THE SECESSION MOVEMENT: The Position of the President and Cabinet Explained; NEW KANSAS TROUBLES; Preparations of the Missourians for Defence (11/23/1860)

New York Times archives - Times Machine ^ | 11/23/1860

[Homer_J_Simpson]

WASHINGTON, Thursday, Nov. 22. That a differrnce of opinion exists among the members of the President's Cabinet touching the right of a State peaceably to secede, is known by every well-informed person here; but that this difference of opinion has led to any unpleasant difficulty in Cabinet meeting, is wholly untrue. Nor are the Cabinet divided as stated in the Herald's dispatches. Gov. FLOYD is erroneously represented as defending the right of and favorable to secession, while Gen. CASS is very open in his opposi on to it; yet the latter does not believe the Union can be kept together by force. The right of President BUCHANAN to entertain and carry out his own views is not questioned by any Cabinet officer, and he is preparing these views for his Message. While he will deny the right of peaceable secession, he will show that he has no legal power to prevent it. Independent of the difficulty of there being neither Federal Judge nor Marshal in South Carolina, the acts of 1795 and 1807, the only acts in force on the subject, give him no authority for using either the Militia or the Federal forces to enforce the execution of the United States laws, after Congress has been in session thirty days. The power must come from Congress. Such is the view of Mr. BUCHANAN, after a thorough examination of the subject by himself and Attorney-General BLACK, and on this he will act, without objection on the part of his Cabinet, sensation dispatches to the contrary notwithstanding. The impression is more firmly fixed here to-day than ever, that a dissolution of the Union is inevitable. I am satisfied that the Cabinet has little hope of the reverse.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3908538/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Secession Movement: The Position of the President and Cabinet Explained – 2-3
The New Kansas Troubles: Preparations of the Missourians for Defence – 3-4
Editorial: The Outbreak in Kansas – 4-5
Editorial: The Political Pause – 5
Editorial: The Panic-makers – 5
Movements of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin – 5
From Santa Fe – 5