THE NATIONAL CENSUS. 27 cent. per annum. This ratio being so defini- | ulation, these three States lose four Repretively marked, rendered it an easy matter for sentatives. New York alone has nearly any section to indicate, in advance, its popu- double the free population of the six original lation and consequent Congressional repre- "Seceded States," and yet she has only thirsentation. Hence, the South, growing more ty-one Representatives to their twenty-eight, slowly in population than the energetic, This simple fact proves how largely slaves are competitive North, discovering itself beat-represented in Congress-the negroes entering en in the race of numbers, sought to make up in territorial acquisition what it failed to obtain by popular increase. In 1850 it was conclusive that the South must be cast into a minority if new acquisitions were not secured during the decade following. The attempt was made on Kansas and failed; and the South has had to witness the long threatened ascendency of the Free States in the returns and apportionment of the census of 1860, with no power to modify the result. The Census. into "population" in the proportion of five negroes for three in count, thus obtaining a Congressional apportionment without any of the rights of citizenship appertaining to them. If the Slave States were apportioned Representatives on their free white population alone, their representation in Congress would decrease about forty per cent; or, as Slaves are property, if the Free States were represented on property in the apportionment of three persons for every five thousand dollars, their Congressional delegations would immeasurably be increased.* States. To apprehend, at a glance, the particular strength of each section of the Union, and thus to demonstrate the fact of the ascendancy of the Free States, we will classify the States, and give the Congressional representation of each, under the new apportionment rendered necessary in order to keep the number of Representatives in Con- Kansas.. gress down to 233. Total....2,728,116 3,135,301 25 Gain in 10 years, 407,185, or 15 per cent nearly. New England, it will thus be seen, loses four members of Congress, notwithstanding her gain has been over four hundred thousand in population. MIDDLE STATES. 1850.. NORTH-WESTERN STATES. 1850. 1860. Reps. Loss. Gain. Ohio.. ..1,980,429 2,339,599 18 3 Michigan.... 397,654 749,112 6 Indiana....... 968,416 1,350,479 11 Illinois 851,470 1,711,753 13 Wisconsin.... 305,391 775,873 6 Iowa. 192,214 Minnesota.... 6,077 .... 0 0 2 0 0 0 674,943 5 0 162,022 1 1 0 Total... 4,721,551 7,870,896 61 4 0433c Ohio, notwithstanding her heavy gain, loses three Representatives, though the NorthWestern States collectively add nine to their delegation. Ohio alone has more free white population than the whole six States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Missis sippi, and Louisiana; yet she has but eighteen *There is something so paradoxical in the constructive and the active relations of the Slave to the government as to excite the wonder of a foreigner. Thus, by the Constitution, the principle of represen tation on property is forbidden, yet it gives the Slave 1860. Reps. Loss. Gain. States a representation as stated. This would seem to settle, beyond question, the fact that the Constitution does not recognize Slaves as property. Yet, here comes the decision of the United States Supreme Court, in the celebrated Dred Scott Slave Case, that Slaves are property, and property only, not men. It will be hard for a stickler for consis States. Total.......5,898,911 7,465,943 59 Gain in 10 ys.. 1,566,972, or 264 per cent. Here we have still more remarkable results. Notwithstanding the enormous increase of over one and a half million, in pop tency to reconcile this discordance. He will have to be satisfied with the fact without understanding its propriety. Representatives in Congress, while they have New England States. twenty-eight. Few even of our own people realize how enormous this discrepancy has been; but, figures here are incontrovertible witnesses, and prove how largely Slaves are represented in our National councils. The fact thus expressed it is necessary to weigh well in any argument which may arise on the relative favors which the Constitution bestows upon particular sections. PACIFIC STATES. Middle States.. The Free Territories.. 3,135,301 7,465,943 7,870,896 432.479 213,292 2,698,841 21,816,752 5,581,630 Total pop. of Free States and Territories...19,117,911 These are the figures deduced from the Census re1860. Reps. Loss. Gain. turns for 1860, prepared California.... 92,597 380,015 3 States. 1850. 0 Oregon... 12,294 52,464 1 0 ..... 432,479 4 0 Total......104,891 Gain in 10 years 326,588, or nearly 310 per cent. - 1 16,235,122 Effects of the Census. under the supervision of a Southern man. That they are correct admits of no doubt. The results, gratifying to the North, disconcert the South, since they prove it to be helplessly in the minority. In the Union the power of the Slave States is forever gone, except, acting as a unit, they can take advantage of party divisions in the North to name certain single measures, or elect certain men; but, without a very strong co-operating party Reps. Loss.Gain. in the Free States, the Pro-Slavery propagandists are perfectly powerless to secure more soil, to command the Executive, to direct the revenues and appropriations, or to control legislation in their favor. The Constitution may be regarded by the Northern States to the letter-the Fugitive Slave Act may be enforced against every runaway negro slavethe right to slave transit through the Free States may be conceded; but these will not avail to appease the Southern mind. The facts of their minority-that Slavery is circumscribed in the Union-that the Free soil and Free labor party is immensely in the ascendant-impelled the Southern people into the scheme for founding a pure Slave Confederacy, and no "compromise" will restore them to the Union except it be such a compromise as will abjure the old Constitution so far as to give the Slave States an equal share in the General Government at all times, an equal share in the common territory, the right of Slave transit through Free soil, the use of local officers and jails to arrest fugitives, &c., &c. Other terms than these they will not, cannot, peaceably accept, and if brought back into the Union again it must be vi et armis. CHAPTER II. Pre-determination to Socede. THE OBJECTS OF SECESSION. As early as in 1858, the results of the new census having been anticipated, the leaders of the rebellion began to canvass the subject of immediate secession. Jefferson Davis, in a speech at Jackson, Mississippi, in the fall of that year, assumed the position of a direct secession advocate. He said: "If an Abolitionist be chosen President of the United States, you will have presented to you the question of whether you will permit the Government to pass into the hands of your avowed and implacable enemies? Without pausing for an answer, I will state my own position to be, that such a result would be a species of revolution by which the purposes of the Government would be destroyed, and the observ ance of its mere forms entitled to no respect. In that event, in such a manner as should be most ex preme Court, under the laws, and under the people, has no power to oppress or wrong any section, and his election could afford no just cause for alarm, even if he were a Monarchist. None better knew this than the speaker quoted from above; but he, and all those who have since acted with him, chose to assume a fallacy as a fact, in order to aid and forward the pre-determined design of a dissolution of the Union; and the election of an "Abolitionist"—that is, any Northern man, with Northern or Freesoil principles—was to be the signal for the effort to cast off allegiance to the Constitution. Governor Hicks, in his address to the people of Maryland, said:—“ We are told by the leading spirits of the South Carolina Convenpedient, I should deem it your duty to provide for tion, that, neither the election of Mr. Lincoln, your safety outside of the Union, with those who nor the non-execution of the Fugitive Slave have already shown the will, and would have ac-law, nor both combined, constitute their quired the power, to deprive you of your birthright, grievances. They declare that the real cause and to reduce you to worse than the Colonial dependence of your fathers." of their discontent dates as far back as 1833." We shall give the South Carolina Declaration The sentiment, it will be seen, covered the of Causes, in its proper order in this History, whole ground of the right and propriety of a and quote from Governor Hicks, to show how secession from the Union. "If an Abolition- a Southerner, not a Secessionist, viewed and ist be chosen President," proves that the con-understood the movement. Mr. Davis, in his tingency of a Northern triumph was appre-address to the Senate, (January 21st,) after hended, and what follows indicates the line arguing that the equality spoken of in the of argument to be pursued before the people Declaration of Independ Southern View of in justification of the movement for a dissolu-ence was the equality of a tion of the Confederacy. If an "Abolition-class of political rights, said: ist" had not been elected? Probably the contemplated movement would not have been made in 1860, as the right pretext would have been wanting with which to go before the people. Not that the election of any President could in any way change the Constitution, could control Congress, could affect that bulwark of our institutions, the United States Supreme Court, could deprive any State, or any people, or any man of a birth-right:-the al that the step of -ecession was taken "from President being the mere temporary head of the high and solid foundation of defending the nation, under Congress, under the Su- and protecting the rights we inherited," &c.. 'But we have proclaimed our independence. This is done with no hostility or any desire to injure any section of the country, nor even for our pecuniary benefit, but from the high and solid foundation of defending and protecting the rights we inherited, and transmitting them unshorn to our posterity." As the Declaration, in his view, secured only a class of political rights, the succeeding avow gives the reader a glimpse of the true purpo- | the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cor ses in view-not to recognize an equality of rights of persons, but to secure, to the dominant class, the "rights" it " inherited." Mr. Stephens' Expo sition. ner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man. That Slavery-subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition. This, our new Government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It has been so even amongst us. Many who hear me, per rally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. All this, however, is not only clearly stated by the Vice-President of the "Confederate States," but the curtain is drawn aside, and we are permitted to see the moving will of the ambitious scheme of the Secession-haps, can recollect well, that this truth was not geneists. Mr. Stephens' exposition of the powers of their Constitution and the purposes had in view in its formation, was made at Savannah, March 21st, 1861. We may, therefore, here give place to such portions of his speech as will serve to illustrate our chapter subject, viz. :—“The objects of Secession," which it is highly important to understand as a preliminary to a just comprehension of all the events which have followed upon the rupture of old relations: "The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions-African Slavery as it exists among us-the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this as the rock upon which the old Union would split.' He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature: that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time. The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly used against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a government built upon it; when the storm came and the wind blew, it fell.' * "In the conflict thus far, success has been, on our side, complete throughout the length and breadth of the Confederate States. It is upon this, as I have stated, our actual fabric is firmly planted; and I cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of a full recognition of this prineiple throughout the civilized and enlightened world. "As I have stated, the truth of this principle may be slow in development, as all truths are, and ever have been in the various branches of science. It was so with the principles announced by Gallileo-it was so with Adam Smith and his principles of politi cal economy-it was so with Harvey and his theory of the circulation of the blood. It is stated that not a single one of the medical profession, living at the time of the announcement of the truths made by him, admitted them. Now they are universally acknowledged. May we not, therefore, look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgement of the truths upon which our system rests. It is the first government ever instituted upon principles of strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of certain classes; but the classes thus enslaved, were of the same race, and in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws. The negro, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper materials, the granite; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question "Our new Government is founded upon exactly them. For His own purposes He has made one race SPIRIT OF THE SECESSION SENTIMENT. 81 to differ from another, as He has made one star to | tainty. We are now the nucleus of a growing power, differ from another star in glory.' which, if we are true to ourselves, our destiny and high mission, will become the controlling power on this continent. To what extent accessions will go on in the process of time, or where it will end, the future will determine." "The great objects of humanity are best attained when conformed to His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments, as well as in all things else. Our Confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders is become the chief stone of the corner' in our new edifice. "The progress of disintegration in the old Union may be expected to go on with almost absolute cer This sets at rest all doubts in regard to the distinctive objects in view in severing relations with the old Confederacy; while it also demonstrates the moral and political spirit which will direct the new Government. CHAPTER III. SPREAD OF THE SECESSION SENTIMENT. Treasonable Utter ances. ELECTIONS held in the several Northern States, during September and October, indicated pretty clearly that Mr. Lincoln, the Republican nominee, would carry each of those States, with a fair prospect, also, of obtaining a majority in California and Oregon. This indication served to awaken the slumbering disunion feeling, and various projects were agitated, by Southern papers," to meet a common danger." In South Carolina there was but one sentiment-that of secession. The election of a Republican to the Presidency was not urged as the sole, or even the leading, cause of the disunion feeling; but the course of events seemed to have demonstrated that the people were rife for the formation of a Slave Confederacy, and the leaders prepared, even before the 6th of November, the programme of this disunion movement. think available for meeting it (the issue) is just to tear the Constitution of the United States, trample it under foot, and form a Southern Confederacy, every State of which shall be a slaveholding State. I believe it as I stand in the face of my Maker-I believe it on my responsibility to you as your honored representative that the only hope of the South is in the South, and that the only available means of making that hope effective is to cut asunder the bonds that tie us together, and take our separate position in the family of nations." This speech, violent as it was considered at the time, in the North, really reflected the sentiment of his State. A sympathy with that sentiment prevailed, to a great extent, throughout all the Cotton States; but, up to the date named, (Nov. 6th,) except in South Carolina, no action was taken which looked to immediate secession. Even in Virginia. As early as 1856, one of the South Carolina the feeling against "submission" was representatives in Congress, Mr. Preston strong that Governor Letcher, in his Message Brooks-who, but a few weeks previously, to the Legislature said: "It is useless to had assaulted United States Senator Sumner attempt to conceal the fact, that in the pre-in a speech made at an ovation given in his sent temper of the Southern people, it (the honor said among other things :election of a Republican President) cannot and will not be submitted to. The idea of permitting such a man to have the "I tell you, fellow-citizens, from the bottom of my heart, that the only mode which I * * |