298 



CONGRESS, TL S. 



one as an example of many. I have taken the 

 following extract from the Richmond Whig, of 

 June 14, 1861. Speaking of the Southern 

 States : 



This vast region, inhabited by a people who are bred 

 from childhood to horsemanship and the use of arms, 

 and who know what liberty is, and love and adore it, 

 is portioned out for subjugation by the disgusting Yan- 

 kee race, who don't know how to load a gun, and look 

 contemptible on horseback. That they may be drilled 

 into respectable military machines by the Virginian, 

 who commands them, is likely enough ; but without 

 disjointing the eternal fitness of things and dislocating 

 the order of nature, that they should become capable 

 of empire, is simply absurd. Grant that mere brute 

 force should enable them to overrun the land like a 

 cloud of Eastern locusts, their reign would pass with 

 themselves. They possess not one quality that fits 

 them for command. Since their beginning as a nation, 

 and out of all their seething population, they have 

 never yet produced a general or a statesman. That is 

 an effort beyond their ability. But for organizing ho- 

 tels, working machinery, and other base mechanical 

 contrivances, they are without equals in the world. 

 And the very law of nature which invests them with 

 excellence in those inferior departments of humanity, 

 condemns them to inferiority in those of a nobler and 

 more exalted strain. 



" Senator Hammond is by no means alone in 

 his conception of the dignity of labor. There 

 are hundreds of thousands who concur in his 

 estimate of laboring men as the mere ' mudsills' 

 of society, on which there should be erected 

 an aristocracy, controlling the political power 

 of the State. 



" Do you ask me, do the masses of the people 

 of the South understand the purpose of the ad- 

 vocates of this subversion of democratic govern- 

 ment? Sir, I admit the proportion of the South- 

 ern people holding these views was, and per- 

 haps still is, greatly in the minority. They 

 consist mostly of slaveholders and their imme- 

 diate dependants. The number of actual slave- 

 owners in the Southern States does not, per- 

 haps, exceed four hundred thousand, and the 

 number of dependants and expectants in inter- 

 est will not amount to above one million five 

 hundred thousand more. But then it must be 

 considered that these slaveholders are the prin- 

 cipal men of wealth, education, intelligence, 

 and social influence. Besides, sir, as I have al- 

 ready said, the aggressions of the few upon the 

 rights of the many are always accomplished 

 under false pretences. The cry of ' Southern 

 rights,' ' Southern rights,' ' Southern rights,' has 

 been rung in the ears of the people with such 

 ceaseless, vehement importunity, as to create 

 an honest impression on the public mind that 

 grievous and outrageous wrong has been done 

 to Southern rights already, and that still further 

 and greater outrages are imminent. Especially 

 has the opinion been propagated that slavery 

 is everywhere to be abolished in defiance of 

 constitutional guarantees, and the rights of the 

 States are to be sacrificed to the caprices of 

 Northern fanaticism. Thus has the 'Southern 

 heart been fired.' Still it may be asked, how 

 could such a meagre minority precipitate such 

 a rebellion as now exists if the masses were not 



cooperating? I ask, what had the people to do 

 in seceding the States out of the Union, and in 

 the organization of the Provisional Confederate 

 Government? What had the people in my own 

 once honored State to do in attaching Virginia 

 to the Southern Confederacy? Nothing, sir. 

 Nothing. They knew not when it was done. 

 They knew not that it was in contemplation 

 till after it was done. In secret session, with 

 doors barred against the popular ear, with 

 hearts steeled against the expressed will of 

 the people, the conspirators at Richmond not 

 only withdrew my State from the Union, but 

 transferred her arms and her finances find her 

 liberties to the self-constituted authorities at 

 Montgomery ; and before the people knew of 

 the dark, infernal deed, the tread of armed le- 

 gions from the Gulf States was shaking the 

 plains of Virginia, eager to transfer the horrors 

 of war to the Potomae and Ohio eager to in- 

 volve my neighbors and friends and kinsmen 

 in the carnage and desolation which they ought 

 to suffer themselves." 



Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, offered the fol- 

 lowing resolution : 



Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to 

 furnish the Senate with a copy of the proclamation 

 of Brig. Gen. J. W. Phelps, "to the loyal citzens 

 of the Southwest ;" and also to inform the Senate 

 whether said proclamation was made by order of the 

 Secretary of War, or with his knowledge or consent, 

 and by what authority said proclamation was made. 



He said : " All I want is for the people of 

 the country to know authoritatively and posi- 

 tively that it is not an act of the Administra- 

 tion ; that the Administration and this Govern- 

 ment are not prosecuting this war for such 

 purposes as are announced in that proclama- 

 tion of Brig. Gen. Phelps. I think, sir, that 

 that is important. I think that good will 

 result to the country, that good will result in 

 the prosecution of this war, by the disavowal, 

 distinct and positive, of the Administration of 

 any knowledge, consent, or authority to that 

 proclamation which announces principles, wild, 

 fanatical, and unworthy of any general in the 

 army." 



Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, replied : " Mr. 

 President, it seems to me the Senator from 

 Delaware perhaps has accomplished his pur- 

 pose by introducing this resolution and calling 

 the attention of the Senate to the proclamation 

 in question. I presume there is no person 

 here who assents to that proclamation, and 

 there is no person who does not regard it as an 

 indiscretion. At the same time, I am free to 

 say that I consider it, to a certain extent, as 

 an offset to the proclamation of General Sher- 

 man and the military orders of General Halleck. 

 I do not know Avhich is the worst. One errs 

 on the side of the Constitution and of human 

 liberty ; the other errs on the side of human 

 slavery. That is the difference between these 

 two classes of documents. The fact that there 

 is that difference is an argument that Congress 

 should undertake to settle the whole question, 



