The Great Conspiracy, Part 1. - John Alexander Logan
On the 11th of June, pursuant to adjournment, the Democratic Bolters'
Convention met at Richmond, and, after adjourning to meet at Baltimore,
finally met there on the 28th of that month--twenty-one States being, in
whole or in part, represented. This Convention unanimously readopted
the Southern-wing platform it had previously adopted at Charleston, and,
upon the first ballot, chose, without dissent, John C. Breckinridge of
Kentucky, as its candidate for the Presidential office.
In the meantime, however, the National Conventions of other Parties had
been held, viz.: that of the Republican Party at Chicago, which, with a
session of three days, May 16-18, had nominated Abraham Lincoln of
Illinois and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, for President and Vice-President
respectively; and that of the "Constitutional Union" (or Native
American) Party which had severally nominated (May 19) for such
positions, John Bell of Tennessee, and Edward Everett of Massachusetts.
The material portion of the Republican National platform, adopted with
entire unanimity by their Convention, was, so far as the Slavery and
Disunion questions were concerned, comprised in these declarations:
First, That the history of the nation, during the last four years, has
fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization and
perpetuation of the Republican Party; and that the causes which called
it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now, more than ever
before, demand its peaceful and Constitutional triumph.
Second, That the maintenance of the principle, promulgated in the
Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Constitution,
"that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed," is essential to the preservation of our Republican
institutions; and that the Federal Constitution, the Rights of the
States, and the Union of the States must and shall be preserved.
Third, That to the Union of the States, this Nation owes its
unprecedented increase in population, its surprising development of
material resources, its rapid augmentation of wealth, its happiness at
home, and its honor abroad; and we hold in abhorrence all schemes for
Disunion, come from whatever source they may: And we congratulate the
Country that no Republican member of Congress has uttered or
countenanced the threats of Disunion, so often made by Democratic
members, without rebuke, and with applause, from their political
associates; and we denounce those threats of Disunion, in case of a
popular overthrow of their ascendancy, as denying the vital principles
of a free Government, and as an avowal of contemplated Treason, which it
is the imperative duty of an indignant People, sternly to rebuke and
forever silence.
Fourth, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and
especially the right of each State, to order and control its own
domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is
essential to that balance of powers on which the perfection and
endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless
invasion, by armed force, of any State or Territory, no matter under
what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.
Fifth, That the present Democratic Administration has far exceeded our
worst apprehensions, in its measureless subserviency to the exactions of
a Sectional interest, as especially evinced in its desperate exertions
to force the infamous Lecompton Constitution upon the protesting people
of Kansas; in construing the personal relation between master and
servant to involve an unqualified property in persons; in its attempted
enforcement, everywhere, on land and sea, through the intervention of
Congress and of the Federal Courts, of the extreme pretensions of a
purely local interest; and in its general and unvarying abuse of the
power intrusted to it by a confiding People.
* * * * * * *
Seventh, That the new dogma that the Constitution, of its own force,
carries Slavery into any or all of the Territories of the United States,
is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit
provisions of that instrument itself, with contemporaneous exposition,
and with legislation and judicial precedent; is revolutionary in its
tendency and subversive of the peace and harmony of the Country.
Eighth, That the normal condition of all the territory of the United
States is that of Freedom; that as our Republican fathers, when they had
abolished Slavery in all our National Territory, ordained that "No
person should 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 Legislature, or of any individuals, to give
legal existence to Slavery in any Territory of the United States.
Ninth, That we brand the recent re-opening of the African Slave-trade
under the cover of our National flag, aided by perversions of judicial
power, as a crime against humanity and a burning shame to our Country
and Age; and we call upon Congress to take prompt and efficient measures
for the total and final suppression of that execrable traffic.
Tenth, That in the recent vetoes, by their Federal Governors, of the
acts of the Legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting Slavery in
those Territories, we find a practical illustration of the boasted
Democratic principle of Non-Intervention and Popular Sovereignty
embodied in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and a demonstration of the
deception and fraud involved therein.
Eleventh, That Kansas should, of right, be immediately admitted as a
State, under the Constitution recently formed and adopted by the House
of Representatives.
* * * * * * * * * *
The National platform of the "Constitutional Union" Party, was adopted,
unanimously, in these words:
"Whereas, experience has demonstrated that platforms adopted by the
partisan Conventions of the Country have had the effect to mislead and
deceive the People, and at the same time to widen the political
divisions of the Country, by the creation and encouragement of
geographical and Sectional parties; therefore,
"Resolved, That it is both the part of patriotism and of
duty to recognize no political principle other than the Constitution of
the Country, the Union of the States, and the Enforcement of the Laws,
and that, as representatives of the Constitutional Union men of the
Country, in National Convention assembled, we hereby pledge ourselves to
maintain, protect, and defend, separately and unitedly, these great
principles of public liberty and national safety, against all enemies,
at home and abroad; believing that thereby peace may once more be
restored to the Country, the rights of the people and of the States
re-established, and the Government again placed in that condition of
justice, fraternity, and equality which, under the example and
Constitution of our fathers, has solemnly bound every citizen of the
United States to maintain a more perfect Union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves
and our posterity."
Thus, by the last of June, 1860, the four National Parties with their
platforms and candidates were all in the political field prepared for
the onset.
Briefly, the attitude of the standard-bearers representing the
platform-principles of their several Parties, was this:
Lincoln, representing the Republicans, held that Slavery is a wrong, to
be tolerated in the States where it exists, but which must be excluded
from the Territories, which are all normally Free and must be kept Free
by Congressional legislation, if necessary; and that neither Congress,
nor the Territorial Legislature, nor any individual, has power to give
to it legal existence in such Territories.
Breckinridge, representing the Pro-Slavery wing of the Democracy, held
that Slavery is a right, which, when transplanted from the Slave-States
into the Territories, neither Congressional nor Territorial legislation
can destroy or impair, but which, on the contrary, must, when necessary,
be protected everywhere by Congress and all other departments of the
Government.
Douglas, representing the Anti-Lecompton wing of Democracy, held that
whether Slavery be right or wrong, the white inhabitants of the
Territories have the sole right to determine whether it shall or shall
not exist within their respective limits, subject to the Constitution
and Supreme Court decisions thereon; and that neither Congress nor any
State, nor any outside persons, must interfere with that right.
Bell, representing the remaining political elements, held that it was
all wrong to have any principles at all, except "the Constitution of the
Country, the Union of the States, and the Enforcement of the Laws"--a
platform which Horace Greeley well described as "meaning anything in
general, and nothing in particular."
The canvass that ensued was terribly exciting--Douglas alone, of all the
Presidential candidates, bravely taking the field, both North and South,
in person, in the hope that the magnetism of his personal presence and
powerful intellect might win what, from the start--owing to the adverse
machinations, in the Northern States, of the Administration or
Breckinridge-Democratic wing--seemed an almost hopeless fight. In the
South, the Democracy was almost a unit in opposition to Douglas,
holding, as they did, that "Douglas Free-Soilism" was "far more
dangerous to the South than the election of Lincoln; because it seeks to
create a Free-Soil Party there; while, if Lincoln triumphs, the result
cannot fail to be a South united in her own defense;" while the old Whig
element of the South was as unitedly for Bell. In the North, the
Democracy were split in twain, three-fourths of them upholding Douglas,
and the balance, powerful beyond their numbers in the possession of
Federal Offices, bitterly hostile to him, and anxious to beat him, even
at the expense of securing the election of Lincoln.
Douglas's fight was that the candidacy and platform of Bell were
meaningless, those of both Lincoln and Breckinridge, Sectional, and that
he alone bore aloft the standard of the entire Union; while, on the
other hand, the supporters of Lincoln, his chief antagonist, claimed
that--as the burden of the song from the lips of Douglas men, Bell men,
and Breckinridge men alike, was the expression of a "fear that," in the
language of Mr. Seward, "if the people elected Mr. Lincoln to the
Presidency, they would wake up and find that they had no Country for him
to preside over"--"therefore, all three of the parties opposing Mr.
Lincoln were in the same boat, and hence the only true Union party, was
the party which made no threats of Disunion, to wit, the Republican
party."
The October elections of 1860 made it plain that Mr. Lincoln would be
elected. South Carolina began to "feel good" over the almost certainty
that the pretext for Secession for which her leaders had been hoping in
vain for thirty years, was at hand. On the 25th of October, at Augusta,
South Carolina, the Governor, the Congressional delegation, and other
leading South Carolinians, met, and decided that in the event of Mr.
Lincoln's election, that State would secede. Similar meetings, to the
same end, were also held about the same time, in others of the Southern
States. On the 5th of November--the day before the Presidential
election--the Legislature of South Carolina met at the special call of
Governor Gist, and, having organized, received a Message from the
Governor, in which, after stating that he had convened that Body in
order that they might on the morrow "appoint the number of electors of
President and Vice-President to which this State is entitled," he
proceeded to suggest "that the Legislature remain in session, and take
such action as will prepare the State for any emergency that may arise."
He went on to "earnestly recommend that, in the event of Abraham
Lincoln's election to the Presidency, a Convention of the people of this
State be immediately called, to consider and determine for themselves
the mode and measure of redress," and, he continued: "I am constrained
to say that the only alternative left, in my judgment, is the Secession
of South Carolina from the Federal Union. The indications from many of
the Southern States justify the conclusion that the Secession of South
Carolina will be immediately followed, if not adopted simultaneously, by
them, and ultimately by the entire South. The long-desired cooperation
of the other States having similar institutions, for which so many of
our citizens have been waiting, seems to be near at hand; and, if we are
true to ourselves, will soon be realized. The State has, with great
unanimity declared that she has the right peaceably to Secede, and no
power on earth can rightfully prevent it."
[Referring to the Ordinance of Nullification adopted by the people
of South Carolina, November 24, 1832, growing out of the Tariff Act
of 1832--wherein it was declared that, in the event of the Federal
Government undertaking to enforce the provisions of that Act: "The
people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from
all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political
connection with the people of the other States, and will forthwith
proceed to organize a separate government, and do all other acts
and things which Sovereign and independent States may of right
do."]
He proceeded to say that "If, in the exercise of arbitrary power, and
forgetful of the lessons of history, the Government of the United States
should attempt coercion, it will become our solemn duty to meet force by
force"--and promised that the decision of the aforesaid Convention
"representing the Sovereignty of the State, and amenable to no earthly
tribunal," should be, by him, "carried out to the letter." He
recommended the thorough reorganization of the Militia; the arming of
every man in the State between the ages of eighteen and forty-five; and
the immediate enrollment of ten thousand volunteers officered by
themselves; and concluded with a confident "appeal to the Disposer of
all human events," in whose keeping the "Cause" was to be entrusted.
That same evening (November 5), being the eve of the election, at
Augusta, South Carolina, in response to a serenade, United States
Senator Chestnut made a speech of like import, in which, after
predicting the election of Mr. Lincoln, he said: "Would the South submit
to a Black Republican President, and a Black Republican Congress, which
will claim the right to construe the Constitution of the Country, and
administer the Government in their own hands, not by the law of the
instrument itself, nor by that of the fathers of the Country, nor by the
practices of those who administered seventy years ago, but by rules
drawn from their own blind consciences and crazy brains? * * * The
People now must choose whether they would be governed by enemies, or
govern themselves."
He declared that the Secession of South Carolina was an "undoubted
right," a "duty," and their "only safety" and as to himself, he would
"unfurl the Palmetto flag, fling it to the breeze, and, with the spirit
of a brave man, live and die as became" his "glorious ancestors, and
ring the clarion notes of defiance in the ears of an insolent foe!"
So also, in Columbia, South Carolina, Representative Boyce of that
State, and other prominent politicians, harangued an enthusiastic crowd
that night--Mr. Boyce declaring: "I think the only policy for us is to
arm, as soon as we receive authentic intelligence of the election of
Lincoln. It is for South Carolina, in the quickest manner, and by the
most direct means, to withdraw from the Union. Then we will not submit,
whether the other Southern States will act with us or with our enemies.
They cannot take sides with our enemies; they must take sides with us.
When an ancient philosopher wished to inaugurate a great revolution, his
motto was to dare! to dare!"