarely differed with you on questions coming before the
Senate when I did not find myself sustained by some of your truest
friends in their opinions and votes. When I have been compelled to
differ with you it has been done from a high sense of duty to the
country.

APPENDIX. 749
Upon administrative measures of a legislative character I have
generally agreed with you. The chief questions ujion which I have
differed with you, have been questions of a purely executive character.
Your noble personal friend, Mr. Clay, a gentleman who would not
flatter Cfesar for his crown, can assure you that we have conversed
together freely on these subjects of differences, and that they were
invariably subjects of regret that we were compelled to take different
views of them from those held by you. I had hoped that our personally
kind relations might be maintained and made to harmonize with my
independence as a public man. But, if the two are inconsistent with
your views, I shall adhere to my independence, and regret the loss of
personal regards. I regret that you did not accede to my request to
return to me application for a military appointment for my son, Dalton
H. Yancey. I am inclined to consider your course in the matter as
conciliatory. My self-respect, however, calls for a return of the appli
cation, and I renew the request. I beg you to be assured that, no
matter what- may be our personal relations, your administration will
receiA'e from me a candid judgment and generous support so far as it is
demanded by the interests of the country; while the lively recollections
of former personal friendship and good deeds will always temper any
opposition which I may feel called upon to make to any of your
measures or acts. I am, sir, yrs., &c., &c.,
W. L. Yancey.
Hon. Jeff. Davis, &c., &c.

C. C. CLAY, Jr., TO W. L. YANCEY.
Macon, Ga., June 30, 1863.
My Dear Yancey: On 6th inst. I received at this place a telegram
from my brother, at Richmond, asking my wife to come to his, who
was dangerously ill. We left the next day, and reached there the 10th.
Remained till the 24th, when we left my sister convalescent and on her
feet, and returned here on 27th inst. During my stay there I received
a note, of which I enclose a copy. I replied, in person, that I presumed
you had the letter alluded to, but trust it was returned a year sooner
than-the note suggested, and to me, and was by me delivered to you.
He then said he wished to show me a late correspondence with you,
growing out of a remarkable letter you had written him. After having
yours and his letters placed before me, I said that the only thing that
surprised me was his denial of personal enmity to you; that I had not
regarded him as your friend for more than twelve months past, and, in
support of my opinion, recalled several expressions of his that one
would not use toward another unless he disliked him; that I had re
frained from repeating these expressions to you, or to any one else, as
my desire was to promote peace and prevent discord among all men,
and especially my friends; but, that when you informed me you had
asked the appointment of Dalton and requested my recommendation of

750 APPENDIX.
him, I felt it due to you to say, in reply, that I would not ask anything
for him of the President and regretted you had done so, because I did
not think his personal relations to you justified asking any favor at his
hands; and that I thought it probable that you referred to me as the
person who informed you that he was inimical to you. I added,
further, that 1 kept no copy of my letter to you and did not remember
the form of expression I used, but it was, probably, as above stated
and such as justified your language. He did not show any surprise or
make any reply, but commenced complaining of being misunderstood
and maltreated — that he felt that there was a majority of the Senate
opposed to him, etc., etc. Mr. Benjamin came in and broke off our
conversation and I did not call on him or see him afterwards.
In the course of our talk, I told him that I would authorize you, as
I now do, to send him a copy of so much of my letter as warranted the
expressions in yours of which he complained, if I had given you the
information of his enmity and you wished to comply with his demand
for your author.
Now, in reflecting on the letters and my interview, I am surprised
at my conduct, as well as the President's. I did not repeat the offensive
expressions that it was untrue that he icas personally inimical to you, as
I might and perhaps should have done, because his note (which lead to
the interview), his conversation since we met in Richmond, the last
time, his and his wife's kindness to my brother and his wife during her
recent illness, his official position, our past relations and the state of
the country, all forbade my having any personal difficulty with him.
Besides, I could not credit that he meant the remarks for me, without
imputing to him ineffable meanness, duplicity and treachery. Hence
my calmness and moderation in simply maintaining that I did not think
him your friend, had probably told you so, etc.
I confess, however, surprise, not unmingled with indignation, at
his positive and harsh denial of enmity to you — as I am sure all who
have heard him speak freely of you, during the last twelve months,
must feel. But it is perhaps possible for a man to abuse with offensive
and opprobious epithets and- innuendoes those whom he really likes as
true friends; and this possibility may excuse his conduct. It is not my
way of treating those for whom I profess friendship.
I have thought it due to myself, as well as to you, to tell you of the
foregoing facts; and I think it proper to add that I think your entire
correspondence puts you on the vantage ground, and evinces a frank
ness, manliness, patriotism and magnanimity which will do you honor.
You did me only justice, as he knew, in saying that I would bear you
out in your assertion that you had opposed the Administration with
reluctance and regret, and had often expressed it to me. He has often
been assured by me that he wronged you and misconstrued your oppo
sition in terming it factious; that you were governed by principle ill all
your public conduct. I think it must have been a consciousness of the
wrong he had done you that prompted his showing me the correspond
ence between you, in the hope that I would say something to justify

APPENDIX. 751
him to himself. His official course grows daily more inscrutable, and
the more I see of him the less I understand him.
Some of my friends think he will show his friendship to me by trying
to have me defeated next fall, if I run for the Senate. It would argue
more friendship for me than he has expressed to me of you.
AVill you do me the favor to send me a copy of so much of my letter
as refers to the President's relations to you, as I am curious to see how
I wrote. I will stand by what I said at all hazards.
I shall be here a week or ten days and then go hence to Huntsville,
unless Bragg falls back frora his present position.
I learned nothing new or strange in Richmond. If Lee has any
definite course of action laid down I do not know it, and I doubt if he
has any. I question whether anything has been resolved upon, or any
settled policy adopted, in regard to the prosecution of the war.
I raet Vallandingham between Weldon and Petersburg and had a
brief conversation with him. He is at heart for peace, even at the
expense of disunion and the independence of the Confederacy, but
thinks we will protract the war by invading the North, or retaliating
their outiages or punishing the leaders of negro Regiments; and that
we must suffer the North to hold on to Maryland, Kentucky and Mis
souri during the truce he proposes. I think his hope and aim is to get
 sloughed off and restore the Union without her. Pie was very
sanguine of his nomination and election as Governor of Ohio, and that
he would be inaugurated, if need be, by arms. He spoke all the time
as if our old party relations still existed and we were working together
in the same canvass for office! I was amazed and amused at his seem
ing obliviousness (real or affected) of the fact that we were citizens of
different countries, and not only aliens but enemies. He has grown
gray very fast since we parted in Washington, although he seemed in
excellent health. He thinks a political revolution in the North is the
only way to peace, and that "we" Democrats will effect that revolution.
I do not see anything to prevent Lee's overrunning Pennsylvania and
New York if he tries. He has about one hundred thousand men in his
army, such, in my opinion, as the world never before produced, who
can and will defeat any force brought to meet them, while Hooker's
army scarcely exceeds flfty thousand, and those oft defeated, disap
pointed and demoralized. * * I do not know what influence Val
laudingham's advice may have on the President, but I do know that it
has been communicated orally to him by Colonel Ould, who met V. at
Petersburg and accompanied him to Wilmington. Of course I do not
concur in the bear all and forbear ever policy V. advises, and indeed our
government has been preaching.
I shall be glad to hear from you here at your earliest convenience.
I am truly your friend,
C. C. Clay, Jr.
Hon. William L. Yancey, Montgomery, Alabama.

752 APPENDIX.

C. C. CLAY, Jr., TO W. L. YANCEY.
Suspension, Macon Co., Ala., July 25, 1863.
Ma Dear Yancey: Yours of 13th inst. was forwarded from
Macon, Ga., to this place, where I am sojourning with Mr. Charles
Stewart. Although Suspension is ominous for a "rebel," I am as com
fortable and as cheerful as the times will allow. I am ou Chunuunnug-
gee, at a delightful country home, with all that wealth and hospitality
can bring to cheer an exile from home.
I write now mainly to tender you my sympathy and advice, having
suffered much and long with inflammation of the bladder, many years
ago. Go to some sulphur springs immediately. Mr. Stewart says the
Indian Springs, in Georgia, are very soothing and efficacious, as he
knows by experience.
In reply to your question, "whether Davis appeared desirous of
holding on to my [your] regard or no?"- — I answer, yes! I was sur
prised to find him unwilling to admit that he was unfriendly to you and
much more to have you believe him unfriendly, and I can see no motive
now, and saw none then, for his letters to you or his conversation with
me, but to prevent making you an enemy. I think he begins to find
himself in A^'ant of friends or adherents — and I do not know, really,
which he wishes. I shall probably be here two or three weeks, and
may gb to Montgomery, although I am reluctant to go there while the
Legislature is sitting, as I do not intend to ask or seek a re-election to
the Senate, but will let the Legislature alone to choose whomsoever it
deems best in these pei-ilous times. I am, truly your friend, C. C. Clay, Jr.

Note. — The authorities followed in the text on page 30 erred, inas
much as Messrs. Ross and Read did not marry sisters, but relatives of
Colonel William Bird ; and on page 76, inasmuch as Judge W. E. Bird
was a cousin and not an uncle of W. L. Yancey.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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