Posted on 12/15/2020 6:41:20 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
I was surprised to learn from W.T. Sherman's letter to his wife yesterday that the militia in Louisiana was seizing federal forts and even taking federal troops prisoner before even this close call in Charleston.
Sure is brooding and melancholic ...
It might help if he could find a more comfortable chair.
Excellent point.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3911111/posts#29
Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
Home Letters of General Sherman, edited by M.A. DeWolfe Howe, 1909
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
A joint resolution (§ 50) proposing certain amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
Whereas, Serious and alarming dissensions have arisen between the Northern and Southern States concerning the rights and security of the rights of the slaveholding states, and especially the rights in the common territory of the United States; and
Whereas, It is eminently desirable and proper that these dissensions, which now threaten the very existence of this Union, should be permanently quieted and settled by constitutional provisions which shall do equal justice to all sections, and thereby restore to the people that peace and good-will which ought to prevail between all citizens of the United States; therefore,
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two thirds of both houses concurring), That the following articles he and are hereby proposed and submitted as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of said Constitution, when ratified by conventions of three fourths of the several states:
ARTICLE 1. In all the territory of the United States now held, or hereafter acquired, situate north of latitude 36° 30', slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, is prohibited while such territory shall remain under territorial government. In all the territory south of said line of latitude slavery of the African race is hereby recognized as existing and shall not be interfered with by Congress, but shall be protected as property by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance. And when any territory north or south of said line, within such boundaries as Congress may prescribe, shall contain the population requisite for a member of Congress according to the then federal ratio of representation of the people of the United States, it shall, if its form of government be republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, with or without slavery, as the constitution of such new state may provide.
ARTICLE 2. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in places under its exclusive jurisdiction, and situate within the limits of states that permit the holding of slaves.
ARTICLE 3. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery within the District of Columbia so long as it exists in the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland, or either, nor without the consent of the inhabitants, nor without just compensation first made to such owners of slaves as do not consent to such abolishment. Nor shall Congress at any time prohibit officers of the Federal Government, or members of Congress, whose duties require them to be in said district, from bringing with them their slaves, and holding them as such during the time their duties may require them to remain there, and afterwards taking them from the district.
ARTICLE 4. Congress shall have no power to prohibit or hinder the transportation of slaves from one state to another, or to a territory in which slaves are by law permitted to he held, whether that transportation be by land, navigable rivers, or by the sea.
ARTICLE 5. That in addition to the provisions of the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States, Congress shall have power to provide by law, and it shall he its duty so to provide, that the United States shall pay to the owner who shall apply for it the full value of his fugitive slave in all cases when the marshal or other officer whose duty it was to arrest said fugitive was prevented from so doing by violence or intimidation, or when, after arrest, said fugitive was rescued by force, and the owner thereby prevented and obstructed in the pursuit of his remedy for the recovery of his fugitive slave under the said clause of the Constitution, and the laws made in pursuance thereof. And in all such cases, when the United States shall pay for such fugitive, they shall have the right, in their own name, to sue the county in which said violence, intimidation, or rescue was committed, and to recover from it, with interest and damages, the amount paid by them for said fugitive slave. And the said county, after it has paid said amount to the United States, may, for its indemnity, sue and recover from the wrong-doers or rescuers by whom the owner was prevented from the recovery of his fugitive slave, in like manner ns the owner himself might have sued and recovered.
ARTICLE 6. No future amendment of the Constitution shall affect the five preceding articles; nor the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of said Constitution; and no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which shall authorize or give to Congress any power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any of the states by whose laws it is, or may be, allowed or permitted.
And Whereas, also, besides those causes of dissension embraced in the foregoing amendments proposed to the Constitution of the United States, there are others which come within the jurisdiction of Congress, and may be remedied by its legislative power; and
Whereas, It is the desire of Congress, as far as its power will extend, to remove all just cause for the popular discontent and agitation which now disturb the peace of the country and threaten the stability of its institutions; therefore,
1. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the laws now in force for the recovery of fugitive slaves are in strict pursuance of the plain and mandatory provisions of the Constitution, and have been sanctioned as valid and constitutional by the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States; that the slave-holding states are entitled to the faithful observance and execution of those laws, and that they ought not to be repealed or so modified or changed as to impair their efficiency; and that laws ought to be made for the punishment of those who attempt, by rescue of the slave or other illegal means, to hinder or defeat the due execution of said laws.
2. That all state laws which conflict with the fugitive-slave acts of Congress, or any other constitutional acts of Congress, or which, in their operation, impede, hinder, or delay the free course and due execution of any of said acts, are null and void by the plain provisions of the Constitution of the United States; yet those state laws, void as they are, have given color to practices, and led to consequences, which have obstructed the duo administration and execution of acts of Congress, and especially the acts for the delivery of fugitive slaves, and have thereby contributed much to the discord and commotion now prevailing. Congress, therefore, in the present perilous juncture, does not deem it improper respectfully and earnestly to recommend the repeal of those laws to the several states which have enacted them, or such legislative corrections or explanations of them as may prevent their being used or perverted to such mischievous purposes.
3. That the act of September 18, 1850, commonly called the Fugitive-slave Law, ought to be so amended as to make the fee of the commissioner, mentioned in the eighth section of the act, equal in amount in the cases decided by him, whether his decision be in favor of or against the claimant. And to avoid misconstruction, the last clause of the fifth section of said act, which authorizes the person holding a warrant for the arrest or detention of a fugitive slave to summon to his aid the posse comitatus, and which declares it to be the duty of all good citizens to assist him in its execution, ought to be so amended as to expressly limit the authority and duty to cases in which there shall be resistance, or danger of resistance, or rescue.
4. That the laws for the suppression of the African slave-trade, and especially those prohibiting the importation of slaves in the United States, ought to be made effectual, and ought to be thoroughly executed; and all further enactments necessary to those ends ought to be promptly made.
SOURCES: George Ticknor Curtis, Constitutional History of the United States from Their Declaration of Independence to the Close of Their Civil War, Volume 2 , p. 525-8 which sites as its source Congressional Globe, Part I., Second Session, Thirty-sixth Congress, p. 114, Dec. 18, 1860.
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-crittenden-compromise-december-18.html
WASHINGTON, December 18, 1860.
MY DEAR SIR:
From common notoriety, I assume the fact that the State of South Carolina is now deliberating on the question of seceding from the Union. While any hope remains that this may be prevented, or even retarded so long as to allow the people of her sister States an opportunity to manifest their opinion upon the causes which have led to this proceeding, it is my duty to exert all the means in my power to avert so dread a catastrophe.
I have therefore deemed it advisable to send to you the Hon. Caleb Cushing, in whose integrity, ability and prudence I have full confidence, to hold communication with you on my behalf, for the purpose of changing or modifying the contemplated action of the State in the manner I have already suggested.
Commending Mr. Cushing to your kind attention, for his own sake as well as that of the cause, I remain,
Very respectfully,
(Signed.)
JAMES BUCHANAN.
HIS EXCELLENCY FRANCIS W. PICKENS.
SOURCE: Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 87
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/02/james-buchanan-to-governor-francis-w.html
WASHINGTON,
December 18, 1860.
His Excellency JOSEPH E. BBOWN,
Governor of Georgia,
Milledgeville.
SIR: In answer to your letter of the 24th ultimo, I have the honor to state that the following samples of accoutrements can be furnished to you by the United States on payment of their cost price, as annexed viz: Two knapsacks, $5.06; two haversacks, 78 cents; two canteens, with straps, 92 cents. Total, $7.26.
You can obtain the remaining equipments desired by addressing Maj. W. A. Thornton, U. S. Arsenal, New York, and requesting their purchase, describing them as follows: Two sets of infantry accoutrements, complete; two saber-belts and plates, complete; two saber-knots; two holsters (pouches) for Colt belt pistols; all of the latest U. S. Army pattern. I have no doubt Major Thornton will take pleasure in attending to the matter.
JOHN B. FLOYD,
Secretary of War.
SOURCE: Allen D. Candler, The Confederate Records of the State of Georgia, Volume 3: Official Correspondence of Governor Joseph E. Brown 1860-1865 inclusive, p. 5-6
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/09/john-b-floyd-to-governor-joseph-e-brown.html
With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865, edited by Michael Burlingame
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
FORT MOULTRIE, S. C,
December 19, 1860.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
A word or two about my position, and so on. As soon as I had time to inspect my position and ascertain the feeling and temper of the people here, I found that to enable me to comply with my orders to defend this fort, it was absolutely necessary that more troops and ordnance stores must be sent. And I recommended that they should be sent at once. The Government has, as you see it stated, declined for prudential reasons to send them, and I must now do the best I can. This fort is a very weak one in its capacity of being defended; it is surrounded by houses that I cannot burn or destroy until I am certain that I am to be attacked, and I shall not be certain of it until the South Carolinians are in possession; but I have so little ammunition that I cannot waste it in destroying houses. And again, within 160 yards from the walls are piles of sand-hills, some of them higher than our fort, which will give the best and safest shelter for sharpshooters, who may pick off in a short time our band of sixty men — all we have.
SOURCE: Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 70
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/01/major-robert-anderson-december-19-1860.html
19th December, '60.
No, I did not speak in Philadelphia, because the mayor thought he could not keep [the peace], and feared a desperate personal attack upon me. The invitation has been renewed, but I have declined it, and have recalled another acceptance to speak there. It would be foolhardy just now. I am very sorry for the Mayor.
There must be necessarily trouble of some kind from this Southern movement. But I think the North will stand firmly and kindly to its position. If the point shall be persistently made by the South, as it has been made so far, the nationalization of slavery or disunion, the North will say, and I think calmly, Disunion, and God for the right. The Southerners are lunatics, but what can we do? We cannot let them do as they will, for then we should all perish together.
SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 138-9
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/10/george-william-curtis-to-charles-eliot_24.html
23 CENTRE STREET, N. Y., December 19, 1860.
Dr. Hodge:
MY DEAR BROTHER, — Your article on the “State of the Country” did not reach me until yesterday. I have read it and re-read it, and I do not regard it as a “fire-brand,” as Dr. Boardman does. If it contains some things that would irritate the Southern people, it also contains much to soothe and command their respect. Dr. Thornwell, I understand, is preparing an article on the same subject, and I would not, if I could, abridge your liberty. [Then follow many pages.] But I will not pursue this subject further. Perhaps I have already said a great deal more than you bargained for, or are ready to read. I desire and pray most earnestly for the preservation of the whole Union. If the North will concede what is just, and what the South imperatively needs, the Union may be saved. Otherwise, we go to pieces. There are certain things in your article which the North ought to hear, and there are others which the South ought to hear. But whether upon the whole it will do more good or harm, I am not prepared to say. One thing I know, if my heart and your arm were united, and we could carry out our desires, the North would soon be compelled to relinquish some of her unjustifiable positions. As it is, my only hope is in God, and I love to lay the matter before him.
J. LEIGHTON WILSON.
SOURCE: Hampden C. DuBose, Memoirs of Rev. John Leighton Wilson, D.D., p. 243-4
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/06/dr-john-leighton-wilson-to-dr-charles.html
Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury
Part 1 continued from December 15 (reply #4).
Part 2 isn’t a continuation.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals
Continued from November 27 (reply #20).
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3909150/posts#20
William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis, American
Continued from November 6 (reply #19)
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3901270/posts#19
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Volume One
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Today’s excerpts:
Catton, The Coming Fury, reply #35
Goodwin, Team of Rivals, #36
Cooper, Jefferson Davis, American, #37
U.S. Grant, Memoirs, #38
George T. Strong, #39
And these three letters.
[MOUND CITY, KANSAS, November 20, 1860.]
In the winter of ’59, after the second expulsion of Border-ruffians, a county meeting, duly advertised and largely attended, composed mainly of Democrats and conservative men, Bob Mitchell himself among them, passed a series of resolutions sustaining the jayhawkers, and condemning to perpetual banishment those violent men, who had been forcibly expelled. The resolutions passed unanimously, even Bob Mitchell voting in the affirmative.
In fact, it was plain to the common sense of every man that if it had been necessary to drive them out, it was necessary to keep them out. Such were their habits, and the violence of their character, that it were vain to think of living with them on peaceable terms. Our “Free-state” Democrats are, to-day, more venomous and less disposed to forgive and forget than their Border-ruffian brethren.
Cowardly and sneaking, they are the men to plan the schemes for assassination which they depend on the “Border-ruffians” to execute. Striking in the dark, and keeping their names and numbers concealed, they hoped to stampede the whole antislavery force of the territory Of the existence of this “dark lantern fraternity,” we have incontestable evidence.
We are in possession not only of their plans, but even their private signals, and, as in the case of More, we have evidence sufficient to warrant handling several of them individually.
We have had several additions to our colored population within the week, while several of our Democratic friends have left the country. A friend observed to me yesterday: “The Democrats are leaving and the Black Republicans are coming in.”
SOURCE: Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 235-6
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2018/08/captian-james-montgomery-to-george-l.html
AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America."
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 twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, 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 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.
Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series IV, Volume I, Serial 127, p. 1
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/12/south-carolinas-ordinance-of-secession.html
CHARLESTON, December 20, 1860.
Hon. W. H. TRESCOT.
You are authorized and requested to withdraw my letter by Dr. Hamilton immediately I have seen General Cushing. Despatch back immediately. Have you seen Huger?
F. W. PICKENS.
SOURCE: Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 84
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/02/governor-francis-w-pickens-to-william-h.html
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