CONFEDERATE STATES. 



123 



and ITamlin was the last straw on the back of 

 the camel. But it was not the only one. The 

 back was nearly broken before. The point 

 upon which I differ from ray friend is this : Ho 

 says he thought it expedient for us to put this 

 great question before the world upon tfiis sim- 

 ple matter of wrongs on the question of slavery, 

 and that question turned upon the fugitive slave 

 law. Now, in regard to the fugitive slave law, 

 I myself doubt its constitutionality, and 1 

 doubted it on the floor of the Senate, when I 

 was a member of that body. The States, acting 

 in their sovereign capacity, should be respon- 

 sible for the rendition of fugitive slaves. That 

 was our best security." 



So, in the correspondence of Messrs. Eost, 

 Yancey, and Maun, with Lord John Russell, 

 the right of separation is placed on other 

 grounds. (See DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF 

 CONFEDERATE STATES, also PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, 

 . Messages of President Davis.) Admitting, then, 

 notwithstanding these various statements, that 

 fears of wrongs and destruction to the in- 

 stitution of slavery were entertained, and that 

 such apprehensions, if well founded, are a jus- 

 tification of revolution; yet, on this point, it is 

 sufficient to state the fact, that the Federal Gov- 

 ernment has always been ready to compromise 

 in her difficulties with any State. If it had 

 meditated evil in the new hands in which it has 

 been placed, of which not the first sign had yet 

 appeared, its hands would have been tied by 

 the action of nearly hah 1 ' the voters in the six- 

 teen Northern States, and by the action of all 

 the voters in the fifteen Southern States. On 

 the secession of the State of Georgia, one of her 

 citizens used this language : 



" Posterity will regard the act as wanting in 

 statesmanship, and the greatest folly ever com- 

 mitted by a great and prosperous people. But 

 undue prosperity begets luxury and restlessness, 

 and grave deeds are often committed without 

 reflection or reason. Posterity will censure the 

 act of secession, for the reason that the seced- 

 ing States, in their several Conventions, made 

 no demands for the redress of grievances, but 

 madly yea, blindly precipitated a revolution. 

 To stand justified in the eye of the future, and 

 before the scrutiny of civilization, we should 

 demand redress in a Convention of all the 

 Statev' 



The first public act which took place, having 

 for its ultimate object the formation of a 

 Southern Confederacy, was the call for a State 

 Convention in South Carolina. This resulted 

 in the secession of that State, and was followed 

 rapidly by the secession of Alabama, Florida, 

 Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The 

 preliminary proceedings which have come to 

 light are too important to be overlooked. The 

 first public step is to be found described in a 

 letter from the Colonel of the Ordnance, H. 

 K. Craig, to the Secretary of War, Joseph Holt, 

 dated January 15, 1861, stating the number of 

 rifles and muskets sent to the Southern States 

 during the year 1860. It is as follows : 



" SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge the 

 reference of a letter from the Hon. B. Stanton, 

 asking for a statement of the distribution of 

 arms from the armories to the arsenals and 

 other places of deposit for safe keeping, from 

 the 1st of January, 1860, to that of January 1, 

 1861, &c. 



" In compliance with your directions, I have 

 the honor to report that on the 30th day of De- 

 cember, 1859, an order was received from the 

 War Department directing the transfer of one 

 hundred and fifteen thousand muskets from the 

 Springfield (Mass.) and Watervliet (N. Y.) ar- 

 senals to different arsenals at the South. Orders 

 were given in obedience to these instructions 

 on the 30th of May, 1860, and the arms were 

 removed during the past spring from and to the 

 places as follows : 



'From Springfield armory sixty-five thou- 

 sand percussion muskets, calibre sixty-nine 

 hundredths of an inch. 



" From Watertown arsenal six thousand per- 

 cussion rifles, calibre fifty-four hundredths of 

 an inch. 



" From Watervliet arsenal four thousand per- 

 cussion rifles, calibre fifty-four hundredths of 

 an inch. 



" Of which there were sent as follows : 



Percussion Jfufkttt. Altd. Jfstte. P. Sift*. 



Charleston (S.C.) arsenal... 9,280 5,720 2,000 



North Carolina arsenal 15,403 9,520 2,000 



Augusta < Ga. ) arsenal 12,350 7,620 2,000 



Mount Yernon, Ala 9,230 5,720 2,000 



Baton Rouge, La 13,520 11,420 2,000 



" The arms thus transferred, which were at 

 the Charleston arsenal, the Mount Vernon ar- 

 senal, and the Baton Rouge arsenal, have been 

 seized by the authorities of the several States 

 of South Carolina, Alabama, and Louisiana, and 

 are no longer in possession of the Ordnance 

 Department. Those stored at the Augusta ar- 

 senal and at North Carolina are still in charge 

 of officers of this Department. 



" In addition to the foregoing, there have been 

 transfers from the armories to different arse- 

 nals, as the exigencies of the service demanded, 

 for immediate issues to the army and to' the 

 States, under the act of April 23, 1808, and 

 which I infer are not intended to be embraced 

 in the call of the House of Representatives." 



On the 29th of October, 1860, Gen. Winfield 

 Scott sent to the President and Secretary of War 

 a letter, containing " views suggested by the im- 

 minent danger t>f a disruption of the Union by 

 the secession of one or more of the Southern 

 States.'' In this paper he suggested certain 

 measures of precaution which should be taken 

 by the Government to prevent the anticipated 

 disruption. Why they were not adopted will 

 presently appear. So much of them as apper- 

 tain to the steps proper for the Government to 

 take, were as follows : 



" From a knowledge of our Southern popula- 

 tion it is my solemn conviction that there is 

 some danger of an early act of rashness prelim- 

 inary to secession, viz., the seizure of some or 



