IMMEDIATE SECESSION RECOMMENDED. to declare that he had no fear of the interference of the President, while he complacently dwelt upon the powerlessness of his successor, who would be too much embarrassed by the difficulty of organizing his government and obtaining the sanction of Congress, to apply coercion to South Carolina, until she had been joined by the other cotton States, when, thus strengthened, she would be able to resist it. The governor of the State, in his Dec. last message, urged the prospective 7. convention to immediate action. "The delay," he said, "of the convention for a single week to pass the ordinance of secession, will have a blighting and chilling influence upon the action of the other Southern States. The opponents of the movement everywhere will be encouraged to make another effort to rally their now disorganized and scattered forces to defeat our action and stay our onward march. Fabius conquered by delay, and there are those of his school, though with a more unworthy purpose, who, shrinking from open and manly attack, use this veil to hide their deformity, and from a masked battery to discharge their missiles. But I trust they will strike the armor of truth and fall harmless at our feet, and that by the 28th of December no flag but the Palmetto will float over any part of South Carolina." Great encouragement had already come from the leaders of the other cotton States, who hoped, by the hasty action of South Carolina, to precipitate * Gist. 45 their fellow-citizens into a separation from that Union for which there might be still a traditional reverence. At an early meeting at Mobile the secession leaders of Alabama had issued a Nov. declaration of causes for separation 15. which they emphatically urged. After a long and bitter exposition of the wrongs they had suffered from the North, they declared: "The time has come for us to put our house in order,' and, if need be, to stand by our arms. "We will not give the enemy time to collect his strength and wield the powers of government against us, by waiting for any further 'overt act.' Therefore, be it "Resolved, 1. That the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency upon the principles avowed by the Black Republican party is, in our opinion, a virtual overthrow of the Constitution and of the equal right of the States. "2. That the idea of submission by the South to the rule of such a man and such a party should be repudiated from one end of her borders to the other. "3. That in the language of the Constitution of Alabama, under which she was admitted into the Union, 'All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and intended for their benefit; and, therefore, 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.' "4. That, in the present state of things, it is the deliberate opinion of this meeting, assembled without distinction of parties, that the State of Alabama should withdraw from the Federal Union without any further delay than may be necessary to obtain in the speediest manner a consultation with other slaveholding States, in the hope of securing their co-operation in a movement which we deem essential to our safety." It is true that in this document a consultation with other slaveholding States was recommended, with the hope of securing their co-operation, but at the same time it advised immediate action. A meeting was held in Louisiana, at which a similar declaration was suggested. tions called, whose purpose was unequivocally the severance of their connection with the Federal Union. The Convention of South Carolina assembled on the day appointed, but in consequence of the prevalence of Dec. an epidemic of small-pox at the 17. capital, adjourned from Columbia to Charleston, where, by a unanimous vote on the 20th of December, this, the first formal act of secession, was passed: "AN ORDINANCE TO DISSOLVE THE UNION BE- 66 We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in convention, on the 23d day of May, in the year of our Lord 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying the amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, and that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States under the name of the United States of Amer The Governor of Florida invoked the Nov. Legislature to immediate secession. 26. "For myself," he said, " in full view of the responsibility of my position, I most decidedly declare that, in my opinion, the only hope the Southern States have for domestic peace or safety, or for future respectability and prosperity, is dependent on their action now; and that the proper action is, secession from our faithless, perjured confederates." Governor Brown, too, of Georgia-a State thought to be extremely reluctant to dissolve its connection with the Union-ica is hereby dissolved." had written a letter in favor of early 9. secession. Mississippi had sent commissioners to all the slaveholding States to confer with them on the means "for their common defence and safety." Vigilance committees had been formed in the cotton States, money appropriated for equipping and arming, and conven Dec. That in Charleston and throughout South Carolina the passage of this ordinance should be received with a manifestation of popular joy was expected; that in Mobile, and New Orleans, Memphis, Macon, Norfolk, and even in Baltimore, it should be welcomed by the firing of guns, the cheers of the people, mili AUDACITY OF TREASON tary parades, the singing of the Marseillaise, the decorating of busts of Calhoun with secession cockades, the raising of the Palmetto flag, the burning of bonfires, and the illuminating of the streets, was, if a discouraging, not a surprising, exhibition on the part of an excited and luded people; that, however, a member of the Federal Congress, in the very capital of the Union, should venture to applaud this attempt to dissolve it by declaring that "one of the sovereign States of this confederacy has, by the glorious act of her people, withdrawn, in vindication of her rights, from the Union," and that some of his fellows should clap their hands in sympathetic response, was an audacity of treason as astounding as it was unexampled. 47 This was followed by the-"DECLARATION OF CAUSES WHICH INDUCED THE SECESSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA. "The people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, on the 2d day of April, A.D. 1852, dede-clared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in their withdrawal from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue. The Convention of South Carolina proceeded rapidly in its work of dissoDec. lution. Commissioners were ap21. pointed to proceed to Washington, and to treat for a peaceful settlement of the relations between the United States and the "sovereign" State of South Carolina, and negotiate for the transfer of forts and other public property. The newly elected governor, Pickens, Dec. proclaimed to the world, in accord22. ance with the act of secession, that "South Carolina is, and has a right to be, a separate, sovereign, free, and independent State, and, as such, has a right to levy war, conclude peace, negotiate treaties, leagues, or covenants, and to do all acts whatever that rightDec. fully appertain to a free and inde24. pendent State." * Mr. Garnet, member of Congress for Virginia. "And now the State of South Carolina having resumed her separate and equal place among nations, deems it due to herself, to the remaining United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she should declare the immediate causes which have led to this act. "In the year 1765, that portion of the British empire embracing Great Britain undertook to make laws for the government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776, in a declaration, by the Colonies, that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do.' "They further solemnly declared that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government.' Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends, they declare that the Colonies are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis solved.' "In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty; adopted for itself a constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of government in all its departments-legislative, executive, and judicial. For purposes of defence they united their arms and their counsels; and in 1778 they entered into a league known as the Articles of Confederation, whereby they agreed to intrust the administration of their external relations to a common agent, known as the Congress of the United States, expressly declaring, in the first article, 'that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right which is not, by this confederation, expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.' "Under this confederation the war of the Revolution was carried on; and on the 3d of September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definite treaty was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the independence of the Colonies. in the following terms: "ARTICLE 1. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz.: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to be FREE, SOVEREIGN, AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that he treats with them as such; and, for himself, his heirs, and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, property, and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof.' "Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies, namely, the right of a state to govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these principles was the fact, that each Colony became, and was recognized by the mother country, as a FREE, SOVEREIGN, AND INDEPENDENT STATE. "In 1787, deputies were appointed by the States to revise the articles of confederation; and on 17th September, 1787, these deputies recommended, for the adoption of the States, the articles of union known as the Constitution of the United States. DECLARATION OF SOUTH CAROLINA. disagree, and when nine of them agreed, the compact was to take effect among those concurring; and the General Government, as the common agent, was then to be invested with their authority. "If only nine of the thirteen States had concurred, the other four would have remained as they then were separate sovereign states, independent of any of the provisions of the Constitution. In fact, two of the States did not accede to the Constitution until long after it had gone into operation among the other eleven; and during that interval, they each exercised the functions of an independent nation. "By this constitution, certain duties were imposed upon the several States, and the exercise of certain of their powers was restrained, which necessarily impelled their continued existence as sovereign states. But, to remove all doubt, an amendment was added, which declared that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. On the 23d May, 1788, South Carolina, by a convention of her people, passed an ordinance assenting to this Constitution, and afterwards altered her own Constitution to conform herself to the obligations she had undertaken. "Thus was established, by compact between the States, a government with defined objects and powers, limited to the express words of the grant. This limitation left the whole remaining mass of power subject to the clause reserving it to the States or the people, and ren 49 dered unnecessary any specification of reserved rights. We hold that the Government thus established is subject to the two great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third fundamental principle, namely, the law of compact. We maintain that in every compact between two or more parties, the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material part of the agreement entirely releases the obligation of the other; and that where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences. "In the present case, that fact is established with certainty. We assert that fourteen of the States have deliberately refused for years past to fulfil their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own statutes for proof. "The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth article, provides as follows : "No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.' "This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made. The greater number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced |