"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 23rd day of May, in the year of our Lord 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also by all acts, and parts of acts, of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, and that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved."

And in a Declaration of Independence, drawn up at the same time, the Convention, after recapitulating the grievances which the Northern States had inflicted upon the South, by disregarding the obligations imposed by the Constitution with respect to Slavery, said :

"On the 4th of March next, this party will take possession of the Government. It has been announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory; that the judicial tribunals will be made sectional; that war must be waged against Slavery until it shall

cease

throughout the United States. The guarantees of the Constitu tion will then no longer existequal rites of the States will be lost the slave-holding States will no longer have the power of self-government or self-protection, and the Federal Government have become their enemy. Sectional interests and animosity

vain by the fact that the public opinion of the North has invested the political error with the sanction of a more erroneous religious belief.

"We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by our delegates in Convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared the Union heretofore existing between this State and the other States of North America dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the nations of the world as a free, sovereign, independent State, with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do; and, for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance for protection on Divine Providence, we mutually pledge each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour."

As it may be useful to know the various dates at which dif ferent States seceded from the Union, we subjoin the information in a note.*

The first acts of the seceding States generally were to seize the United States arsenals and forts

Arkansas
Tennessee

North Carolina

Jan. 12,

Jan. 19,

Jan. 28,

Feb. 1,

Apr. 17,

May 20, ""

all hope of remedy is rendered

was 733,645 square miles.

in their territories. Thus, Georgia took possession of Fort Pulaski and the arsenal at Augusta. In Florida the navy yard, at Pensacola, was seized; and Fort Pickens escaped capture for a time only, in consequence of the strength of its garrison. In Louisiana the same events occurred.

On the 9th of January, the President sent a message to Congress as "the only human tribunal possessing, under Providence, the power to meet the emergency." He said:

"The proposition to compromise by letting the North have exclusive control of the territory above a certain line, and to give Southern institutions protection below that line, ought to receive universal approbation. In itself, indeed, it may not be entirely satisfactory; but when the alternative is between reasonable concession on both sides and destruction of the Union, it is an imputation on the patriotism of Congress to assert that its members will hesitate for a moment. Even now the danger is upon us. In several States which have not yet seceded, the forts, arsenals, and magazines of the United States have been seized. This is by far the most serious step which has been taken since the commencement of the troubles. This public property has long been left without garrisons and troops for its protection, because no person doubted its security under the flag of the country in any State of the Union. Besides, our small army has scarcely been sufficient to guard our remote frontiers against Indian incursions. The seizure of this property, from all appearances, has

been purely aggressive, and not in resistance to any attempt to coerce a State or States to remain in the Union. At the beginning of these unhappy troubles, I determined that no act of mine should increase the excitement in either section of the country. If the political conflict were to end in civil war, it was my determined purpose not to commence it, nor to furnish an excuse for it by any act of the Government. My opinion remains unchanged, that justice as well as well as sound policy requires us still to seek a peaceful solution of the questions at issue between the North and the South.

"It is said that serious apprehensions are to some extent entertained, in which I do not share, that the peace of this district may be disturbed before the 4th of March next. In any event, it will be my duty to preserve it, and this duty shall be performed.

"In conclusion, it may be permitted to me to remark that I have often warned my countrymen of the dangers which now surround us. This may be the last time I shall refer to the subject officially. I feel that my duty has been faithfully, though it may be imperfectly, performed, and whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country."

It was on this day, the 9th of January, that the first shot was fired in anger, which announced the disruption of the Union, and the resolution of the seceding States to defend the new Confederacy by force of arms. A vessel was sent by the United States Government with troops

to reinforce Fort Sumpter, and as she was passing Morris Island, in Charleston Harbour, a battery, which had been there erected, opened its guns upon her, and, without returning the fire, she stopped her course and retired.*

Commissioners were now sent from South Carolina to Washington to deprecate, hostilities and endeavour to effect an amiable adjustment of the quarrel. Mr. President Buchanan refused to receive them in any official character, and recognized them only as "distinguished citizens of the United States from South Carolina."

The United States troops at this period at Charleston were in occupation of Forts Sumpter and Moultrie and Castle Pinckney, under the command of Major Anderson; and the Commissioners demanded, as a preliminary step to negotiation, that the garrison should be withdrawn. This the President refused to do, and declared that his intention was to collect the reserve, execute the laws, and defend the property of the United States. In the meantime, Mr. Floyd, the Secretary of War, assured the Commissioners that the status quo should be maintained by Major Anderson,

3,952, 801 3,204,313

748,488

and no hostilities attempted while the matter was under discussion. He issued orders to Major Anderson, directing him not to take up any position which could be construed into the assumption of a hostile attitude-but to hold possession of the forts in the harbour. and if attacked to defend himself to the last extremity. But that officer, deeming it most prudent to concentrate his small force in Fort Sumpter, abandoned the two other forts, and prepared to defend Fort Sumpter with all the

available means at his disposal. This was decried by the Commissioners as a breach of faith, and when Mr. Buchanan refused to disavow the proceedings of Major Anderson, his own Secretary of War, Mr. Floyd, turned against him, and sent in his resignation, declaring in his letter that "the solemn pledges of the Government had been violated by Major Anderson," and that it was in vain now to hope for confidence on the part of the people of South Carolina, unless the troops were withdrawn from Fort Sumpter. With respect to the charge of breach of faith, the President altogether denied it, saying that he had indeed pledged himself not to reinforce the Carolina Forts, but had never promised not to resist attack, and had ordered Major Anderson to resist to the last extremity. As to withdrawing the troops, such a thought had never entered his mind, and he would not consent to it. The result was that the Commissioners left Washington at the begining of February, after sending a telegraphic message to Charleston, calling upon the authorities to

order the United States frigate Brooklyn to be fired upon if she entered the harbour to collect the revenue. In the House of

Representatives, a resolution was passed approving of Major Anderson's act in evacuating Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney.

The representatives of the seceding States met at Montgomery on the 4th of February, and selected Mr. Howard Cobb, of Georgia, President of the Confederate Congress. In the course of the address Mr. Cobb said, "The occasion which assembled us together was one of no ordinary character. We meet as the representatives of sovereign and independent States, who, by a solemn judgment, have dissolved all the political associations which connected them with the Government of the United States. It is now a fixed, irrevocable fact. The separation' is perfect, complete, and perpetual. The great duty now imposed is to provide a Government for our future security and protection. We can and should extend to our sister States and our late sister States, who are identified in interest and feeling and institutions, a cordial invitation to unite in a common destiny, and should be desirous at the same time of maintaining with our confederates friendly relations, political and commercial.”

On the 18th of February, Mr. Jefferson Davis was inaugurated at Montgomery as President of the Confederate States. He delivered an address, in which he said, "Our present condition, achieved in a manner unprecedented in the history of nations,

illustrates the American idea that Governments rest upon the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter and abolish Governments whenever they become destructive to the ends for which they were established. The declared compact of the Union from which we have withdrawn, was to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity; and when, in the judgment of the sovereign States now composing this Confederacy, it has been perverted from the purposes for which it was ordained, and ceased to answer the ends for which it was established, a peaceful appeal to the ballot-box declared that, so far as they were concerned, the Government created by that compact should cease to exist. this they merely asserted the right the Declaration of Independence of 1776 defined to be inalienable. Of the time and occasion of its exercise, they as sovereigns were the final judges, each for itself. The impartial, enlightened verdict of mankind will vindicate the rectitude of our conduct, and He who knows the hearts of men will judge of the sincerity with which we laboured to preserve the Government of our fathers in its spirit. The right solemnly proclaimed at the birth of the States, and which has been affirmed and re-affirmed in the Bills of Rights of the States subsequently admitted into the Union of 1789, undeniably recognizes in the people the power to resume the authority delegated for the purposes of VOL. CIII.

In

government. Thus, the sovereign States here represented proceeded to form this Confederacy, and it is by the abuse of language that their act has been denominated revolution. They formed a new alliance, but within each State its government has remained; the rights of person and property have not been disturbed. The agent through whom they communicated with foreign nations is changed, but this does not necessarily interrupt their international relations. There

can be but little rivalry between ours and any manufacturing or navigation community, such as the North-eastern States of the American Union. It must follow, therefore, that mutual interest would invite good-will and kind offices. If, however, passion or lust of dominion should cloud the judgment or inflame the ambition of those States, we must prepare to meet the emergency, and maintain, by the final arbitrament of the sword, the position which we have assumed among the nations of the earth. We have entered upon a career of independence, which must be inflexibly pursued through many years of controversy with our late associates of the Northern States. We have vainly endeavoured to tranquillity and obtain respect for the rights to which we were entitled. As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation, and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own affairs and the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we have formed. If a just perception of mutual interest shall permit [Q]

secure