Showing posts with label Nullification Crisis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nullification Crisis. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

John J. Crittenden’s Address on the Life and Death of Henry Clay, Delivered at Louisville, September 29, 1852

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,—I am very sensible of the difficulty and magnitude of the task which I have undertaken.

I am to address you in commemoration of the public services of HENRY CLAY, and in celebration of his obsequies. His death filled his whole country with mourning, and the loss of no citizen, save the Father of his Country, has ever produced such manifestations of the grief and homage of the public heart. His history has indeed been read "in a nation's eyes." A nation's tears proclaim, with their silent eloquence, its sense of the national loss. Kentucky has more than a common share in this national bereavement. To her it is a domestic grief,—to her belongs the sad privilege of being the chief mourner. He was her favorite son, her pride, and her glory. She mourns for him as a mother. But let her not mourn as those who have no hope or consolation. She can find the richest and the noblest solace in the memory of her son, and of his great and good actions; and his fame will come back, like a comforter, from his grave, to wipe away her tears. Even while she weeps for him, her tears shall be mingled with the proud feelings of triumph which his name will inspire; and Old Kentucky, from the depths of her affectionate and heroic heart, shall exclaim, like the Duke of Ormond, when informed that his brave son had fallen in battle, "I would not exchange my dead son for any living son in Christendom." From these same abundant sources we may hope that the widowed partner of his life, who now sits in sadness at Ashland, will derive some pleasing consolations. I presume not to offer any words of comfort of my own. Her grief is too sacred to permit me to use that privilege. You, sons and daughters of Kentucky, have assembled here to commemorate his life and death. How can I address you suitably on such a theme? I feel the oppressive consciousness that I cannot do it in terms adequate to the subject, or to your excited feelings. I am no orator, nor have I come here to attempt any idle or vainglorious display of words; I come as a plain Kentuckian, who, sympathizing in all your feelings, presents you with this address, as his poor offering, to be laid upon that altar which you are here erecting to the memory of Henry Clay. Let it not be judged according to its own value, but according to the spirit in which it is offered. It would be no difficult task to address you on this occasion in the extravagant and rhetorical language that is usual in funeral orations; but my subject deserves a different treatment—the monumental name of Henry Clay rises above all mere personal favor and flattery; it rejects them, and challenges the scrutiny and the judgment of the world. The noble uses to which his name should be applied, are to teach his country, by his example, lessons of public virtue and political wisdom; to teach patriots and statesmen how to act, how to live, and how to die. I can but glance at a subject that spreads out in such bright and boundless expanse before me.

Henry Clay lived in a most eventful period, and the history of his life for forty years has been literally that of his country. He was so identified with the government for more than two-thirds of its existence, that, during that time, hardly any act which has redounded to its honor, its prosperity, its present rank among the nations of the earth, can be spoken of without calling to mind involuntarily the lineaments of his noble person. It would be difficult to determine whether in peace or in war, in the field of legislation or of diplomacy, in the springtide of his life, or in its golden ebb, he won the highest honor. It can be no disparagement to any one of his contemporaries to say that, in all the points of practical statesmanship, he encountered no superior in any of the employments which his constituents or his country conferred upon him.

For the reason that he had been so much and so constantly in the public eye, an elaborate review of his life will not be expected of me. All that I shall attempt will be to sketch a few leading traits, which may serve to give those who have had fewer opportunities of observation than I have had something like a just idea of his public character and services. If, in doing this, I speak more at large of the earlier than of the later periods of his life, it is because, in regard to the former, though of vast consequence, intervening years have thrown them somewhat in the background.

Passing by, therefore, the prior service of Mr. Clay in the Senate for brief periods in 1806 and 1810-11, I come at once to his Speakership in the House of Representatives, and his consequent agency in the war of 1812.

To that war our country is indebted for much of the security, freedom, prosperity, and reputation which it now enjoys. It has been truly said by one of the living actors in that perilous era, that the very act of our going to war was heroic.1 By the supremacy of the naval power of England the fleets of all Europe had been swept from the seas; the banner of the United States alone floated in solitary fearlessness. She seemed to encircle the earth with her navies, and to be the undisputed mistress of the ocean. We went out upon the deep with a sling in our hands. When, in all time, were such fearful odds seen as we had against us?

The events of the war with England, so memorable, and even wonderful, are too familiar to all to require any particular recital on this occasion. Of that war,—of its causes and consequences,—of its disasters, its bloody battles, and its glorious victories by land and sea, history and our own official records have given a faithful narrative. A just national pride has engraven that narrative upon our hearts. But even in the fiercest conflicts of that war, there was nothing more truly heroic than the declaration of it by Congress.

Of that declaration, of the incidents, personal influences, and anxious deliberations which preceded and led to it, the history is not so well or generally known. The more it is known the more it will appear how important was the part that Mr. Clay acted, and how much we are indebted to him for all the glorious and beneficial issues of the declaration of that war, which has not inappropriately been called the Second War of Independence.

The public grounds of the war were the injustice, injury, and insults inflicted on the United States by the government of Great Britain, then engaged in a war of maritime edicts with France, of which the commerce of the United States was the victim, our merchant ships being captured by British cruisers on every sea, and confiscated by her courts, in utter contempt of the rights of this nation as an independent power. Added to this, and more offensive than even those outrages, was the arrogation, by the same power, of a right to search American vessels for the purpose of impressing seamen from vessels sailing under the American flag. These aggressions upon our national rights constituted, undoubtedly, justifiable cause of war. With equal justice on our part, and on the same grounds (impressment of seamen excepted), we should have been warranted in declaring war against France also; but common sense (not to speak of policy) forbade our engaging with two nations at once, and dictated the selection, as an adversary, of the one that had power, which the other had not, to carry its arbitrary edicts into full effect. The war was really, on our part, a war for national existence.

When Congress assembled, in November, 1811, the crisis was upon us. But, as may be readily imagined, it could be no easy matter to nerve the heart of Congress, all unprepared for the dread encounter, to take the step, which there could be no retracing, of a declaration of war.

Nor could that task, in all probability, ever have been accomplished, but for the concurrence, purely accidental, of two circumstances: the one, the presence of Henry Clay in the chair of the popular branch of the national legislature; and the other, that of James Monroe, as Secretary of State, in the executive administration of the government.

Mr. Monroe had returned but a year or two before from a course of public service abroad, in which, as minister plenipotentiary, he had represented the United States at the several courts, in succession, of France, Spain, and Great Britain. From the last of these missions he had come home, thoroughly disgusted with the contemptuous manner in which the rights of the United States were treated by the belligerent powers, and especially by England. This treatment, which even extended to the personal intercourse between their ministers and the representatives of this country, he considered as indicative of a settled determination on their part, presuming upon the supposed incapacity of this government for war, to reduce to system a course of conduct calculated to debase and prostrate us in the eyes of the world. Reasoning thus, he had brought his mind to a serious and firm conviction that the rights of the United States, as a nation, would never be respected by the powers of the Old World until this government summoned up resolution to resent such usage, not by arguments and protests merely, but by an appeal to arms. Full of this sentiment, Mr. Monroe was called, upon a casual vacancy, when it was least expected by himself or the country, to the head of the Department of State. That sentiment, and the feelings which we have thus accounted for, Mr. Monroe soon communicated to his associates in the cabinet, and, in some degree it might well be supposed, to the great statesman then at the head of the government.

The tone of President Madison's first message to Congress (November 5, 1811), a few months only after Mr. Monroe's accession to the cabinet, can leave hardly a doubt in any mind of such having been the case. That message was throughout of the gravest cast, reciting the aggressions and aggravations of Great Britain, as demanding resistance, and urging upon Congress the duty of putting the country "into an armor and attitude demanded by the crisis and corresponding with the national spirit and expectations."

It was precisely at this point of time that Mr. Clay, having resigned his seat in the Senate, appeared on the floor of the House of Representatives, and was chosen, almost by acclamation, Speaker of that body. From that moment he exercised an influence, in a great degree personal, which materially affected, if it did not control, the judgment of the House. Among the very first acts which devolved upon him by virtue of his office was the appointment of the committees raised upon the President's message. Upon the select committee of nine members to which was referred "so much of the message as relates to our foreign relations," he appointed a large proportion from among the fast friends of the administration, nearly all of them being new members and younger than himself, though he was not then more than thirty-five years of age. It is impossible, at this day, to call to mind the names of which this committee was composed (Porter, Calhoun, and Grundy being the first named among them), without coming to the conclusion that the committee was constituted with a view to the event predetermined in the mind of the Speaker. There can be no question that when, quitting the Senate, he entered the representative body, he had become satisfied that, by the continued encroachments of Great Britain on our national rights, the choice of the country was narrowed down to war or submission. Between these there could be no hesitation in such a mind as that of Mr. Clay which to choose. In this emergency he acted for his country as he would in a like case for himself. Desiring and cultivating the good will of all, he never shrank from any personal responsibility, nor cowered before any danger. More than a year before his accession to the House of Representatives he had, in a debate in the Senate, taken occasion to say that "he most sincerely desired peace and amity with England; that he even preferred an adjustment of all differences with her to one with any other nation; but, if she persisted in a denial of justice to us, he trusted and hoped that all hearts would unite in a bold and vigorous vindication of our rights." It was in this brave spirit, animated to increased fervency by intervening aggressions from the same quarter, that Mr. Clay entered into the House of Representatives.

Early in the second month of the session, availing himself of the right then freely used by the Speaker to engage in discussion while the House was in committee of the whole, he dashed into the debates upon the measures of military and naval preparation recommended by the President and reported upon favorably by the committee. He avowed, without reserve, that the object of this preparation was war, and war with Great Britain.

In these debates he showed his familiarity with all the weapons of popular oratory. In a tempest of eloquence, in which he wielded alternately argument, persuasion, remonstrance, invective, ridicule, and reproach, he swept before him all opposition to the high resolve to which he exhorted Congress. To the argument (for example) against preparing for a war with England, founded upon the idea of her being engaged, in her conflict with France, in fighting the battles of the world, he replied, that such a purpose would be best achieved by a scrupulous observance of the rights of others, and by respecting that public law which she professed to vindicate. "Then," said he, "she would command the sympathies of the world. But what are we required to do by those who would engage our feelings and wishes in her behalf? To bear the actual cuffs of her arrogance, that we may escape a chimerical French subjugation. We are called upon to submit to debasement, dishonor, and disgrace; to bow the neck to royal insolence, as a course of preparation for manly resistance to Gallic invasion! What nation, what individual, was ever taught, in the schools of ignominious submission, these patriotic lessons of freedom and independence?" And to the argument that this government was unfit for any war but a war against invasion,-so signally since disproved by actual events,-he exclaimed, with characteristic vehemence, "What! is it not equivalent to invasion, if the mouths of our outlets and harbors are blocked up, and we are denied egress from our own waters? Or, when the burglar is at our door, shall we bravely sally forth and repel his felonious entrance, or meanly skulk within the cells of the castle? What! shall it be said that our amor patriæ is located at these desks? that we pusillanimously cling to our seats here, rather than vindicate the most inestimable rights of our country?" Whilst in debate upon another occasion, at nearly the same time, he showed how well he could reason upon a question which demanded argument rather than declamation. To his able support of the proposition of Mr. Cheves to add to our then small but gallant navy ten frigates, may be ascribed the success, though by a lean majority, of that proposition. Replying to the objection, urged with great zeal by certain members, that navies were dangerous to liberty, he argued that the source of this alarm was in themselves. “Gentlemen fear," said he, "that if we provide a marine it will produce collision with foreign nations, plunge us into war, and ultimately overturn the Constitution of the country. Sir, if you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean, surrender all your commerce, give up all your prosperity. It is the thing protected, not the instrument of protection, that involves you in war. Commerce engenders collision, collision war, and war, the argument supposes, leads to despotism. Would the counsels of that statesman be deemed wise who would recommend that the nation should be unarmed; that the art of war, the martial spirit, and martial exercises, should be prohibited; who should declare, in a word, that the great body of the people should be taught that national happiness was to be found in perpetual peace alone?"

While Mr. Clay, in the capitol, was, with his trumpet-tongue, rousing Congress to prepare for war, Mr. Monroe, then Secretary of State, gave his powerful co-operation, and lent the Nestor-like sanction of his age and experience to the bold measures of his young and more ardent compatriot. It was chiefly through their fearless influence that Congress was gradually warmed up to a war spirit, and to the adoption of some preparatory measures. But no actual declaration of war had yet been proposed. There was a strong opposition in Congress, and the President, Mr. Madison, hesitated to recommend it, only because he doubted whether Congress was yet sufficiently determined and resolved to maintain such a declaration, and to maintain it to all the extremities of war.

The influence and counsel of Mr. Clay again prevailed. He waited upon the President, at the head of a deputation of members of Congress, and assured him of the readiness of a majority of Congress to vote the war if recommended by him. Upon this the President immediately recommended it by his message to Congress of the first Monday of June, 1812. A bill declaring war with Great Britain soon followed in Congress, and, after a discussion in secret session for a few days, became a law. Then began the war.

When the doors of the House of Representatives were opened, the debates which had taken place in secret session were spoken of and repeated, and it appeared, as must have been expected by all, that Mr. Clay had been the great defender and champion of the declaration of war.

Mr. Clay continued in the House of Representatives for some time after the commencement of the war, and having assisted in doing all that could be done for it in the way of legislation, was withdrawn from his position in Congress to share in the deliberations of the great conference of American and British Commissioners held at Ghent. His part in that convention was such as might have been expected from his course in Congress—high-toned and high-spirited, despairing of nothing.

I need not add, but for form, that acting in this spirit, Mr. Clay, and his patriotic and able associates, succeeded beyond all the hopes at that time entertained at home, in making a treaty, which, in putting a stop to the war, if it did not accomplish everything contended for, saved and secured, at all points, the honor of the United States.

Thus began and ended the war of 1812. On our part it was just and necessary, and, in its results, eminently beneficial and honorable.

The benefits have extended to all the world, for, in vindicating our own maritime rights, we established the freedom of the seas to all nations, and since then no one of them has arrogated any supremacy upon that ocean given by the Almighty as the common and equal inheritance of all.

To Henry Clay, as its chief mover and author, belongs the statesman's portion of the glory of that war; and to the same Henry Clay, as one of the makers and signers of the treaty by which it was terminated, belong the blessings of the peacemaker. His crown is made up of the jewels of peace and of war.

Prompt to take up arms to resent our wrongs and vindicate our national rights, the return of peace was yet gladly hailed by the whole country. And well it might be. Our military character, at the lowest point of degradation when we dared the fight, had been retrieved. The national honor, insulted at all the courts of Europe, had been redeemed; the freedom of the seas secured to our flag and all who sail under it; and what was most influential in inspiring confidence at home, and assuring respect abroad, was the demonstration, by the result of the late conflict, of the competency of this government for effective war, as it had before proved itself for all the duties of a season of peace.

The Congress which succeeded the war, to a seat in which Mr. Clay was elected while yet abroad, exhibited a feature of a national jubilee, in place of the gravity and almost gloom which had settled on the countenance of the same body during the latter part of the war and of the conference at Ghent. Joy shone on every face. Justly has that period been termed "the era of good feeling." Again placed in the chair of the House of Representatives, and all important questions being then considered as in committee of the whole, in which the Speaker descends to the floor of the House, Mr. Clay distinguished himself in the debates upon every question of interest that came up, and was the author, during that and following Congresses, of more important measures than it has been the fortune of any other member, either then or since, to have his name identified with.

It would exceed the proper limits of this discourse to particularize all those measures. I can do no more than refer to a very few of them, which have become landmarks in the history of our country.

First in order of these was his origination of the first proposition for the recognition of the independence of the states of South America, then struggling for liberty. This was on the 24th of March, 1818. It was on that day that he first formally presented the proposition to the House of Representatives. But neither the President nor Congress was then prepared for a measure so bold and decisive, and it was rejected by a large majority of the House, though advocated and urged by him with all the vehemence and power of his unsurpassed ability and eloquence. Undaunted by this defeat, he continued to pursue the subject with all the inflexible energy of his character. On the 3d of April, 1820, he renewed his proposition for the recognition of South American independence, and finally succeeded, against strong opposition, not only in passing it through the House of Representatives, but in inducing that body to adopt the emphatic and extraordinary course of sending it to the President by a committee especially appointed for the purpose. Of that committee Mr. Clay was the chairman, and, at its head, performed the duty assigned them. In the year 1822 Mr. Clay's noble exertions on this great subject were crowned with complete success by the President's formal recognition of South American independence, with the sanction of Congress.

It requires some little exertion, at this day, to turn our minds back and contemplate the vast importance of the revolutions then in progress in South America, as the subject was then presented, with all the uncertainties and perils that surrounded it. Those revolutions constituted a great movement in the moral and political world. By their results great interests and great principles throughout the civilized world, and especially in our own country, might, and probably would, be materially affected.

Mr. Clay comprehended the crisis. Its magnitude and its character were suited to his temper and to his great intellect.

He saw before him, throughout the vast continent of South America, the people of its various states or provinces struggling to cast off that Spanish oppression and tyranny which for three hundred years had weighed them down and seeking to reclaim and re-establish their long-lost liberty and independence.

He saw them not only struggling but succeeding, and with their naked hands breaking their chains and driving their oppressors before them. But the conflict was not yet over; Spain still continued to wage formidable and desperate hostilities against her colonies to reduce them to submission. They were still struggling and bleeding, and the result yet depended on the uncertain issues of war.

What a spectacle was there presented to the contemplation of the world! The prime object of attention and interest there to be seen was man bravely struggling for liberty. That was enough for Henry Clay. His generous soul overflowed with sympathy. But this was not all; there were graver and higher considerations that belonged to the subject, and these were all felt and appreciated by Mr. Clay.

If South America was resubjugated by Spain, she would in effect become European and relapse into the system of European policy, the system of legitimacy, monarchy, and absolutism. On the other hand, if she succeeded in establishing her independence, the principle of free institutions would be established with it, and republics, kindred to our own, would rise up to protect, extend, and defend the rights and liberties of mankind.

It was not, then, a mere struggle between Spain and her colonies. In its consequences, at least, it went much further, and, in effect, was a contest between the great antagonist principles and systems of arbitrary European governments and of free American governments. Whether the millions of people who inhabited, or were to inhabit, South America, were to become the victims and the instruments of the arbitrary principle, or the supporters of the free principle, was a question of momentous consequence now and in all time to come.

With these views, Mr. Clay, from sympathy and policy, embraced the cause of South American independence. He proposed no actual intervention in her behalf, but he wished to aid her with all the moral power and encouragement that could be given by a welcome recognition of her by the government of the United States.

To him belongs the distinguished honor of being the first among the statesmen of the world to espouse and plead the cause of South America, and to propose and urge the recognition of her independence. And his own country is indebted to him for the honor of being the first nation to offer that recognition.

When the magnitude of the subject, and the weighty interest and consequences attached to it, are considered, it seems to me that there is no more palmy day in the life of Mr. Clay than that in which, at the head of his committee, he presented to the President the resolution of the House of Representatives in favor of the recognition of South American independence.

On that occasion he appears in all the sublimity of his nature, and the statesman, invested with all the sympathies and feelings of humanity, is enlarged and elevated into the character of the friend and guardian of universal liberty.

How far South America may have been aided or influenced in her struggles by the recognition of our government, or by the noble appeals which Mr. Clay had previously addressed, in her behalf, to Congress and to the world, we cannot say; but it is known that those speeches were read at the head of her armies, and that grateful thanks were returned. It is not too much to suppose that he exercised great and, perhaps, decisive influence in her affairs and destinies.

Years after the first of Mr. Clay's noble exertions in the cause of South America, and some time after those exertions had led the government of the United States to recognize the new States of South America, they were also recognized by the government of Great Britain, and Mr. Canning, her minister, thereupon took occasion to say, in the House of Commons, "there (alluding to South America) I have called a new world into existence!" That was a vain boast. If it can be said of any man, it must be said of Henry Clay, that he called that “new world into existence.”2

Mr. Clay was the father of the policy of internal improvement by the general government. The expediency of such legislation had, indeed, been suggested, in one of his later annual messages to Congress, by President Jefferson, and that suggestion was revived by President Madison in the last of his annual messages. The late Bank of the United States having been then just established, a bill passed, in supposed conformity to Mr. Madison's recommendation, for setting aside the annual bonus, to be paid by the bank, as a fund for the purposes of internal improvement. This bill Mr. Madison very unexpectedly, on the last day of the term of his office, returned to the House of Representatives without his signature, assigning the reasons for his withholding it,―reasons which related rather to the form than the substance,—and recommending an amendment to the Constitution to confer upon Congress the necessary power to carry out that policy. The bill of course fell through for that session. Whilst this bill was on its passage, Mr. Clay had spoken in favor of it, declaring his own decided opinion in favor of the constitutionality and expediency of the measure. Mr. Monroe, immediately succeeding Mr. Madison in the Presidency, introduced into his first annual message a declaration, in advance of any proposition on the subject, of a settled conviction on his mind that Congress did not possess the right to enter upon a system of internal improvement. But for this declaration, it may be doubted that the subject would have been again agitated so soon after Mr. Madison's veto. The threat of a recurrence to that resort by the new President roused up a spirit of defiance in the popular branch of Congress, and especially in the lion heart of Mr. Clay; and by his advice and counsel a resolution was introduced declaring that Congress has power, under the Constitution, to make appropriations for the construction of military roads, post-roads, and canals. Upon this proposition, in committee of the whole House, Mr. Clay attacked, with all his powers of argument, wit, and raillery, the interdiction in the message.

He considered that the question was now one between the executive on the one hand, and the representatives of the people on the other, and that it was so understood by the country; that if, by the communication of his opinion to Congress, the President intended to prevent discussion, he had “most wofully failed;" that in having (Mr. Clay had no doubt the best motives) volunteered his opinion upon the subject, he had "inverted the order of legislation by beginning where it should end;" and, after an able and unanswerable argument on the question of the power, concluded by saying, “If we do nothing this session but pass an abstract resolution on the subject, I shall, under all circumstances, consider it a triumph for the best interest of the country, of which posterity will, if we do not, reap the benefit." And the abstract resolution did pass by a vote of 90 to 75; and a triumph it was which Mr. Clay had every right to consider as his own, and all the more grateful to his feelings because he had hardly hoped for it.

Referring on the final success, at a distance of thirty-five years, of the principle thus established, in the recent passage by Congress of the act for the improvement of certain of the ports and harbors and navigable rivers of the country, let "posterity" not forget, on this occasion, to what honored name is undoubtedly due the credit of the first legislative assertion of the power.

Mr. Clay was, perhaps, the only man since Washington, who could have said, with entire truth, as he did, "I had rather be right than be President." Honor and patriotism were his great and distinguishing traits. The first had its spring and support in his fearless spirit; the second in his peculiar Americanism of sentiment. It was those two principles which ever threw his whole soul into every contest where the public interest was deeply involved, and above all, into every question which in the least menaced the integrity of the Union. This last was, with him, the Ark of the Covenant; and he was ever as ready to peril his own life in its defense as he was to pronounce the doom of a traitor on any one who would dare to touch it with hostile hands. It was the ardor of this devotion to his country, and to the sheet-anchor of its liberty and safety, the union of the States, that rendered him so conspicuous in every conflict that threatened either the one or the other with harm. All are familiar with his more recent, indeed, his last, great struggle for his country, when the foundations of the Union trembled under the fierce sectional agitation, so happily adjusted and pacified by the wise measures of compromise which he proposed in the Senate, and which were, in the end, in substance adopted. That brilliant epoch in his history is fresh in the memory of all who hear me, and never will be forgotten by them. An equally glorious success, achieved by his patriotism, his resoluteness, and the great power of his oratory, was one which few of this assembly are old enough vividly to remember; but which, in the memory of those who witnessed the effort, and the success of that greatest triumph of his master-spirit, will ever live the most interesting in the life of the great statesman. I mean the Missouri controversy. Then, indeed, did common courage quail, and hope seemed to sink before the storm that burst upon and threatened to overwhelm the Union.

Into the history of what is familiarly known as the "Missouri Question," it is not necessary, if time would allow, that I should enter at any length. The subject of the controversy, as all my hearers know, was the disposition of the House of Representatives, manifested on more than one occasion, and by repeated votes, to require-as a condition of the admission of the Territory of Missouri into the Union as a State-the perpetual prohibition of the introduction of slavery into the Territories of the United States west of the Mississippi. During the conflict to which this proposition gave rise in 1820, the debates were from the beginning earnest, prolonged, and excited. In the early stages of them Mr. Clay exerted to the utmost his powers of argument, conciliation, and persuasion, speaking, on one occasion, it is stated, for four and a half hours without intermission. A bill finally passed both houses, authorizing the people of the Territory of Missouri to form a constitution of State government, with the prohibition of slavery restricted to the territory lying north of 36 deg. 30 min. of north latitude. This was in the first session of the Sixteenth Congress, Mr. Clay still being Speaker of the House. On the approach of the second session of this Congress, Mr. Clay, being compelled by his private affairs to remain at home, forwarded his resignation as Speaker, but retained his seat as a member, in view of the pendency of this question. Mr. Taylor, of New York, the zealous advocate of the prohibition of slavery in Missouri and elsewhere in the West, was chosen Speaker to succeed Mr. Clay. This fact, of itself, under all the circumstances, was ominous of what was to follow. Alarmed, apparently, at this aspect of things, Mr. Clay resumed his seat in the House on the 16th of January, 1821. The constitution formed by Missouri and transmitted to Congress, under the authority of the act passed in the preceding session, contained a provision (superfluous even for its own object) making it the duty of the General Assembly, as soon as might be, to pass an act to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to or settling in the State of Missouri "upon any pretext whatever." The reception of the constitution with this offensive provision in it was the signal of discord apparently irreconcilable, when, just as it had risen to its height, Mr. Clay, on the 16th of January, 1821, resumed his seat in the House of Representatives. Less than six weeks of the term of Congress then remained. The great hold which he had upon the affections, as well as the respect, of all parties induced upon his arrival a momentary lull in the tempest. He at once engaged earnestly and solicitously in counsel with all parties in this alarming controversy, and on the 2d of February moved the appointment of a committee of thirteen members to consider the subject. The report of that committee, after four days of conference, in which the feelings of all parties had clearly been consulted, notwithstanding it was most earnestly supported by Mr. Clay in a speech of such power and pathos as to draw tears from many hearers, was rejected by a vote of 83 nays to 80 yeas. No one, not a witness, can conceive the intense excitement which existed at this moment within and without the walls of Congress, aggravated as it was by the arrival of the day for counting the electoral votes for President and Vice-President, among which was tendered the vote of Missouri as a State, though not yet admitted as such. Her vote was disposed of by being counted hypothetically, that is to say, that with the vote of Missouri, the then state of the general vote would be so and so; without it, so and so. If her vote, admitted, would have changed the result, no one can pretend to say how disastrous the consequences might not have been.

On Mr. Clay alone now rested the hopes of all rational and dispassionate men for a final adjustment of this question; and one week only, with three days of grace, remained of the existence of that Congress. On the 22d of the month, Mr. Clay made a last effort, by moving the appointment of a joint committee of the two houses, to consider and report whether it was expedient or not to make provision for the admission of Missouri into the Union on the same footing of the original States; and, if not, whether any other provision, adapted to her actual condition, ought to be made by law. The motion was agreed to, and a committee of twenty-three members appointed by ballot under it. The report by that committee (a modification of the previously rejected report) was ratified by the House, but by the close vote of 87 to 81. The Senate concurred, and so this distracting question was at last settled, with an acquiescence in it by all parties, which has never been since disturbed.

I have already spoken of this as the great triumph of Mr. Clay; I might have said, the greatest civil triumph ever achieved by mortal man. It was one towards which the combination of the highest ability and the most commanding eloquence would have labored in vain. There would still have been wanting the ardor, the vehemence, the impetuousness of character of Henry Clay, under the influence of which he sometimes overleaped all barriers, and carried his point literally by storm. One incident of this kind is well remembered in connection with the Missouri question. It was in an evening sitting, whilst this question was yet in suspense. Mr. Clay had made a motion to allow one or two members to vote who had been absent when their names were called. The Speaker (Mr. Taylor), who, to a naturally equable temperament, added a most provoking calmness of manner when all around him was excitement, blandly stated, for the information of the gentleman, that the motion "was not in order." Mr. Clay then moved to suspend the rule forbidding it, so as to allow him to make the motion; but the Speaker, with imperturbable serenity, informed him that, according to the rules and orders, such a motion could not be received without the unanimous consent of the House. "Then," said Mr. Clay, exerting his voice even beyond its highest wont, “I move to suspend ALL the rules of the House! Away with them! Is it to be endured, that we shall be trammeled in our action by mere forms and technicalities at a moment like this, when the peace, and perhaps the existence, of this Union is at stake?"

Besides those to which I have alluded, Mr. Clay performed many other signal public services, which would have illustrated the character of any other American statesman. Among these we cannot refrain from mentioning his measures for the protection of American industry, and his compromise measure of 1833, by which the country was relieved from the dangers and agitations produced by the doctrine and spirit of "nullification." Indeed, his name is identified with all the great measures of government during the long period of his public life. But the occasion does not permit me to proceed further with this review of his public services. History will record them to his honor.

Henry Clay was indebted to no adventitious circumstances for the success and glory of his life. Sprung from an humble stock, “he was fashioned to much honor from his cradle;" and he achieved it by the noble use of the means which God and nature had given him. He was no scholar, and had none of the advantages of collegiate education. But there was a "divinity that stirred within him." He was a man of a genius mighty enough to supply all the defects of education. By its keen, penetrating observation, its quick apprehension, its comprehensive and clear conception, he gathered knowledge without the study of books; he could draw it from the fountain-head,— pure and undefiled; it was unborrowed; the acquisition of his own observation, reflection, and experience; and all his own. It entered into the composition of the man, forming part of his mind, and strengthening and preparing him for all those great scenes of intellectual exertion or controversy in which his life was spent. His armor was always on, and he was ever ready for the battle.

This mighty genius was accompanied, in him, by all the qualities necessary to sustain its action, and to make it most irresistible. His person was tall and commanding, and his demeanor—

"Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;

But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.”

He was direct and honest, ardent and fearless, prompt to form his opinions, always bold in their avowal, and sometimes impetuous or even rash in their vindication. In the performance of his duties he feared no responsibility. He scorned all evasion of untruth. No pale thoughts ever troubled his decisive mind.

Be just and fear not" was the sentiment of his heart and the principle of his action. It regulated his conduct in private and public life; all the ends he aimed at were his country's, his God's, and truth's.

Such was Henry Clay, and such, were his talents, qualities, and objects. Nothing but success and honor could attend such a character. We have adverted briefly to some portions of his public life. For nearly half a century he was an informing spirit, brilliant and heroic figure in our political sphere, marshaling our country in the way she ought to go. The "bright track of his fiery car" may be traced through the whole space over which in his day his country and its government have passed in the way to greatness and renown. It will still point the way to further greatness and renown.

The great objects of his public life were to preserve and strengthen the Union, to maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States, to cherish industry, to protect labor, and to facilitate, by all proper national improvements, the communication between all the parts of our widely-extended country. This was his American system of policy. With inflexible patriotism he pursued and advocated it to his end. He was every inch an American. His heart and all that there was of him were devoted to his country, to its liberty, and its free institutions. He inherited the spirit of the Revolution in the midst of which he was born; and the love of liberty and the pride of freedom were in him principles of action.

A remarkable trait in the character of Mr. Clay was his inflexibility in defending the public interest against all schemes for its detriment. His exertions were, indeed, so steadily employed and so often successful in protecting the public against the injurious designs of visionary politicians or party demagogues, that he may be almost said to have been, during forty years, the guardian angel of the country. He never would compromise the public interest for anybody, or for any personal advantage to himself.

He was the advocate of liberty throughout the world, and his voice of cheering was raised in behalf of every people who struggled for freedom. Greece, awakened from a long sleep of servitude, heard his voice, and was reminded of her own Demosthenes. South America, too, in her struggle for independence, heard his brave words of encouragement, and her fainting heart was animated and her arm made strong.

Henry Clay is the fair representative of the age in which he lived, an age which forms the greatest and brightest era in the history of man,-an age teeming with new discoveries and developments, extending in all directions the limits of human knowledge, exploring the agencies and elements of the physical world and turning and subjugating them to the uses of man, unfolding and establishing practically the great principles of popular rights and free governments, and which, nothing doubting, nothing fearing, still advances in majesty, aspiring to, and demanding further improvement and further amelioration of the condition of mankind.

With the chivalrous and benignant spirit of this great era Henry Clay was thoroughly imbued. He was, indeed, moulded by it and made in its own image. That spirit, be it remembered, was not one of licentiousness, or turbulence, or blind innovation. It was a wise spirit, good and honest as it was resolute and brave; and truth and justice were its companions and guides.

These noble qualities of truth and justice were conspicuous in the whole public life of Henry Clay. On that solid foundation he stood erect and fearless; and when the storms of state beat around and threatened to overwhelm him, his exclamation was still heard, “truth is mighty and public justice certain." What a magnificent and heroic figure does Henry Clay here present to the world! We can but stand before and look upon it in silent reverence. His appeal was not in vain; the passions of party subsided; truth and justice resumed their sway, and his generous countrymen repaid him for all the wrong they had done him with gratitude, affection, and admiration in his life and tears for his death.

It has been objected to Henry Clay that he was ambitious. So he was. But in him ambition was virtue. It sought only the proper, fair objects of honorable ambition, and it sought these by honorable means only,-by so serving the country as to deserve its favors and its honors. If he sought office, it was for the purpose of enabling him by the power it would give, to serve his country more effectually and pre-eminently; and, if he expected and desired thereby to advance his own fame, who will say that was a fault? Who will say that it was a fault to seek and desire office for any of the personal gratifications it may afford, so long as those gratifications are made subordinate to the public good?

That Henry Clay's object in desiring office was to serve his country, and that he would have made all other considerations subservient, I have no doubt. I knew him well; I had full opportunity of observing him in his most unguarded moments and conversations, and I can say that I have never known a more unselfish, a more faithful or intrepid representative of the people, of the people's rights, and the people's interests, than Henry Clay. It was most fortunate for Kentucky to have such a representative, and most fortunate for him to have such a constituent as Kentucky, fortunate for him to have been thrown, in the early and susceptible period of his life, into the primitive society of her bold and free people. As one of her children, I am pleased to think that from that source he derived some of that magnanimity and energy which his after-life so signally displayed. I am pleased to think, that, mingling with all his great qualities, there was a sort of Kentuckyism (I shall not undertake to define it) which, though it may not have polished or refined, gave to them additional point and power, and free scope of action.

Mr. Clay was a man of profound judgment and strong will. He never doubted or faltered; all his qualities were positive and peremptory, and to his convictions of public duty he sacrificed every personal consideration.

With but little knowledge of the rules of logic, or of rhetoric, he was a great debater and orator. There was no art in his eloquence, no studied contrivances of language. It was the natural outpouring of a great and ardent intellect. In his speeches there were none of the trifles of mere fancy and imagination; all was to the subject in hand, and to the purpose; and they may be regarded as great actions of the mind, rather than fine displays of words. I doubt whether the eloquence of Demosthenes or Cicero ever exercised a greater influence over the minds or passions of the people of Athens and of Rome, than did Mr. Clay's over the minds and passions of the people of the United States.

You all knew Mr. Clay; your knowledge and recollection of him will present him more vividly to your minds than any picture I can draw of him. This I will add: He was, in the highest, truest sense of the term, a great man, and we ne'er shall look upon his like again. He has gone to join the mighty dead in another and better world. How little is there of such

a man that can die? His fame, the memory of his benefactions, the lessons of his wisdom, all remain with us; over these death has no power.

How few of the great of this world have been so fortunate as he? How few of them have lived to see their labors so rewarded? He lived to see the country that he loved and served advanced to great prosperity and renown, and still advancing. He lived till every prejudice which, at any period of his life had existed against him, was removed; and until he had become the object of the reverence, love, and gratitude of his whole country. His work seemed then to be completed, and fate could not have selected a happier moment to remove him from the troubles and vicissitudes of this life.

Glorious as his life was, there was nothing that became him like the leaving of it. I saw him frequently during the slow and lingering disease which terminated his life. He was conscious of his approaching end, and prepared to meet it with all the resignation and fortitude of a Christian hero. He was all patience, meekness, and gentleness; these shone round him like a mild, celestial light, breaking upon him from another world,

"And, to add greater honors to his age

Than man could give, he died fearing God."

_______________

1 Hon. Mr. Rush.

2 See Mr. Rush's letter to Mr. Clay, vol. i. Collins's Life of Henry Clay.

SOURCE: Ann Mary Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 2, p. 39-57

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

“Public Meeting” Handbill, before July 10, 1832

Public Meeting.

The citizens of Adams County, adverse to the election of judges by the people, and opposed to Nullification, are requested to meet at the court-house, in the city of Natchez, on Thursday next, the 10th instant, at 11 o'clock.

The necessity for calling this meeting is deeply regretted; not the more so, that it has occurred at a period so close upon the election, than as affecting the political standing of a gentleman who has been placed before the people of Adams, by the spontaneous act of a large portion of its citizens, as a candidate for one of their highest gifts. It is believed by a large body of those of Judge Quitman's friends who sustained his nomination, and who intended by their votes to have contributed to his election, that he is a Nullifier in principle! That his opinions, frequently of late expressed upon the subject of nullification, are the same as Mr. Calhoun's and Mr. Hayne's; the ono its author, the other its first public propagator. Judge Quitman's friends in this county believe that nullification is unsound in theory, and contrary to the Constitution; that its tendency is anarchy, and that the effect of its practical application to any given case is disunion! They look to the indications in South Carolina, and despair of its permanency, while she asserts her right and intention to nullify a law of the United States. They look to the threats of her governor that, before the year is out, her citizens will be in arms; to the declarations of a portion of her delegation in Congress, who wish to go home and prepare for war. They are also well aware of the disposition of the leaders of the party to form a great Southern league to crusade against the Union. Under these circumstances, and at such a crisis, a large portion of Judge Quitman's friends can not sustain him, without sustaining nullification, and putting at issue in this state the question of union or disunion.

It is therefore thought proper that this meeting be called, with the view of endeavoring to produce such reconciliation as will prevent any serious division in the ranks of those opposed to the election of judges by the people, or, if that is found to be impracticable, to bring out another candidate in place of Judge Quitman. It is expected and desired that Judge Quitman will attend; and, if his opinions have been misrepresented, that his friends may be undeceived and again united.

many Citizens.

SOURCE: John F. H. Quitman, Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman, Volume 1, p. 112-3

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Montgomery Blair to Abraham Lincoln, March 15, 1861

Post Office Department
Washington March 15th 1861.
Sir

In reply to your interrogatory whether in my opinion it is wise to provision Fort Sumpter under present circumstances, I submit the following considerations in favor of provisioning that Fort—

The ambitious leaders of the late Democratic party have availed themselves of the disappointment attendant upon defeat in the late Presidential election to found a Military Government in the Seceding States. To the connivance of the late administration it is due alone that this Rebellion has been enabled to attain its present proportions– It has grown by this complicity into the form of an organized Government in Seven States and up to this moment nothing has been done to check its progress or prevent its being regarded either at home or abroad as a successful revolution– Every hour of acquiescence in this condition of things and especially every new conquest made by the rebels strengthens their hands at home and their claim to recognition as an independent people abroad. It has from the beginning and still is treated practically as a lawful proceeding and the honest and Union loving people in those States must by a continuance of this policy become reconciled to the new Government and though founded in wrong come to be regard it as rightful Government.

I in common with all my associates in your council agree that we must look to the people of these States for the overthrow of this rebellion and that it is proper to exercise the powers of the Federal Government only so far as to maintain its authority to collect the revenue and maintain possession of the public property in the states and that this should be done with as little blood-shed as possible. How is this to be carried into effect? That it is by measures which will inspire respect for the power of the Government and the firmness of those who administer it does not admit of debate.

It is equally obvious that rebellion was checked in 1833 by the promptitude of the President in taking measures which made it manifest that it could not be attempted with impunity and that it has grown to its present formidable proportions only because similar measures were not taken.

The action of the President in 1833 inspired respect whilst in 1860 the rebels were encouraged by the contempt they felt for the incumbent of the Presidency.

But it was not alone upon Mr. Buchanans weakness the rebels relied for success. They for the most part believe that the Northern men are deficient in the courage necessary to maintain the Government. It is this prevalent error in the South which induces so large a portion of the people there to suspect the good faith of the people of the North and enables the demagogues so successfully to inculcate the notion that the object of the Northern people is to abolish Slavery and make the Negroes the equals of the whites. Doubting the manhood of northern men they discredit their disclaimers of a this purpose to humiliate and injure them—

Nothing would so surely gain credit for such disclaimers as the manifestation of resolution on the part of the President to maintain the lawful authority of the nation – no men or people have so many difficulties as those whose firmness is doubted.

The evacuation of Fort Sumpter when it is known that it can be provisioned and manned will convince the rebels that the administration lacks firmness and will therefore tend more than any event that has happened to embolden them and so far therefore from tending to prevent collision will, ensure it unless all the other forts are evacuated and all attempts are given up to maintain the authority of the United States.

Mr. Buchanans policy has I think re-rendered collision almost inevitable & a continuance of that policy will not only bring it about but will go far to produce a permanent division of the Union.

This is manifestly the public Judgment which is much more to be relied on than that of any individual: I believe that Fort Sumpter may be provisioned and relieved by Captn Fox with little risk and Genl. Scotts opinion that with its war compliment there is no force in South Carolina which can take it – renders it almost certain that it will not then be attempted. This would completely demoralize the Rebellion. The impotent rage of the Rebels and the outburst of patriotic feeling which would follow this achievement would initiate a reactionary movement throughout the South which would speedily overwhelm the traitors. No expense or care should therefore be spared to achieve this success—

The appreciation of our stocks will pay for the most lavish outlay to make it one. Nor will the result be materially different to the nation if the attempt fails and its gallant leader and followers are lost. It will in any event vindicate the hardy courage of the North and the determination of the people and their President to maintain the authority of the Government, & this is all that is wanting in my judgment to restore it.

You should give no thought for the Commander and his comrades in this enterprize– They willingly take the hazards for the sake of the country and the honor which, successful or not, they will receive from you and the lovers of free Government in all lands.

I am Sir very respectfully
Yr obt sevt
M. Blair
To the President

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner,* November 26, 1846

Cincinnati, Nov. 26, 1846.

My Dear Sir: I promised Mr. Vaughan, sometime ago, to write you in reference to the True American, but have been prevented by various circumstances from fulfilling the promise. I have little leisure now, but possibly a few words may be offered.

You are aware, doubtless, of all the circumstances relating to C. M. Clay’s1 connection with the paper. I was well aware of that gentleman's aversion to editorial duty, and the last letter I rec'd from him before he left Louisville with his Company advised me that he should not continue the paper under his own charge any longer than was absolutely necessary. I had, however, no idea that its publication would be abandoned during his absence, or that he had given a discretionary power over the very existence of the paper to Brutus I. Clay, his brother, an open and avowed enemy of the movement and anxious to disengage his brother C. M. from what he (B. I.) deemed a false position. I am not yet willing to believe that Mr. C. M. Clay, in giving a general power of attorney to Brutus to act for him in all his affairs (including of course the paper) had any expectation that the American would be discontinued during his absence. He made an engagement with Mr. Vaughan2 to edit it; he accepted with expressions of gratitude my own offer of assistance, which assistance, however, I am bound to say Mr. Vaughan's superior ability and tact rendered totally unnecessary; and, I feel very sure that at the time of his last letter to me he relied on the American as a powerful and indispensable auxiliary to the great effort which he designed to make on behalf of emancipation immediately after his return. Whether he afterward changed his purpose or not I am unable to say. I will not believe that he did except upon evidence. I am unwilling to condemn a man who has acted nobly, until I see proofs of absolute and total dereliction.

However, the paper by the act of B. I. Clay is discontinued. But the friends of Freedom in Kentucky are determined that it shall not stay discontinued. They have organized in Louisville and elsewhere, and have resolved that the paper shall go on under the charge of Mr. Vaughan, provided the necessary assistance can be had. To see whether this assistance can be had Mr. Vaughan has this day started for the east. I beg leave to commend him and his object to your kindest consideration. Mr. V — is a South Carolinian, and might, had he been willing to identify himself with the Nullifiers, have occupied almost any position in his native State. His principles forbade this, and he afterwards removed to this city. Almost from his first arrival his sentiments on the subject of Slavery have been advancing, until he now stands on the same or nearly the same platform which you occupy. I feel sure that no man fitter for the time and place can be found. As to the importance of the paper, it cannot well be overestimated. There is a vast amount of antislavery sentiment in the Slave States, which requires to be fostered and developed. All the hill country is favorable, except so far as mere prejudice prevents, to Freedom. The paper has a very good circulation in the Slave States. It is the link between the Antislavery sentiment of the North and South. It cannot be lost without great detriment to the cause both North and South. I trust, therefore, Mr. Vaughan's efforts will be liberally rewarded by the enlightened Friends of Humanity, Freedom, and Advancement in the East.

I do not often solicit such a favor, but may I beg a copy of your Phi Beta Kappa address? I believe I have heretofore thanked you for your 4th July Oration on the True Grandeur of Nations, and expressed the admiration with which its perusal inspired me — an admiration shared, I believe, by all readers of the document except the devotees of Conservatism, falsely so called.

Why can not the Friends of Freedom stand together? Why exact from me, a Democrat, addresses to the Whigs, or from you, a Whig, addresses to the Democrats? Is not the question of Freedom paramount, and is it not great enough in itself and its connexions for a party to stand on, without dividing addresses?

I pray you to pardon the liberty I have taken in writing this to one to whom I am almost wholly unknown, and believe me, With very great respect,

Yours truly,
[Salmon P. Chase]
_______________

* All the letters from Chase to Sumner are from the Pierce-Sumner Papers in the library of Harvard University.

1 The wellknown Cassias Marcellus Clay.

2 John C. Vaughan, cf. Wilson's Slave Power, II, 143-144, 510, and Pierce's Sumner, III, 165.

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 111

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Francis Lieber to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, August 10, 1863

August 10.

. . . I have the pleasure of sending you a copy of the Memoir to Mr. Secretary Stanton, of which I spoke in my letter of yesterday. Mr. Petigru has always been acknowledged, by friend and foe, to be the most accomplished lawyer of the South. He was a decided and efficient Union man in the times of Nullification. He is now seventy-five years old, and remains unmolested, as the “only Union man of South Carolina,” on account of his age and almost complete retirement, he has always been a good friend of mine. . . .

SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 336

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: March 27, 1861

Wednesday – I have been mobbed by my own house servants. Some of them are at the plantation, some hired out at the Camden hotel, some are at Mulberry. They agreed to come in a body and beg me to stay at home to keep my own house once more, “as I ought not to have them scattered and distributed every which way.” I had not been a month in Camden since 1858. So a house there would be for their benefit solely, not mine. I asked my cook if she lacked anything on the plantation at the Hermitage. "Lack anything?” she said, “I lack everything. What are cornmeal, bacon, milk, and molasses? Would that be all you wanted? Ain't I been living and eating exactly as you does all these years? When I cook for you, didn't I have some of all? Dere, now!" Then she doubled herself up laughing. They all shouted, “Missis, we is crazy for you to stay home.”

Armsted, my butler, said he hated the hotel. Besides, he heard a man there abusing Marster, but Mr. Clyburne took it up and made him stop short. Armsted said he wanted Marster to know Mr. Clyburne was his friend and would let nobody say a word behind his back against him, etc., etc. Stay in Camden? Not if I can help it. “Festers in provincial sloth” — that's Tennyson's way of putting it.

“We” came down here by rail, as the English say. Such a crowd of Convention men on board. John Manning1 flew in to beg me to reserve a seat by me for a young lady under his charge. “Place aux dames,” said my husband politely, and went off to seek a seat somewhere else. As soon as we were fairly under way, Governor Manning came back and threw himself cheerily down into the vacant place. After arranging his umbrella and overcoat to his satisfaction, he coolly remarked: “I am the young lady.” He is always the handsomest man alive (now that poor William Taber has been killed in a duel), and he can be very agreeable; that is, when he pleases to be so. He does not always please. He seemed to have made his little maneuver principally to warn me of impending danger to my husband's political career. “Every election now will be a surprise. New cliques are not formed yet. The old ones are principally bent upon displacing one another.” “But the Yankees — those dreadful Yankees!” “Oh, never mind, we are going to take care of home folks first! How will you like to rusticate? — go back and mind your own business?” “If I only knew what that was — what was my own business.”

Our round table consists of the Judge, Langdon Cheves,2 Trescott,3 and ourselves. Here are four of the cleverest men that we have, but such very different people, as opposite in every characteristic as the four points of the compass. Langdon Cheves and my husband have feelings and ideas in common. Mr. Petigru4 said of the brilliant Trescott: “He is a man without indignation.” Trescott and I laugh at everything.

The Judge, from his life as solicitor, and then on the bench, has learned to look for the darkest motives for every action. His judgment on men and things is always so harsh, it shocks and repels even his best friends. To-day he said: “Your conversation reminds me of a flashy second-rate novel.” “How?” “By the quantity of French you sprinkle over it. Do you wish to prevent us from understanding you?” “No,” said Trescott, “we are using French against Africa. We know the black waiters are all ears now, and we want to keep what we have to say dark. We can't afford to take them into our confidence, you know.”


This explanation Trescott gave with great rapidity and many gestures toward the men standing behind us. Still speaking the French language, his apology was exasperating, so the Judge glared at him, and, in unabated rage, turned to talk with Mr. Cheves, who found it hard to keep a calm countenance. On the Battery with the Rutledges, Captain Hartstein was introduced to me. He has done some heroic things — brought home some ships and is a man of mark. Afterward he sent me a beautiful bouquet, not half so beautiful, however, as Mr. Robert Gourdin's, which already occupied the place of honor on my center table. What a dear, delightful place is Charleston!  A lady (who shall be nameless because of her story) came to see me to-day. Her husband has been on the Island with the troops for months. She has just been down to see him. She meant only to call on him, but he persuaded her to stay two days. She carried him some clothes made from his old measure. Now they are a mile too wide. “So much for a hard life!” I said.  “No, no,” said she, “they are all jolly down there. He has trained down; says it is good for him, and he likes the life.” Then she became confidential, although it was her first visit to me, a perfect stranger. She had taken no clothes down there — pushed, as she was, in that manner under Achilles’s tent. But she managed things; she tied her petticoat around her neck for a nightgown.
_______________

1 John Lawrence Manning was a son of Richard I. Manning, a former Governor of South Carolina. He was himself elected Governor of that State in 1852, was a delegate to the convention that nominated Buchanan, and during the War of Secession served on the staff of General Beauregard. In 1865 he was chosen United States Senator from South Carolina, but was not allowed to take his seat.

2 Son of Langdon Cheves, an eminent lawyer of South Carolina, who served in Congress from 1810 to 1814; he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, and from 1819 to 1823 was President of the United States Bank; he favored Secession, but died before it was accomplished — in 1857.

3 William Henry Trescott, a native of Charleston, was Assistant Secretary of State of the United States in 1860, but resigned after South Carolina seceded. After the war he had a successful career as a lawyer and diplomatist.

4 James Louis Petigru before the war had reached great distinction as a lawyer and stood almost alone in his State as an opponent of the Nullification movement of 1830-1832. In 1860 he strongly opposed disunion, although he was then an old man of 71. His reputation has survived among lawyers because of the fine work he did in codifying the laws of South Carolina.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 22-5

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Andrew Jackson to Martin Van Buren on the Nullification Crisis

(Private)

Washington, January 13th, 1833.

My dear Sir:

Yours of the 9th instant was handed to me by Mr. Wright last night, with whom I had some conversation on our general concerns, and I congratulate your state and my country for sending us a man of his integrity, talents and firmness, at the present crisis. It will give me pleasure to consult him on all your local concerns; and here I would remark that the Secretary of State and many of your friends in New York were the cause of the selection of Mr. Dewit.

I have received several letters from you which remain unanswered. You know I am a bad correspondent at any time, lately I have been indisposed by cold, and surrounded with the nullifiers of the south and the Indians in the south and west; that has occupied all my time, not leaving me a moment for private friendship, or political discussion with a friend.

I beg you not to be disturbed by any thing you may hear from the alarmists of this place; many nullifiers are here under disguise, working hard to save Calhoun and would disgrace their country and the Executive to do it. Be assured that I have and will act with all the forbearence to do my duty and extend that protection to our good citizens and the officers of our Government in the south who are charged with the execution of the laws; but it would destroy all confidence in our government, both at home and abroad, was I to sit with my arms folded and permit our good citizens in South Carolina who are standing forth in aid of the laws to be imprisoned, fined, and perhaps hung, under the ordinance of South Carolina and the laws to carry it into effect, all which, are probable violations of the constitution and subversive of every right of our citizens. Was this to be permitted the Government would loose the confidence of its citizens and it would induce disunion every where. No my friend, the crisis must be now met with firmness, our citizens protected, and the modern doctrine of nullification and secession put down forever, for we have yet to learn whether some of the eastern states may not secede or nullify, if the tariff is reduced. I have to look at both ends of the Union to preserve it. I have only time to add, that as South Carolina, has by her replevin and other laws, closed our courts, and authorized the Governor to raise 12,000 men to keep them closed, giving all power [to the] sheriffs to use this army as the posse comitatus, I must appeal to Congress to cloth our officers and Marshall with the same power to aid them in executing the laws, and apprehending those who may commit treasonable acts. This call upon Congress must be made as long before the 1st of February next as will give Congress time to meet before that day, or I would be chargeable with neglect of my duty, and as congress are in session, and as I have said in my message, which was before the So. C. ordinance reached me, if other powers were wanted I would appeal to Congress was I therefore to act without the aid of Congress, or without, communicating to it, I would be branded with the epithet, tyrant. From these remarks you will at once see the propriety of my course, and be prepared to see the communication I will make to Congress on the 17th instant, which will leave Congress ten days to act upon it before the 1st of February after it is printed. The parties in S. C. are arming on both sides, and drilling in the night and I expect soon to hear that a civil war of extermination has commenced. I will meet all things with deliberate firmness and forbearence, but wo to those nullifiers who shed the first blood. The moment I am prepared with proof I will direct prosecutions for treason to be instituted against the leaders, and if they are surrounded with 12,000 bayonets our Marshall shall be aided by 24,000 and arrest them in the midst thereof — nothing must be permitted to weaken our Government at home or abroad.

Virginia, except a few nullifiers and politicians, is true to the core. I could march from that state 40,000 men in forty days, nay, they are ready in N. C, in Tennessee, in all the western states, and from good old democratic Pennsylvania I have a tender of upwards of 50,000, and from the borders of S. C. and N. C. I have a tender of one entire Regt. — The Union shall be preserved. I write as usual in great haste.

Yr friend,
Andrew Jackson.

P.S. I will be happy to hear from you often, and see you as early as a just sense of delicacy will permit. My whole household salute thee affectionately.  A.J.

Martin Van Buren, Esqr.


SOURCES: Samuel Gordon Heiskell, Andrew Jackson And Early Tennessee History, Vol. 3, p. 500-2; Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years: Letter, Andrew Jackson to Martin Van Buren discussing the nullification crisis, 13 January 1833.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Origin And Character Of The War

Lecture of Hon. Edward Everett.

Bryan Hall was crowded last evening in its utmost capacity with an intelligent and appreciative audience, assembled to listen to the celebrated lecture of the distinguished and venerable orator from Massachusetts, Edward Everett, upon “The Origin and Character of the Present War.”  Long ere the hour appointed for the commencement of the address the continual stream of people which had been pouring in since 7 o’clock had filled the spacious hall and galleries, and eagerly awaited the appearance of the eminent speaker.  At 8 o’clock Mr. Everett, accompanied by the Chairman of the Lecture Committee of the Young Men’s Association, E. W. Russell, Esq., made his appearance upon the stage, and was greeted with prolonged and enthusiastic applause.  After a few remarks by Mr. Russell, Mr. Everett came forward and opened his address with a brief introduction, in which he stated that, soon after the commencement of this war, it was said that the time for action had arrived; but with how much more propriety might it now be said since the brilliant victories at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Yorktown, and, as we have every reason to believe, the occupation of Richmond. (Tremendous applause.)  With this introduction, Mr. Everett proceeded to show that the present war is not, as is asserted, both here and abroad, by the enemies of the Union, an aggressive war on the part of the North.

The orator then proceeded to show that the present contest was commenced as far back as the year 1828, when South Carolina raised the cry of nullification on account of a tariff which was imposed upon sugar and cotton for the express purpose of introducing and encouraging their culture in the Southern States.  But we then had a President who did not understand the Constitution as Buchanan understood it, and that President was General Jackson.  The only privilege offered by him to the nullifiers, or any one found opposing the laws of the United States by force of arms, was that of a military execution.  In tracing the progress of this contest, the speaker’s allusions to President Jackson and General Scott were received with the most tumultuous applause.  He referred to the famous letter of Jackson in 1833, after the close of the nullification struggle, in which, with singular sagacity, as events had since proven, he declared that the tariff was then but the pretext for disunion and a southern confederacy.  The next pretext would be the slavery question.

The orator then proceeded to trace the rise and progress of the movement in England for the abolition of slavery in her colonies, and the influence it had upon the minds of certain persons on this side of the ocean; the slave insurrections in South Carolina and Virginia, which greatly excited the minds of the southern people; the Missouri Compromise of 1821; the exertions which were made during a number of sessions to settle the question of the non-introduction of slaves into the Territories; and the manner in which the South even more than the North, had made options relative to slavery a party test.

Upon Mr. Everett’s reference to the exertions which he had made to unite the hearts of the North and South, by attempting to inspire a reverence for the name of Washington and a sacred regard for his birthplace, the house rang with shouts of applause.

He then proceeded to show that the North had had as much cause for complaint and irritations by the tone of the southern journals, and speeches in Congress of southern men, as the South.  One was just as provoking as the other.

The South had been the petted child of the Union.  From the time of the Texas annexation to the compromise of 1854 and the administration of Mr. Buchanan, during which she was again favored in the forced settlement of the Kansas question against the will of the majority of the people, everything had been done to conciliate the South.  At length the election of 1860 placed the candidate of the republican party in the Presidential chair, and even then the utmost efforts were made to convince the South that its constitutional rights were the special care of the President and his friends, but the defeat of that very democratic party which southern conspirators had divided in Charleston was made the pretest for immediate secession.  South Carolina did not wait for overt acts, for she well knew that none would be committed.  She withdrew from the Union, declaring herself free and independent.  From this point Mr. Everett continued to delineate the progress of secession, step by step, and the brilliant instances of patriotism that illustrated the action of the North and northern men.  His mention of Gen. Anderson and Gen. Dix, and the conduct of the portions of the border states, especially Western Virginia and Northern Kentucky, was crowned with reiterated plaudits.  The labors of the Union Conference Convention received especial encomium, and a handsome tribute was paid to the name of Virginia and her dead patriots, chief among whom stood the immortal Washington.  The late and present position of Eastern Virginia was analyzed with much force.  Virginia tinctured with the heresies of nullification and secession, would not secede with South Carolina, but, if the right of the latter to secede should be denied, then would she stand by her.  The Teachings of her own Jefferson and Madison were perverted to the people until this right was declared to be established.

Still, Virginia would not move until the President should take measures to invade the South, as his preparations to maintain the government were called.  She would still cling to the Union, provided the Union would be divided, at will, by any and every discontented member.  The strategy of the States that had already seceded, bearing upon the melancholy privilege of Virginia to stock the plantations of the cotton States, soon changed even these dispositions, and by a wicked concert of trickery, at Richmond and Montgomery, the Old Dominion was betrayed to overt treason.  Next came the phase of open violence.  This was illustrated by a vivid description of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, which the orator declared to have been a place of cool Machiavellian policy to force the United States government into hostilities, and to drive Virginia to the fulfillment of her promise to resist the march of national troops across her territory against the South.  That act, commencing on the 12th of April, was, as Knox Walker, a member of the Confederate Cabinet, in a public harangue, declared the inauguration of the war, for the proclamation of Mr. Lincoln did not issue until the 15th of April, and hence was not the cause or opening of the conflict.  That atrocious bombardment, which was intended to “fire the southern heart,” did fire the northern heart; and the flag that the same Walker boasted was, by the 1st of may 1860 [sic], to float above the dome of the capitol at Washington, and soon thereafter over Faneuil Hall at Boston, will have to wait until it can regain its flight above its own Beaufort in South Carolina {Thunders of applause.}  Mr. Everett here graphically and touchingly depicted the horrors of the civil war throughout the country, and particularly the devastating punishment of Virginia and South Carolina.

Reverting then to the consideration of our government and Union in peace and prosperity, he painted a glowing picture of the future as it might be on this continent, with a vast confederacy of fifty or sixty free States, enjoying such glories and advantages as mankind has not yet dreamed.  All this bright vision foul secession blights.  The grand imposing position occupied only two years since by the United States among the nations is already jeopardized and where the South, even then, was ready to go to war with mighty England for a mere patch of Maine or Oregon, or face in arms, side by side with us, the combined power of Europe in defending the honor of the flag of stars, today she is willing to cast away the entire North – twenty great States – and herself pass under the protectorate of foreign monarchies.  Mr. Everett eloquently exposed the folly of secession, the designs of European despotisms, and the certain doom of this people when permanently divided, citing numerous historical parallels.  He concluded by invoking the vengeance of heaven and earth alike on the man who builds his fame, or rather conspicuous infamy, upon the ruin of his country, and declaring that the aims of such shall not succeed in the present instance, uttered a thrilling appeal to all the land to rally for the Union.

“Come as the winds come
When forests are rended;
Come as the waves come
When navies are stranded.”

Young and old, men and women alike, of all creeds and climes, who have sought homes and refuge on our soil with those it bore, and ye lovers of liberty throughout the world – come! come one, come all! to the rescue of the Union! –{Chicago Times.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 24, 1862, p. 1