Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1884 — BLAINE’S BOOK. [ARTICLE]

BLAINE’S BOOK.

A Chapter on the Critical Period Bei tween Lincoln’s Election and Buchanan’s Exit. The Beginning of Secession and the •Haste with Which the South Was Hurried to Its Fate. Buchanan’s Course and Character from a Pennsylvania Standpoint—A Chapter of Absorbing: Interest. One of the most interesting chapters in Mr. Blaine's new book is that devoted to tho political events of iB6O and the early months ot 1861. The following extracts, made from advance sheets, cover points of special interest: The winter folio wins the election of Mr. Lincoln was filled with deplorable events. In the whole history of the American people there is no epooh which recalls so much that is worthy of regret and so little that gratifies pride. The result of the election was unfortunate in the wide divergence between the vote which Mr. Linooln received in the electoral colleges and the vote which he received at the polls. In the electoral colleges he had an aggregate of 180. His opponents, united, had but 123. Of the popular vote, Lincoln received 1,866,452; Douglas, 1,201,574; Breckinridge, 850,082; Bell, 646,124. M. Lincoln's vote was wholly from the free States, except some 26,000 cast for him in the five border slave States. In the other skive States his name was not presented as a candidate. Mr. Douglas received in the South about 163,000 votes. In the North the votes cast distinctively for the Breckinridge electoral ticket ★ere less than 100,000, and distinctively for the Bell electoral ticket about 80,000. •Ttwas then manifest that the two Northern Presidential candidates, Lincoln and Douglas, had absorbed nearly the entire votes of the free States, and the two Southern Presidential candidates, Breckinridge and Bell, had absorbed almost the entire vote in the slave States. The Northern candidates received popular support in the South in about the same degree that the Southern candidates received popular support In the North. In truth as well as in appearance tt was a sectional contest, In which the North supported Northern candidates and the South supported Southern candidates. —-It- was the first time in the history of the government in which the President was chosen without electoral votes from both the slave and free States. This result was undoubtedly a source of weak- . ness to Mr. Lincoln —weakness made more apparent by his signal faTure to obtain a popular majority. He had a large plurality, but the combined vote of his opponents was nearly a million greater than the vote which he received. The time had now come when the Southern disunionlstß were to be put to the test. The event had happened which they had declared in advance to be cause for separation. It was perhaps the belief that their courage and determination were challenged which forced them to action. Having so often pledged themselves not to endure the election of an anti-slavery President, they were now persuaded that, if they quietly submitted, they would thereby accept an inferior position in the Government. This assumed obligation of consistency stimulated them to rash action; for, upon every consideration of prudence and wise forecast, they would, have quietly accepted a result—which they acknowledged to be in strict accordance with the Constitution. The South was enjoying exceptirnal prosperity. The advance of the slave States in wealth was more rapid than at any other period in tlulr history. Their staple products commanded high prices, and were con- • tinually grow ing in amount to meet the demands , of a market which represented the wants of the civilized world. In the decade between 1850 and 1860 the wealth of thfe South had increased three thousand millious of dollars, and this not from an overvaluation of slaves, but from increased cultivation of land, the extentiofi of .railways, and all the aids and appliances of vast agricultural enterprises. Georgia alone had increased in wealth over $300,000,000, no small proportion of w’hich was from commercial and manufacturing ventures that had proved extremely profitable. There was a community on the face of the globe whose condition so little justified revolution as that of the slave States in the year 1860. Indeed, at was a sense of strength born of exceptional prosperity which led them to their rash adventure of war. It would, however, be an injustice to tho people of the South to say that in November, 1860, they desired unanimously or by a majority, or on the part of any considerable minority, to engage in a scheme of violent resistance to the national authority. The slaveholders were, in the main, peacefully disposed and contented with the situation. But slavery as an economical institution and slavery as a political force were quite a istinct. Those who viewed it and used it merely as a sytem of labor naturally desired peace and dreaded commotion. Those who need it as a political engine tor the consolidation of political power had views arid ambitions inconsistent with the plans and hopes of lawabiding citizens. It was only by strenuous effort on the part of the latter class that an apparent majority of the Southern people committed themselves to the desperate design of destroying the National Government. Mr, Blaine then details the incidents attending tho secession of South Carolina, which State did not wait for the result of the election, but early in October, 1860, began a correspondence with the other cotton States, the response to which didnot indicate a decided wish or purposo to separate from the Union. Up to this time Presidential electors for South Carolina had always been chosen by tho legislature, and to the unpropitious assembling of that body in November, 1860, Sir. l.luine attributes the precipitation of the war of iharebellion. A short paragraph is devoted to the import attached to the word “ordinance” in connection with secession, the writer showing that its previous uso had been confined to acts passed by inferior bodies, and that there was no authority for attaching to it such impressive meaning. Mr. Blaine then states that, but for tho action of the Senators lrom tho other Southern States, South Carolina would have’ stood alone, and her secession would have proved abortive. BUCHANAN’S RESPONSIBILITY. Having given the history of the secession of South Carolina and shown how the other States wemTndtrasd example:■* Mr. iiiitcs2«&jr-s: Long before the secession movement had been developed to the extent just detailed. Congress was in session. It assembled one month after the Presidential election, and days before jthe dlsnnionlsts of South Carolina met in their ill-starred convention. Up to that time there had been excitement, threats ot resistance to the authority of the Government in many sections of the South, and an earnest attempt in the cotton States to promote co-operation in the fatal step which so many were bent on taking. But there had been no ovfrt act against the national authority. Federal officers were still exercising their functions in all the States; the customs were still collected in Southern ports; the United States mails were still carried without molestation from the Potomac to the Kio Grande. But the critical moment had come. The disunion conspiracy had reached a point where it must go forward with boldness or retreat before the displayed power aid the uplifted fiag of the nation. The administration coull adopt no policy so dangerous as to permit the enemies ot the Union to proceed in their conspiracy, and the hostile movement to gain perilous headway. At that jnneture Mr. Buchanan confronted a grayer responsibility than had ever before been imposed on a President of the United States. It. devolved on him to arrest the mad outbreak of the South by judicious firmness or, by irresolution and timidity, to plunge the nation into horrors the extent of which was mercnully veiled from the viaions ; ,of those who were to witness and share them: There could be no doubt in the mind of any one that the destruction of the Union would bs deplored by Mr. Buchanan as profoundly as any Jiving man. His birth and a Pennaylvan.an leave ne other presumption possi ble. Mr. Blame details the constitution of Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet, pointing out tho fact that the t outhern element largely predominated, and cent nucs: It was under these influences, artfully insinuated and persistently j lied, that Mr. Buchanan was induced to Write his mischievous and deClorable message of the first Monday of Deoemor, 1860-—a message wuoso evil effect can never tie estimated, and whose evil cha-acter can hardly be exaggerated. The President informed Congress t at “the long-continued and intemperate interference of the North-rn pejple with the Question of slavery in the Southern States has at fast produced its n tnral effect. * * * The - tone has a rived so-much dreaded by’ the Father aCJhis Country, when hostile geographical parties nave been formed." He declared that he bad “long foreseeh undo ten forewarned" his countrymen of ‘‘the imp’ending danger.” Apparently arguing the case for the Southern extr« mUts. the. Praudcnt believed that the danger **doea not proceed sole y term the attempt to exclude slavery trom the Territories, nor , from Ibe efforts to defeat the execution of the fugi-Qive-slave lay.” Any or all r f these evils, he fatd, “might have been endured by the .South.” I trusting to time and refiectibn for a remedy.

•‘The immediate peril, Mr. Buchanan Informed the country, “arises from the fact that the longcontinued agitation in the free States has at length produced its malign influence oh the slaves, and inspired them With vague notions of freedom. Hence a sense of security no longer exists around the family altar. The feeling of peace at home has given place to apprehensions of servile insurrections, and many a matron throughout the South retires at night in dread of what may befall herself and her children before morning.” The President was fully persuaded that "if this apprehension Of domestic danger should extend and intensify itself, disunion 1 will become inevitable.” Having thus stated what he believed to be the grievances of the South, Mr. Buchauan proceeded to give certain reasons why the slaveholders should not break up the Government. His defensive plea for the North was worse, if worse were possible, than his aggressive statements on behalf of the South. “The election of any one of our fellow-citizens to the office of President, “Mr. Buchanan complacently asserted, “does not of itself afford just cause for dissolving the Union." And then he adds an extraordinary qualification: “This is more especially true if his election has been effected by a mere plurality, and not a majority, of the people, and has resulted from transient and temporary causes, which may probably never again occur.” Translated into plainer language, this was an assurance to the Southern disunion sts that they need not break up the Government at the time, because Mr. Lincoln was a minority President, and was certain to be beaten at the next election. * * * The President ionnd that the chief grievance of the South was in the enactments of the free States known as “personal liberty laws.” When the fugitive slave law subjected the liberty of citizens to the decision of a single commissioner, and denied jury trial to a man upon the question of sending him to lifelong and cruel servitude, the issue throughout the tree States was made one of self-preservation. Without having the legal right to obstruct the return of a fugitive slave to his servitude, they felt not only that they had the right, but that it was their dutv to protect free citizens in their freedom. Very likely these enactments, inspired by an earnest spirit of liberty, went in many cases too far, and tended to produce conflicts between national and State authority. That was a question to be determined finally and exclusively by the Federal judiciary. Unfortunately, Mr. Buchanan carried his argument beyond that point, coupling it with a declaration and an admission fatal to the perpetuity of the Union. Alter reciting the statutes which he regarded as objectionable and hostile to the constitutional rights of the South, and after urging their unconditional repeal upon the North, the President said: “The Southern States, standing upon the basis of the Constitution, have a right to demand this act of justice from the Statjjs of the North. Should it be refused, then the Constitution, to which all the States are parties, will have been willfully violated by one portion of them in a provision essential to tho domestic security and happiness of the remainder. In that event, the injured States, after having used all peaceful and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union.” By this declaration the President justified, and in effect advised, an appeal from the constitutional tribunals of the country to a popular judgment in the aggrieved States, and recognized the right of those States, upon such popular judgment, to destroy the Constitution of the Union. * * * Having made his argument in favor of the right of “revolution,” Mr. Buchanan prooeeded to argue ably and earnestly against the assumption by any State of an inherent right to secede from the Government at its own will and pleasure. But he utterly destroyed the force of his reasoning by declaring that “after much serious reflection” he had arrived at “the conclusion that no power has been delegated, to Congress, or to any other department of the Federal Government, to coerce a State into submi-sion which is attempting to withdraw, or has actually withdrawn," from the Union. He emphasized his position by further declaring that, so far from this power having been delegated to Congress, it was expressly refused by the convention which framed the Constitution.”. Congress “possesses many means,” Mr. Buchanan added, “of preserving the Unipn by conciliation; but the sword was not placed in their hands to preserve it by force.” The fatal admission was thus evolved from the mind of the President that any State which thought itself aggrieved and could not secure the concessions demanded might bring the Government down to ruins. The power to destroy was in the State. The power to preserve was not in the nation. The President apparently failed te see that if the nation could not be preserved by force, its legal capacity for existence was dependent upon the concurring and continuing will of all the individual States. The original bond of union was, therefore, for tho day only, and the provisions of the Constitution which gave to the Supreme Court jurisdiction in controversies between States was binding no further than the States chose to accept the decisions of the court. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CABINET. Mr. Blaine discusses at considerable length the evil influence of Mr. Buchanan’s doctrines, claiming that their effects were not confined to the slavo States, but they did incalculable harm m the free States, by fixing in the minds of many Northern men the idea that the South was justified in attempting to destroy the Government if what they termed a war on Southern institutions should be continued. Tho doctrines of this message caused great uneasiness in the North, and the pressure,of public opinion soon made itself felt. Gen. Cass, Secretary of State, was the first to resign from the Cabinet, he suddenly realizing he was_in a false position._ He resigned on the 12th of December, nine days after the message was sent to Congress, and was succeeded by Judge Jeremiah S. Black, to whoso learning and ability Mr. Blaine pays high tribute. After speaking of Judge Black's devotion to Democracy and his hatred of Abolitionists, and his belief that the success of the Republican party would be fraught with the direst evil, Mr, Blaiue says: ; . ■ ■ Judge Black entered upon Ills duties as Secretary of State on the 17th of December, the day on which the Disunion Convention of South Carolina assembled. Ho found the malign influenee of Mr. Buchanan’s message fully at work throughout the South. Under its encouragtment only three days were required by the convention at Charleston to pass the ordinance of secession, and four days later Gov. Pickens issued a proclamation declaring ’’South Carolina a separate, sovereign, free, and independent State, with the right to levy war, conclude peace, and negotiate treaties.” From that moment Judge Black’s position toward the Southern leaders was radically changed. They?were no longer fellow-Demoerats. They were the enemies of-the Union, ta Which he .was devoted. -sssspiratiirs Wwalrd the ÜbVeri'ifuMV 1 to which he had token a solemn oath of fidelity and loyalty. -■ ■ —— Judge Black’s change, however Important to his own fame, would prove comparatively fruitless unless he could influence Mr. Buchanan to break with the men who had been artfully Using the power of his administration to destroy the Union. The opportunity and the teßt came promptly. The new “sovereign, free, and independent” government of South Carolina sent commissioners to Washington to negotiate for the surrender of the national forts, and the transfer of-national property within her limits. Mr. Buchanan prepared an answer to their request which was compromising to the honor of the Executive and perilous to the integrity of the Union. Judge Black took a decided and irrevocable Btand against the President’s posMoa. He advised Mr. Buchanan that upon the basis of that fatal concession to the disunion leaders he could not remain in his Cabinet. It was a sharp issue, but was soon adjusted. Mr. Buchanan gave wr.y, and permitted Judge Black and his associates, Holt and Stanton, to frame a reply for the administration. Jefferson Davis, Mr. Toombs, Mr. Benjamin, Mr. Slidell, who had been Mr. Buchanan’s intimate and confidential advisers, and wno had led him to the Prink of ruin, found themselves suddenly supplanted, and a new power installed at the White House. Foiled, and no longer able to use tbe national administration as an instrumentality to destroy the national life, the secession leaders in Congress turned upon the President with angry reproaches. In their rage they lost all sense of the respect due to the Chief Magistrate of the nation, and assaulted Mr. Buchanan with coarseness as well as violence. Senator Benjamin spoke of him as “a senile Executive. under tho sinister influence of in-ane counsels." This exhibition of malignity toward the misguided President afforded to the North the most convincing and satisfactory proof that there had been a change for tho better in the plans and pnrpo-esof the administration. They realized that it must be a deep sense of impending danger which could separate Mr. Buchanan fromJjis political associations with the Booth, and they recognized m his po ition a significant proof of the desperate determination to'which the enomies of the Union had cornu Mr. Blaine then details the reorganization of the Cabinet—Secretaries Cobb, Floyd, and Thompson resigning, and Messrs. Dix, Holt, and Stanton succeeding. “Thus reconstructed,’’ says Mr. Blaine, “the Cabinet, as a wholes was one of recognized power.” This reconstruction of the Cabinet was followed by a marked change in Mr. Buchanan's positi n, which was received at the North “with unaffected satisfaction, and at the South with unconc aled indignation.” Tois charge was announced in a special message to Congress on thfrV th of January, 1861. Ot this message Mr. Blaine sa«B- •, < A certain significance attached to the date which.the President hai selected fer communicating his message to Congress. It was the Bth

day of January, the anniversary of toe battle ot New Orleans, celebrated that year kith enthusiastic demonstration in honor of the memory o‘s Andrew Jackson, who had, on a memorable occasion not unlike the present, sworn an emphatic oath that “the Federal Union must and shall be preserved." There was also marked satisfaction throughout the loyal States with Mr. Buchanan’s assnrance of the peace of the District of Columbia on the ensuing 4th of March, on the occasion of Mr. Lincoln s inauguration. He did not himself “share in the serious apprehensions that were entertained of disturbance" pn that occasion, but he made this declaration, which -was received in the North with hearty applause: “In any event, it will bo my duty to preserve the peace, and this duty shall be performed." r ANALYSIS or MR. BUCHANAN’S CHARACTER. The chapter concludes with an analysis and estimate of Mr. Buchanan's character, which is given in full: There were, indeed, two Mr. Buchanans in the closing months of the administratien. The first was Mr. Buchanan of November and December, angered by the decision of the Presidential election, and more than willing that the North, in-* eluding his own State, should be disciplined by fright to more conservative views and to a stricter observance of what he considered solemn obligations Imposed by the Constitution. If the Southern threat of resistance to the authority of the Union had gone no further than this, Mr. Buchanan would have been readily reconciled to its temporary violence, and would probably have considered it a national blessing in, disguise. The second was Mr. Buchanan of January and February, appalled by surrounding and increasing perils, grieved by the conduct of Southern men whom he had .Implicitly-trusted, overwhelmed by the realization of the evils which had obviously followed his official declarations, hoping earnestly for the safety of the Union, and yet more disturbed and harrowed in his mind than the mass of loyal people who did not stand so near the danger as he, or so accurately measure its alarming growth. The President of December, with Cobb, and Floyd, and Thompson in his Cabinet, and the President of January, with Dix, and Blanton, and Holt for his counselors, were radically different men. No true estimate of Mr. Buchanan in the crisis of his public career can ever be reached if this vital distinction be overlooked. ' '. It was Mr. Buchanan’s misfortune to be called to act in an emergency which demanded will, fortitude, and moral courage. In these qualities he was deficient. He did not possess the executive faculty. His file had been principally devoted to the practice of iaiv in the most peaceful of communities, and to service in legislative bodies where he was borne along by the force of association. He had not been trained to prompt decision, had not been accustomed to exercise command. He was cautious and conservative to the point of timidity. He possessed ability of A high order, and, though he thought slowly he could master the most difficult subject with comprehensive power. His service of ten years in the House, and an equal period in the Senate, was marked by a conscientious devotion to duty. He did not rank with the ablestmembers of either body, but alwavs bore a prominent part in important discussions, and* maintained himself with credit. It was said of Mr. Buchanan that he instinctively dreaded to assume responsibility of any kind. His keenest critic remarked that in the tentative period of political issues assumed by his party, Mr. Buchanan could always be found two paces in the rear, but in the hour of triumph he marched proudly in the front rank. He was not gifted with independence or self-as-sertion. His bearing toward Southern statesmen was derogatory to him as a man of spirit. His tone toward administrations of his own party was so deferential as almost to imply a' lack of self-respect. He was not a leader among men. He was always led. He was led by Mason and Soule into the imprudence of signing the Ostend manifesto; he was led by the Southern members of his Cabinet into the inexplicable folly and blunder of indorsing the Leeompton iniquity; he was led by disunion Senators into the deplorable mistake contained in his last annual message. Fortunately for him he was led, a month later, by Black, and Holt, and Stanton, to a radical change in hi 3 compromising position. If Mr. Buchanan had possessed the unconquerable will of Jackson, or the stubborn courage of Taylor, he could have changed the history of the revolt against the Union. A great opportunity came to him, but he was not equal to it. Always an admirable adviser where caution and prudence were the virtues required, he was fatally wanting in a situation which demanded prompt action and a strong nerve. As licpresentative in Congress, as Senator, as Minister abroad, as Secretary of State, his career was honorable and successful. His fife was singularly free from personal fault or shortcoming. He was honest and pure-minded. His fame would have been more enviable if he had never beea elevated to the Presidency. ——