OFFENDERS WISH TO BE LET ALONE. 381 This confederates. Yet in the face of this testimony-in the presence of the prophecy of his so-called Secretary of War at Montgomery, and the action of Stephens, his lieutenant, while on his way to Richmond, and while there in assisting the Virginia conspirators in carrying out their scheme for seizing the Capital, the arch-traitor, with hypocrisy the most supremely impudent, declared in a speech at the opening of his so-called Congress, on the 29th of April, that his policy was peaceful and defensive, not belligerent and aggressive. Speaking more to Europe than to the "Confederacy," he said:--"We protest solemnly, in the face of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor. . . . In independence we seek no conquest, no aggrandizement, no cession of any kind from the States with which we have lately confederated. All we ask is to be let alone-those who never held power over us should not now attempt our subjugation by arms. we will, we must resist to the direst extremity." On the very next day Stephens, the so-called Vice-President, said in a speech at Atlanta, in Georgia :-"A general opinion prevails that Washington City is soon to be attacked. On this subject I can only say, our object is peace. We wish no aggressions on any one's rights, and will But if Maryland secedes, the District of Columbia will fall to her by reversionary right--the same as Sumter to South Carolina, Pulaski to Georgia, and Pickens to Florida. When we have the right, we will demand the surrender of Washington, just as we did in the other cases, and will enforce our demands at every hazard and at whatever cost." The burglar, using the same convenient logic, might say to the householder about to be plundered by him, after having made the intended victim's near neighbor an accomplice, and with his aid had forced his way into the dwelling: "Your plate, and your money, and your jewelry fall to my accomplice as a reversionary right, and we demand the surrender of your keys. All we ask is to be let alone." a make none. 991 a April 30, 1861. A quaint writer in the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant, at that time, made the following amusing commentary on the conspirators' untruthful assertion-“ All we ask is to be let alone:”— "As vonce I valked by a dismal swamp, Let me alone, for I've got your tin, The writer then foreshadowed the action of the Government, as follows: "Just then came along, on the self-same way, Another old Cove, and began for to say : Let you alone! that's comin' it strong! You've ben let alone a darned sight too long! Of all the surce that ever I heerd! Put down that stick! (You may well look skeered.) And if ever I catches you, round my ranch, You'll wish you had let honest folks alone.' 382 STEPHENS IN RICHMOND. CHAPTER XVI. SECESSION OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA DECLARED.-SEIZURE OF HARPER'S FERRY AND GOSPORT NAVY YARD.-THE FIRST TROOPS IN WASHINGTON FOR ITS DEFENSE. HE reception of Alexander H. Stephens by the Convention of Virginia politicians, the authorities of the State, and the excited populace in Richmond, gave him instant assurances of the success of his mission. He saw the "Confederate Flag" waving everywhere, and heard no complaint because of the usurpation. He perceived that in Virginia, as in the Gulf States, the heel of the usurper was firmly planted on the necks of the loyal people, and that despotism was substantially triumphant. His soul was filled with gladness, and he addressed the Virginians with the eloquence and earnestness of a man whose heart was in his work. "The fires of patriotism," he said, "I have seen blazing brightly all along my track, from Montgomery to the very gates of your city, and they are enkindling here with greater brilliancy and fervor. That constitutional liberty which we vainly sought for while in the old Union, we have found, and fully enjoy in What had you, the friends of liberty, to hope for while under Lincoln? Nothing. Beginning in usurpation, where will he end? He will quit Washington as ignominiously as he entered it, and God's will will have been accomplished. Madness and folly rule at Washington, but Providence is with us, and will bless us to the end. The people of Virginia and the States of the South are one in interest, in feeling, in institutions, and in hope; and why should they not be one in Government? Every son of the South, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, should rally beneath the same banner. The conflict may be terrible, but the victory will be ours. It remains for you to say whether you will share our triumphs." our new one. ... Stephens, as we have observed, was in Richmond for the purpose of negotiating a treaty for the admission of Virginia into the "Southern Confederacy." The Convention appointed Ex-President John Tyler, William Ballard Preston, S. McD. Moore, James P. Holcombe, James C. Bruce, and Lewis E. Harvie, Commissioners to treat with him. They entered upon the business at once, and on the 24th of April agreed to and signed a "Conven 1 Speech at Richmond, April 23, 1861, cited by Whitney in his History of the War for the Union, i. 402. Compare what Stephens said at Milledgeville, in November, 1860, and in the Georgia Convention, in January, 1861, pages 54 to 57, inclusive. AN ILLEGAL MILITARY LEAGUE. 383 tion between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Confederate States of America," which provided that, until the union of Virginia with the league should be perfected, "the whole military force and military operations, offensive and defensive, of said Commonwealth, in the impending conflict with the United States," should be under the chief control and direction of Jefferson Davis. So eager were the Virginia conspirators to "perfect the Union," that on the following day," the Convention, appealing April 25, to the Searcher of all hearts for the rectitude of their conduct, 1561. passed an ordinance ratifying the treaty, and adopting and ratifying the Committee of the Convention (John Tyler J. MD. Moore James & Bruce Lewis & Haria Nerxanent Llip (rows Como. for Covardenter state SIGNATURES OF THE COMMISSIONERS.1 2 April. Provisional Constitution of the Montgomery League. They proceeded to appoint delegates to the "Confederate Congress" that was to assemble on the 29th; authorized the banks of the State to suspend specie payments; made provision for the establishment of a navy for Virginia, and for enlistments for the State army, and adopted other measures preparatory for war. They also invited Jefferson Davis and his confederates to make Richmond their head-quarters. The so-called annexation of the Commonwealth to the "Confederacy" was officially proclaimed. signed. These were copied from the original parchment upon which the convention or treaty was engrossed and 2 John Tyler, who was a chief manager among the conspirators of the Virginia Convention, telegraphed as follows to Governor Pickens, at three o'clock that afternoon:- We are fellow-citizens once more. By an ordinance passed this day, Virginia has adopted the Provisional Government of the Confederate States." 384 USURPATION OF THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS. by Governor Letcher; and the "Mother of States," the "Mother of Presidents," and equally the Mother of Disunion, was forced into the position of an important member of the league against the Republic. Eastern and Northern Virginia soon became the theater of great battles, fought by immense armies, at various times during the war that ensued. When the time approached for the people of Virginia to vote on the Ordinance of Secession, in accordance with its own provisions, Senator James M. Mason, one of the most malignant and unscrupulous of the conspirators, addressed a letter to them from his home near Winchester, in which, after saying that the Ordinance "withdrew the State of Virginia from the Union, with all the consequences resulting from the separation," annulling "all the Constitution and laws of the United States within its limits," and absolving "its citizens from all obligations or obedience to them," he declared that 99 Honor a rejection of the Ordinance by the people would reverse all this, and that Virginia would be compelled to fight under the banner of the Republic, in violation of the sacred pledge made to the "Confederate States," in the treaty or "Military League' of the 25th of April. He then said:"If it be asked, What are those to do who, in their conscience, cannot vote to separate Virginia from the United States? the answer is simple and plain. and duty alike require that they should not vote on the question; and if they retain such opinions, they must leave the State." The answer was, indeed, "simple and plain," and in exact accordance with the true spirit of the conspirators, expressed by their chosen leader:-" All who oppose us shall smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel." Submission or banishment was the alternative offered by Mason, in the name of traitors in power, to Virginians who were true to the principles of the Father of his Country, whose remains were resting within the bosom of their State, and to the old flag under which the independence of their common country had been achieved. He well knew that his words would be received as expressions of the views of the usurpers at Richmond, and that thousands of citizens would thereby be kept from the polls, for in Virginia the votes were given openly, and not by secret ballot, as in other States. JAMES M. MASON. Mason's infamous suggestion was followed by coincident action. Troops had been for some time pouring into Virginia from the more Southern May 23, States, and the vote on the Ordinance of Secession was taken 1861. toward the close of May," in the midst of bayonets thirsting fo: the blood of Union men. Terror was then reigning all over Eastern Vir ginia. Unionists were hunted like wild beasts, and compelled to fly from 1 Letter to the Editor of the Winchester Virginian. May 16, 1861. NORTH CAROLINA RULED BY USURPERS. 385 their State to save their lives; and by these means the conspirators were enabled to report a vote of one hundred and twenty-five thousand nine hundred and fifty for secession, and only twenty thousand three hundred and seventy-three against it. This did not include the vote in Northwestern Virginia, where the people had rallied around their true representatives in the Convention, and defied the conspirators and all their power. They had already placed themselves boldly and firmly upon earnest professions of loyalty to the Union, and in Convention assembled at Wheeling, ten days before the voting, they had planted, as we shall observe hereafter, the vigorous germ of a new Free-labor Commonwealth. 1861. The conservative State of North Carolina, lying between Virginia and the more Southern States, could not long remain neutral. Her disloyal politicians, with Governor Ellis at their head, were active and unscrupulous. We have already observed their efforts to array the State against the National Government, and the decided condemnation of their schemes by the people.' Now, taking advantage of the excitement caused by the attack on Fort Sumter, and the call of the President for troops, they renewed their wicked efforts, and with better success. Ellis issued a proclamation," calling an extraordinary session of the February 17, Legislature on the 1st of May, in which he shamelessly declared that the President was preparing for the "subjugation of the entire South, and the conversion of a free republic, inherited from their fathers, into a military despotism, to be established by worse than foreign enemies, on the ruins of the once glorious Constitution of Equal Rights." With equal mendacity, the disloyal politicians throughout the State stirred up the people by making them believe that they were about to be deprived of their liberties by a military despotism at Washington. Excited, bewildered, and alarmed, they became, in a degree, passive instruments in the hands of men like Senator Clingman and others of his party. The Legislature acted under the same malign influences. It authorized a convention to consider the subject of the secession of the State, and ordered an election of delegates therefor, to be held on the 13th of May. It gave the Governor authority to raise ten thousand men, and appropriated five millions of dollars for the use of the State. It empowered the treasurer to issue notes to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars, in denominations as low as three cents; and by act defined treason to be the levying of war against the State, adhering to its enemies in establishing a government within the State without the consent of the Legislature, and in holding or executing any office in such government. The Convention assembled on the 20th of May, the anniversary of the "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," and on the same day an Ordinance of Secession was adopted by a unanimous vote. In the mean time the Governor had issued an order for the enrollment of thirty thousand 1 See pages 62 and 198. 2 In 1775 a Convention of the representatives of the citizens of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, held at Charlotte, passed a series of patriotic resolutions, equivalent in words and spirit to a declaration of independence of the Government of Great Britain. There is a well-founded dispute as to the day on which that declaration was adopted, one party declaring it to be the 20th of May, and another the 31st of May. For a minute account of that affair, see Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution. VOL. I.-25 |