Kitabı oku: «Thirty Years' View (Vol. II of 2)», sayfa 127

CHAPTER CLXXXIII.
PROGRESS OF THE SLAVERY AGITATION: MEETING OF MEMBERS FROM THE SLAVE STATES: INFLAMMATORY ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN STATES

The last days of Mr. Polk's administration were witness to an ominous movement – nothing less than nightly meetings of large numbers of members from the slave States to consider the state of things between the North and the South – to show the aggressions and encroachments (as they were called), of the former upon the latter – to show the incompatibility of their union – and to devise measures for the defence and protection of the South. Mr. Calhoun was at the bottom of this movement, which was conducted with extraordinary precautions to avoid publicity. None but slave State members were admitted. No reporters were permitted to be present; nor any spectators, or auditors. As many as seventy or eighty were assembled; but about one half of this number were inimical to the meeting, and only attended to prevent mischief to the Union, and mostly fell off from their attendance before the work was concluded. At the first meeting a grand committee of 15 (Mr. Calhoun one) were appointed to consider of resolutions: when they met, a sub-committee of five (Mr. Calhoun at their head) was carved out of the 15 to report an address to the slave States: and when they met, Mr. Calhoun produced the address ready written. So that the whole contrivance of the grand and petty committees was a piece of machinery to get Mr. Calhoun's own manifesto before the public with the sanction of a meeting. Mr. Calhoun's manifesto, sanctioned by the sub-committee, was only saved from condemnation in the committee of 15 by one vote, and that vote his own. Saved by one vote, and got before the meeting itself, it there underwent condemnation, and was recommitted for amendment. Four of the grand committee, consisting of those who were averse to the whole proceeding, were excused upon their own request from serving longer upon it. Got back into the grand committee, it was superseded in toto by an entire new address, not to the slave States, but to the people of the whole Union, and addressed not to their angry, but to their good feelings. That address was reported to an adjourned meeting of the members; and those opposed to the whole proceeding having nearly ceased to attend, the original manifesto of Mr. Calhoun was adopted in place of it: and thus, after a tedious and painful process, and defeated half the time, and only succeeding when the meeting had become thin and nearly reduced to his own partisans, that gentleman succeeded in getting his inflammatory composition before the public as the voice of the Southern members. But even then not as he first drew it up. In the primitive draft the introductory clause asserted that the present wrongs of the North upon the South were equal to those which produced the separation of these States, when colonies, from the British empire: that clause was softened down, and generalized in the amended and adopted manifesto into the assertion of a dangerous conflict between the two sections of the Union, and the perpetration of encroachments and aggressions upon the slave States which their safety would no longer allow them to stand, and for which a cure must be found. In the original it stood thus: "Not excepting the declaration which separated you and the United Colonies from the parent country. That involved your independence; but this your all, not excepting your safety." As softened it ran thus:

"We, whose names are hereunto annexed, address you in the discharge of what we believe to be a solemn duty on the most important subject ever presented for your consideration. We allude to the conflict between the two great sections of the Union, growing out of a difference of feeling and opinion in reference to the relation existing between the two races, the European and African, which inhabit the Southern section, and the acts of aggression and encroachment to which it has led. The conflict commenced not long after the acknowledgment of our Independence, and has gradually increased until it has arrayed the great body of the North against the South on this most vital subject. In the progress of this conflict, aggression has followed aggression, and encroachment encroachment, until they have reached a point when a regard for peace and safety will not permit us to remain longer silent. The object of this address is to give you a clear, correct, but brief account of the whole series of aggression and encroachments on your rights, with a statement of the dangers to which they expose you. Our object in making it, is not to cause excitement, but to put you in full possession of all the facts and circumstances necessary to a full and just conception of a deep-seated disease, which threatens great danger to you and the whole body politic. We act on the impression, that in a popular government like ours, a true conception of the actual character and state of a disease is indispensable to effecting a cure."

The manifesto was modelled upon that of the Declaration of the Independence of the United States; and, by its authors, was soon saluted as the second Declaration of Independence. After the motive clause, showing the inducements to the act, followed a long list of grievances, as formidable in number as those which had impelled the separation from Great Britain, but so frivolous and imaginary in substance, that no one could repeat them now without recourse to the paper. Strange to see, they have become more remarkable for what they omitted than contained. That Missouri compromise, since become an outrage which the constitution and the slave States could no longer endure, was then a good thing, of which the slave States wished more, and claimed its extension to the Pacific Ocean. The Wilmot proviso, which had been the exasperation of the slave States for three years, was skipped over, the great misfortune having happened to the South which had been deprecated in the letter to the Alabama member of the General Assembly: it had been defeated! and for the express purpose of taking a handle of agitation out of the hands of the enemies of the Union: but without benefit, as others were seized upon immediately, and the slavery contention raged more furiously than ever. But past, or present, "encroachments and aggressions" were too light and apocryphal to rouse a nation. Something more stirring was wanted; and for that purpose, Time, and Imagination – the Future, and Invention – were to be placed in requisition. The abolition of slavery in the States – the emancipation of slaves, all over the South – the conflict between the white and the black races – the prostration of the white race, as in San Domingo: the whites the slaves of the blacks: such were the future terrors and horrors to be visited upon the slave States if not arrested by an instant and adequate remedy. Some passages from this conglomeration of invented horrors will show the furious zeal of the author, and the large calculation which he made upon the gullibility of the South when a slavery alarm was to be propagated:

"Such, then, being the case, it would be to insult you to suppose you could hesitate. To destroy the existing relation between the free and servile races at the South would lead to consequences unparalleled in history. They cannot be separated, and cannot live together in peace or harmony, or to their mutual advantage, except in their present relation. Under any other, wretchedness, and misery, and desolation would overspread the whole South. The example of the British West Indies, as blighting as emancipation has proved to them, furnishes a very faint picture of the calamities it would bring on the South. The circumstances under which it would take place with us would be entirely different from those which took place with them, and calculated to lead to far more disastrous results. There, the government of the parent country emancipated slaves in her colonial possessions – a government rich and powerful, and actuated by views of policy (mistaken as they turned out to be) rather than fanaticism. It was, besides, disposed to act justly towards the owners, even in the act of emancipating their slaves, and to protect and foster them afterwards. It accordingly appropriated nearly $100,000,000 as a compensation to them for their losses under the act, which sum, although it turned out to be far short of the amount, was thought at that time to be liberal. Since the emancipation it has kept up a sufficient military and naval force to keep the blacks in awe, and a number of magistrates, and constables, and other civil officers, to keep order in the towns and plantations, and enforce respect to their former owners. It can only be effected by the prostration of the white race; and that would necessarily engender the bitterest feelings of hostility between them and the North. But the reverse would be the case between the blacks of the South and the people of the North. Owing their emancipation to them, they would regard them as friends, guardians, and patrons, and centre, accordingly, all their sympathy in them. The people of the North would not fail to reciprocate and to favor them, instead of the whites. Under the influence of such feelings, and impelled by fanaticism and love of power, they would not stop at emancipation. Another step would be taken – to raise them to a political and social equality with their former owners, by giving them the right of voting and holding public offices under the federal government. But when once raised to an equality, they would become the fast political associates of the North, acting and voting with them on all questions, and by this political union between them, holding the white race at the South in complete subjection. The blacks, and the profligate whites that might unite with them, would become the principal recipients of federal offices and patronage, and would, in consequence, be raised above the whites of the South in the political and social scale. We would, in a word, change conditions with them – a degradation greater than has ever yet fallen to the lot of a free and enlightened people, and one from which we could not escape, should emancipation take place (which it certainly will if not prevented), but by fleeing the homes of ourselves and ancestors, and by abandoning our country to our former slaves, to become the permanent abode of disorder, anarchy, poverty, misery and wretchedness."

Emancipation, with all these accumulated horrors, is here held to be certain, "if not prevented: " certain, so far as it depended upon the free States, which were rapidly becoming the majority; and only to be prevented by the slave States themselves. Now, this certain emancipation of slaves in the States, was a pure and simple invention of Mr. Calhoun, not only without evidence, but against evidence – contradicted by every species of human action, negative and positive, before and since. Far from attacking slavery in the States, the free States have co-operated to extend the area of slavery within such States: witness the continued extinctions of Indian title which have so largely increased the available capacity of the slave States. So far from making war upon slave States, several such States have been added to the Union, as Texas and Florida, by the co-operation of free States. Far from passing any law to emancipate slaves in the States no Congress has ever existed that has seen a man that would make such a motion in the House; or, if made, would not be as unanimously rejected by one side of the House as the other – as if the unanimity would not be the same whether the whole North went out, and let the South vote alone! or the whole South went out, and let the North alone vote. Yet, this incendiary cry of abolishing slavery in the States has become the staple of all subsequent agitators. Every little agitator now jumps upon it – jumps into a State the moment a free territory is mentioned – and repeats all the alarming stuff invented by Mr. Calhoun; and as much more as his own invention can add to it. In the mean time events daily affix the brand of falsehood on these incendiary inventions. Slave State Presidents are continually elected by free State votes: the price of slaves themselves, instead of sinking, as it would if there was any real danger, is continually augmenting, and, in fact, has reached a height the double of what it was before the alarming story of emancipation had begun.

Assuming this emancipation of the slaves in the States to be certain and inevitable, with all its dreadful consequences, unless prevented by the slave States, the manifesto goes on seriously to bring the means of prevention most closely to the consideration of the slave States – to urge their unity and concert of action on the slavery question – to make it the supreme object of their labors, before which all other subjects are to give way – to take the attitude of self-defence; and, braving all consequences, throw the responsibility on the other side. Thus:

"With such a prospect before us, the gravest and most solemn question that ever claimed the attention of a people is presented for your consideration: What is to be done to prevent it? It is a question belonging to you to decide. All we propose is to give you our opinion. We, then, are of the opinion that the first and indispensable step, without which nothing can be done, and with which every thing may be, is to be united among yourselves on this great and most vital question. The want of union and concert in reference to it has brought the South, the Union, and our system of government to their present perilous condition. Instead of placing it above all others, it has been made subordinate not only to mere questions of policy, but to the preservation of party ties and insuring of party success. As high as we hold a due respect for these, we hold them subordinate to that and other questions involving our safety and happiness. Until they are so held by the South, the North will not believe that you are in earnest in opposition to their encroachments, and they will continue to follow, one after another, until the work of abolition is finished. To convince them that you are, you must prove by your acts that you hold all other questions subordinate to it. If you become united, and prove yourselves in earnest, the North will be brought to a pause, and to a calculation of consequences; and that may lead to a change of measures, and to the adoption of a course of policy that may quietly and peaceably terminate this long conflict between the two sections. If it should not, nothing would remain for you but to stand up immovably in defence of rights involving your all – your property, prosperity, equality, liberty, and safety. As the assailed, you would stand justified by all laws human and divine, in repelling a blow so dangerous, without looking to consequences, and to resort to all means necessary for that purpose. Your assailants, and not you, would be responsible for consequences. Entertaining these opinions, we earnestly entreat you to be united, and for that purpose adopt all necessary measures. Beyond this, we think it would not be proper to go at present."

The primitive draft of the manifesto went further, and told what was to be done: opinions and counsels are as far as the signers thought it proper to go then. But something further was intimated; and that soon came in the shape of a Southern convention to dissolve the Union, and a call from the legislatures of two of the most heated States (South Carolina and Mississippi), for the assembling of a "Southern Congress," to put the machinery of the "United States South" into operation: but of this hereafter. Following the Declaration of Independence in its mode of adoption, as well in its exposition of motives as in its enumeration of grievances, the manifesto was left with the secretary of the meeting for the signature of the slave-holding members who concurred in it. The signers were the following:

"Messrs. Atchison of Missouri; Hunter and Mason of Virginia; Calhoun and Butler of South Carolina; Downs of Louisiana; Foote and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi; Fitzpatrick of Alabama; Borland and Sebastian of Arkansas; Westcott and Yulee of Florida; Atkinson, Bayley, Bedinger, Bocock, Beale, W. G. Brown, Meade, R. A. Thompson of Virginia; Daniel, Venable of North Carolina; Burt, Holmes, Rhett, Simpson, Woodward of South Carolina; Wallace, Iverson, Lumpkin of Georgia; Bowdon, Gayle, Harris of Alabama; Featherston, I. Thompson of Mississippi; La Sere, Morse of Louisiana; R. W. Johnson of Arkansas; Santon of Kentucky."

ADMINISTRATION OF ZACHARY TAYLOR.
CHAPTER CLXXXIV.
INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR: HIS CABINET

On the 4th of March the new President was inaugurated with the customary formalities, Chief Justice Taney administering the oath of office. He delivered an address, as use and propriety required, commendably brief, and confined to a declaration of general principles. Mr. Millard Fillmore, the Vice-President elect, was duly installed as President of the Senate, and delivered a neat and suitable address on taking the chair. Assembled in extraordinary session, the Senate received and confirmed the several nominations for the cabinet. They were: John M. Clayton, of Delaware, to be Secretary of State; William M. Meredith, of Pennsylvania, to be Secretary of the Treasury; George W. Crawford, of Georgia, to be Secretary at War; William Ballard Preston, of Virginia, to be Secretary of the Navy; Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, to be Secretary of the Home Department – a new department created at the preceding session of Congress; Jacob Collamer, of Vermont, to be Postmaster General; Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, to be Attorney General. The whole cabinet were, of course, of the whig party.

CHAPTER CLXXXV.
DEATH OF EX-PRESIDENT POLK

He died at Nashville, Tennessee, soon after he returned home, and within three months after his retirement from the presidency. He was an exemplary man in private life, moral in all his deportment, and patriotic in his public life, aiming at the good of his country always. It was his misfortune to have been brought into the presidency by an intrigue, not of his own, but of others, and the evils of which became an inheritance of his position, and the sole cause of all that was objectionable in his administration. He was the first President put upon the people without their previous indication – the first instance in which a convention assumed the right of disposing of the presidency according to their own will, and of course with a view to their own advantage. The scheme of these intriguers required the exclusion of all independent and disinterested men from his councils and confidence – a thing easily effected by representing all such men as his enemies, and themselves as his exclusive friends. Hence the ejection of the Globe newspaper from the organship of the administration, and the formation of a cabinet too much dominated by intrigue and selfishness. All the faults of his administration were the faults of his cabinet: all its merits were his own, in defiance of them. Even the arrangement with the Calhoun and Tyler interest by which the Globe was set aside before the cabinet was formed, was the work of men who were to be of the cabinet. His own will was not strong enough for his position, yet he became firm and absolute where his judgment was convinced and patriotism required decision. Of this he gave signal proof in overruling his whole cabinet in their resolve for the sedentary line in Mexico, and forcing the adoption of the vigorous policy which carried the American arms to the city of Mexico, and conquered a peace in the capital of the country. He also gave a proof of it in falling back upon the line of 49° for the settlement of the Oregon boundary with Great Britain, while his cabinet, intimidated by their own newspapers, and alarmed at the storm which themselves had got up, were publicly adhering to the line of 54° 40', with the secret hope that others would extricate them from the perils of that forlorn position. The Mexican war, under the impulse of speculators, and upon an intrigue with Santa Anna, was the great blot upon his administration; and that was wholly the work of the intriguing part of his cabinet, into which he entered with a full belief that the intrigue was to be successful, and the war finished in "ninety or one hundred and twenty days;" and without firing another gun after it should be declared. He was sincerely a friend to the Union, and against whatever would endanger it, especially that absorption of the whole of Mexico which had advocates in those who stood near him; and also against the provisional line which was to cover Monterey and Guaymas, when he began to suspect the ultimate object of that line. The acquisition of New Mexico and California were the distinguishing events of his administration – fruits of the war with Mexico; but which would have come to the United States without that war if the President had been surrounded by a cabinet free from intrigue and selfishness, and wholly intent upon the honor and interest of the country.