UNITED STATES. 



709 



number were awaiting the action of the Sen- 

 ate, and particularly the Crittenden Cora- 

 promise. No progress was made in the bill 

 to give the President men and money. The 

 Peace Conference had just convened ; Mary- 

 land, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mis- 

 souri were represented in that body, indicat- 

 ing a strong and powerful sentiment in favor 

 of a peaceful solution of the difficulties in that 

 very portion of the country whose sympathies 

 were with the South in preference to the North 

 and who were certain, if a violent division 

 must come, to join the South. New York, 

 Philadelphia, Boston, Cincinnati, the large cen- 

 tres of wealth, demanded a course of concilia- 

 tion and compromise. New Jersey, and a 

 large portion of all the Middle and Western 

 States opposed coercive measures, and were 

 ready to make sacrifices to preserve the Union, 

 although, if a violent division came, their first 

 sympathies were with the North, and were sure 

 to place them in array against the South. Even 

 in Faneuil Hall, at Boston, on the 4th of Feb- 

 ruary the following resolution was adopted : 



Eesohed, That this meeting depends for the return 

 of the seceding States and the permanent preservation 

 of the Union on conciliatory counsels, and a sense of 

 the benefits which the Constitution confers on all the 

 States of the Confederacy, and not on military coer- 

 cion ; and that it shrinks "with horror from the thought 

 of civil war between the North and South. 



Such was the nature of all the active meas- 

 ures proposed in the existing state of affairs. 

 Meantime, the Legislatures of New York and 

 Ohio had passed resolutions, tendering to the 

 Government all their resources in men and 

 money for its support. But it was not expected 

 that these would be called for unless some hos- 

 tile and violent act was committed by the 

 secessionists against the authority of the Gov- 

 ernment. Nevertheless, it was soon apparent 

 that no party to the difficulty could succeed 

 in procuring an acquiescence in all the consti- 

 tutional and legislative arrangements it might 

 deem necessary to secure a pacification of the 

 others on the question of slavery. The Gov- 

 ernment seemed to be threatened with over- 

 throw on points rather of political punctilio 

 than practical concern. On the one hand, the 

 Republicans insisted that they could not and 

 would not listen to any terms of pacification at 

 a time when the people of a portion of the 

 Southern States stood with arms in their hands, 

 and in the attitude of practical rebellion against 

 the Federal Government. On the other hand, 

 the Southern leaders justified their revolution- 

 ary proceedings on the ground that a portion of 

 the Northern States had nullified the Constitu- 

 tion and laws of the land by the passage of 

 their personal liberty laws, (see PERSOXAL LIB- 

 ERTY LAWS,) and violated the spirit, if not the 

 letter, of the civil compact existing between 

 the States by the election of a " sectional" can- 

 didate to the Presidency. The Eepublicans also 

 sturdily refused to give any consideration to 

 propositions involving the assumption that 



there could be, nnder the particular sanction 

 of Federal law, any thing like property in man. 

 The Southern leaders, on the contrary, contend- 

 ed that property in slaves should, in all Federal 

 relations, be placed on the same footing as any 

 other property. To the former, the paramount 

 idea appeared now to be the recognition of 

 the slave only as a person. To the latter the 

 paramount idea appeared to be the recognition 

 of the slave only as property. The fact was, 

 and still is, that the slave in the different rela- 

 tions which he sustains, is both a person and 

 property, and in the former of these charac- 

 ters, he counts as a modified element of political 

 power recognized in the Constitution of the 

 United States. But in the excitement and 

 turbulence of the hour, reason and common 

 sense were lost sight of, and these hair-splitting 

 discriminations engrossed the attention even 

 of Congress itself. Neither party to these 

 views appear on the record of events, as having 

 performed at this time any act aiming directly 

 and solely to the restoration of peace and union 

 thoughout the country. Amid such conflicts, 

 by which the Union men of the Border States 

 were paralyzed, the term of Mr. Buchanan's 

 Administration closed. The original national 

 drama was over. The curtain had fallen. The 

 nature of the new period of existence to be opened 

 on the morrow no man comprehended. 



On the 4th of March, at noon, President Lin- 

 coln delivered his Inaugural Address, (see PUB- 

 LIC DOCUMENTS.) took the oath of his office, 

 and commenced the discharge of its duties. 

 What was the posture of affairs at this time, 

 especially as compared with their state on the 

 day of election in November. Seven Southern 

 States had retired from the Union, the officers 

 of the Federal Government had resigned, and 

 there were no persons to represent its powers 

 or execute its duties within their limits, ex- 

 cepting in the Post-Office Department. With- 

 in these States, also, all the forts, arsenals, 

 dockyards, custom-houses, revenue cutters, &c., 

 embracing all the movable and stationary arti- 

 cles connected therewith, had been taken pos- 

 session of by the authority of these States indi- 

 vidually, and were held by persons and officers 

 denying any allegiance to the Federal Govern- 

 ment, and avowing it to be due by them only 

 to a Government created by the united action 

 of these seven States. Only Forts Pickens, 

 Taylor, and Jefferson, near the Florida coast, 

 and Sumter, in Charleston harbor, continued 

 under the flag of the Union. 



The other forts thus seized were put in an 

 improved condition, new ones built, and armed 

 forces had been organized, and were organiz- 

 ing, avowedly to protect this property from 

 recapture, and to capture those not yet seized. 

 Around Fort Sumter batteries had been erected, 

 with guns equal or heavier in calibre than hers, 

 and in far greater number. Officers of the 

 army and navy of the Union from these States, 

 had chiefly resigned, and had been reappointed 

 in the service of the latter. A complete Gov- 



