Francis Lieber to Senator Charles Sumner, June 1, 1864

New York, June 1, 1864.

I think I wholly agree with you, dear Sumner, as to your resolution that no members of rebel States ought to come back without the consent of both houses. The very fact of your being judges of the qualification of each member, &c, would almost alone prove it. Who else should decide? Certainly not the President alone. Of course you will have all theorists against you; and every political wrong-doer in America is a theorist. Nothing is easier, and it is necessary for the ignorant masses whose votes are wanted. Men of a certain stamp become always more abstract the more they are in the wrong and the lower their hearers. The whole State-rights doctrine, the very term doctrine, in this sense is purely American. It struck my ear very forcibly when, in 1835, General Hamilton of South Carolina said to me, “Such a man was an excellent hand at indoctrinating the people of South Carolina with nullification.”  . . . I did not agree with you some time ago, when you said in the senate that the Constitution gives dictatorial power to Congress in cases like the present war. God and necessitas, sense, and the holy command that men shall live in society, and have countries to cling to and to pray for, and that they shall love, work out, and sustain liberty, and beat down treason against humanity — these may do it, but the Constitution? The simple fact is, the Constitution stops short some five hundred miles this side of civil war like ours. . . .

The last half of your letter, telling me about Chase's desire to see the Winter Davis resolution brought forward, surprised me a little. Not that he is for the Monroe doctrine, &c. That has become an almost universal American fixed idea — that is to say, the misunderstood Monroe doctrine; for President Monroe only held to a declaration that colonizing or appropriating unappropriated portions of America is at an end. What then is to be done? I believe the answer, with reference to you, is simply one of wisdom. You have done all you can to stem this business. If you find you cannot, let it go before the senate. You cannot throw yourself single against a stream. . . .

SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 346-7

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

Diary of William Howard Russell: April 4, 1861

I had a long interview with Mr. Seward today at the State Department. He set forth at great length the helpless condition in which the President and the Cabinet found themselves when they began the conduct of public affairs at Washington. The last cabinet had tampered with treason, and had contained traitors; a miserable imbecility had encouraged the leaders of the South to mature their plans, and had furnished them with the means of carrying out their design. One Minister had purposely sent away the navy of the United States to distant and scattered stations; another had purposely placed the arms, ordnance, and munitions of war in undue proportions in the Southern States, and had weakened the Federal Government so that they might easily fall into the hands of the traitors and enable them to secure the war materiel of the Union; a Minister had stolen the public funds for traitorous purposes — in every port, in every department of the State, at home and abroad, on sea and by land, men were placed who were engaged in this deep conspiracy — and when the voice of the people declared Mr. Lincoln President of the United States, they set to work as one man to destroy the Union under the most flimsy pretexts. The President's duty was clearly defined by the Constitution. He had to guard what he had, and to regain, if possible, what he had lost. He would not consent to any dismemberment of the Union nor to the abandonment of one iota of Federal property— nor could he do so if he desired.

These and many more topics were presented to me to show that the Cabinet was not accountable for the temporizing policy of inaction, which was forced upon them by circumstances, and that they would deal vigorously with the Secession movement — as vigorously as Jackson did with nullification in South Carolina, if they had the means. But what could they do when such a man as Twiggs surrendered his trust and sacrificed the troops to a crowd of Texans; or when naval and military officers resigned en masse, that they might accept service in the rebel forces? All this excitement would come right in a very short time — it was a brief madness, which would pass away when the people had opportunity for reflection. Meantime the danger was that foreign powers would be led to imagine the Federal Government was too weak to defend its rights, and that the attempt to destroy the Union and to set up a Southern Confederacy was successful. In other words, again, Mr. Seward fears that, in this transition state between their forced inaction and the coup by which they intend to strike down Secession, Great Britain may recognize the Government established at Montgomery, and is ready, if needs be, to threaten Great Britain with war as the consequence of such recognition. But he certainly assumed the existence of strong Union sentiments in many of the seceded States, as a basis for his remarks, and admitted that it would not become the spirit of the American Government, or of the Federal system, to use armed force in subjugating the Southern States against the will of the majority of the people. Therefore if the majority desire Secession, Mr. Seward would let them have it — but he cannot believe in anything so monstrous, for to him the Federal Government and Constitution, as interpreted by his party, are divine, heaven-born. He is fond of repeating that the Federal Government never yet sacrificed any man's life on account of his political opinions; but if this struggle goes on, it will sacrifice thousands — tens of thousands, to the idea of a Federal Union. “Any attempt against us,” he said, “would revolt the good men of the South, and arm all men in the North to defend their Government.”

But I had seen that day an assemblage of men doing a goose-step march forth dressed in blue tunics and gray trousers, shakoes and cross-belts, armed with musket and bayonet, cheering and hurrahing in the square before the War Department, who were, I am told, the District of Columbia volunteers and militia. They had indeed been visible in various forms parading, marching, and trumpeting about the town with a poor imitation of French pas and élan, but they did not, to the eye of a soldier, give any appearance of military efficiency, or to the eye of the anxious statesman any indication of the animus pugnandi. Starved, washed-out creatures most of them, interpolated with Irish and flat-footed, stumpy Germans. It was matter for wonderment that the Foreign Minister of a nation which was in such imminent danger in its very capital, and which, with its chief and his cabinet, was almost at the mercy of the enemy, should hold the language I was aware he had transmitted to the most powerful nations of Europe. Was it consciousness of the strength of a great people, who would be united by the first apprehension of foreign interference, or was it the peculiar emptiness of a bombast which is called Buncombe? In all sincerity I think Mr. Seward meant it as it was written.

When I arrived at the hotel, I found our young artist waiting for me, to entreat I would permit him to accompany me to the South. I had been annoyed by a paragraph which had appeared in several papers, to the effect that “The talented young artist, our gifted countryman, Mr. Deodore F. Moses, was about to accompany Mr. &c. &c, in his tour through the South.” I had informed the young gentleman that I could not sanction such an announcement, whereupon he assured me he had not in any way authorized it, but having mentioned incidentally to a person connected with the press that he was going to travel southwards with me, the injudicious zeal of his friend had led him to think he would do a service to the youth by making the most of the very trifling circumstance.

I dined with Senator Douglas, where there was a large party, among whom were Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. Smith, Secretary of the Interior; Mr. Forsyth, Southern Commissioner; and several members of the Senate and Congress. Mrs. Douglas did the honors of her house with grace and charming good-nature. I observe a great tendency to abstract speculation and theorizing among Americans, and their after-dinner conversation is apt to become didactic and sententious. Few men speak better than Senator Douglas; his words are well chosen, the flow of his ideas even and constant, his intellect vigorous, and thoughts well cut, precise, and vigorous — he seems a man of great ambition, and he told me he is engaged in preparing a sort of Zollverein scheme for the North American continent, including Canada, which will fix public attention everywhere, and may lead to a settlement of the Northern and Southern controversies. For his mind, as for that of many Americans, the aristocratic idea embodied in Russia is very seductive; and he dwelt with pleasure on the courtesies he had received at the court of the Czar, implying that he had been treated differently in England, and perhaps France. And yet, had Mr. Douglas become President of the United States, his good-will towards Great Britain might have been invaluable, and surely it had been cheaply purchased by a little civility and attention to a distinguished citizen and statesman of the Republic. Our Galleos very often care for none of these things.

SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 60-3

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: August 13, 1861

Hon. Robert Barnwell says, “The Mercury's influence began this opposition to Jeff Davis before he had time to do wrong. They were offended, not with him so much as with the man who was put into what they considered Barnwell Rhett's rightful place. The latter had howled nullification and secession so long that when he found his ideas taken up by all the Confederate world, he felt he had a vested right to leadership.”

Jordan, Beauregard's aide, still writes to Mr. Chesnut that the mortality among the raw troops in that camp is fearful. Everybody seems to be doing all they can. Think of the British sick and wounded away off in the Crimea. Our people are only a half-day's journey by rail from Richmond. With a grateful heart I record the fact of reconciliation with the Wigfalls. They dined at the President's yesterday and the little Wigfall girls stayed all night.

Seward is fêting the outsiders, the cousin of the Emperor, Napoleon III., and Russell, of the omnipotent London Times.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 104

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: April 2, 1861

Governor Manning came to breakfast at our table. The others had breakfasted hours before. I looked at him in amazement, as he was in full dress, ready for a ball, swallow-tail and all, and at that hour. “What is the matter with you?” “Nothing, I am not mad, most noble madam. I am only going to the photographer. My wife wants me taken thus.” He insisted on my going, too, and we captured Mr. Chesnut and Governor Means.¹ The latter presented me with a book, a photo-book, in which I am to pillory all the celebrities.

Doctor Gibbes says the Convention is in a snarl. It was called as a Secession Convention. A secession of places seems to be what it calls for first of all. It has not stretched its eyes out to the Yankees yet; it has them turned inward; introspection is its occupation still.

Last night, as I turned down the gas, I said to myself: “Certainly this has been one of the pleasantest days of my life.” I can only give the skeleton of it, so many pleasant people, so much good talk, for, after all, it was talk, talk, talk à la Caroline du Sud. And yet the day began rather dismally. Mrs. Capers and Mrs. Tom Middleton came for me and we drove to Magnolia Cemetery. I saw William Taber's broken column. It was hard to shake off the blues after this graveyard business.

The others were off at a dinner party. I dined tête-a-tête with Langdon Cheves, so quiet, so intelligent, so very sensible withal. There never was a pleasanter person, or a better man than he. While we were at table, Judge Whitner, Tom Frost, and Isaac Hayne came. They broke up our deeply interesting conversation, for I was hearing what an honest and brave man feared for his country, and then the Rutledges dislodged the newcomers and bore me off to drive on the Battery. On the staircase met Mrs. Izard, who came for the same purpose. On the Battery Governor Adams² stopped us. He had heard of my saying he looked like Marshal Pelissier, and he came to say that at last I had made a personal remark which pleased him, for once in my life. When we came home Mrs. Isaac Hayne and Chancellor Carroll called to ask us to join their excursion to the Island Forts to-morrow. With them was William Haskell. Last summer at the White Sulphur he was a pale, slim student from the university. To-day he is a soldier, stout and robust. A few months in camp, with soldiering in the open air, has worked this wonder. Camping out proves a wholesome life after all. Then came those nice, sweet, fresh, pure-looking Pringle girls. We had a charming topic in common — their clever brother Edward.

A letter from Eliza B., who is in Montgomery: “Mrs. Mallory got a letter from a lady in Washington a few days ago, who said that there had recently been several attempts to be gay in Washington, but they proved dismal failures. The Black Republicans were invited and came, and stared at their entertainers and their new Republican companions, looked unhappy while they said they were enchanted, showed no ill-temper at the hardly stifled grumbling and growling of our friends, who thus found themselves condemned to meet their despised enemy.”

I had a letter from the Gwinns to-day. They say Washington offers a perfect realization of Goldsmith's Deserted Village.

Celebrated my 38th birthday, but I am too old now to dwell in public on that unimportant anniversary. A long, dusty day ahead on those windy islands; never for me, so I was up early to write a note of excuse to Chancellor Carroll. My husband went. I hope Anderson will not pay them the compliment of a salute with shotted guns, as they pass Fort Sumter, as pass they must.

Here I am interrupted by an exquisite bouquet from the Rutledges. Are there such roses anywhere else in the world? Now a loud banging at my door. I get up in a pet and throw it wide open. “Oh!” said John Manning, standing there, smiling radiantly; “pray excuse the noise I made. I mistook the number; I thought it was Rice's room; that is my excuse. Now that I am here, come, go with us to Quinby's. Everybody will be there who are not at the Island. To be photographed is the rage just now.”

We had a nice open carriage, and we made a number of calls, Mrs. Izard, the Pringles, and the Tradd Street Rutledges, the handsome ex-Governor doing the honors gallantly. He had ordered dinner at six, and we dined tête-atête. If he should prove as great a captain in ordering his line of battle as he is in ordering a dinner, it will be as well for the country as it was for me to-day.

Fortunately for the men, the beautiful Mrs. Joe Heyward sits at the next table, so they take her beauty as one of the goods the gods provide. And it helps to make life pleasant with English grouse and venison from the West. Not to speak of the salmon from the lakes which began the feast. They have me to listen, an appreciative audience, while they talk, and Mrs. Joe Heyward to look at.

Beauregard³ called. He is the hero of the hour. That is, he is believed to be capable of great things. A hero worshiper was struck dumb because I said: “So far, he has only been a captain of artillery, or engineers, or something.” I did not see him. Mrs. Wigfall did and reproached my laziness in not coming out.

Last Sunday at church beheld one of the peculiar local sights, old negro maumas going up to the communion, in their white turbans and kneeling devoutly around the chancel rail.

The morning papers say Mr. Chesnut made the best shot on the Island at target practice. No war yet, thank God. Likewise they tell me Mr. Chesnut has made a capital speech in the Convention.

Not one word of what is going on now. “Out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh,” says the Psalmist. Not so here. Our hearts are in doleful dumps, but we are as gay, as madly jolly, as sailors who break into the strong-room when the ship is going down. At first in our great agony we were out alone. We longed for some of our big brothers to come out and help us. Well, they are out, too, and now it is Fort Sumter and that ill-advised Anderson. There stands Fort Sumter, en evidence, and thereby hangs peace or war.

Wigfall⁴ says before he left Washington, Pickens, our Governor, and Trescott were openly against secession; Trescott does not pretend to like it now. He grumbles all the time, but Governor Pickens is fire-eater down to the ground. “At the White House Mrs. Davis wore a badge. Jeff Davis is no seceder,” says Mrs. Wigfall.

Captain Ingraham comments in his rapid way, words tumbling over each other out of his mouth: “Now, Charlotte Wigfall meant that as a fling at those people. I think better of men who stop to think; it is too rash to rush on as some do.” “And so,'” adds Mrs. Wigfall, “the eleventh-hour men are rewarded; the half-hearted are traitors in this row.”

_______________

¹ John Hugh Means was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1850, and had long been an advocate of secession. He was a delegate to the Convention of 1860 and affixed his name to the Ordinance of Secession. He was killed at the second battle of Bull Run in August, 1862.

² James H. Adams was a graduate of Yale, who in 1832 strongly opposed Nullification, and in 1855 was elected Governor of South Carolina.

³ Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was born in New Orleans in 1818, and graduated from West Point in the class of 1838. He served in the war with Mexico; had been superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point a few days only, when in February, 1861, he resigned his commission in the Army of the United States and offered his services to the Confederacy.

⁴ Louis Trezevant Wigfall was a native of South Carolina, but removed to Texas after being admitted to the bar, and from that State was elected United States Senator, becoming an uncompromising defender of the South on the slave question. After the war he lived in England, but in 1873 settled in Baltimore. He had a wide Southern reputation as a forcible and impassioned speaker.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 25-9

XXXVIIth CONGRESS – FIRST SESSION

WASHINGTON, February, 27.

SENATE. – Mr. Wilson reported back from the military committee the bill providing for a national foundry and furnace with an amendment, striking out the furnace.

Mr. Davis offered a bill as a substitute for the confiscation bill.  Ordered to be printed.

The bill to increase the efficiency of the medical department of the army was taken up.

HOUSE. – The house concurred in the report of the committee of conference, in the disagreeing amendment to the bill, making appropriations for sundry and civil expenses.

Mr. Wright introduced a joint resolution that the proclamation of Andrew Jackson on the subject of nullification, together with the farewell address of Washington, be printed for distribution.

Mr. Stevens moved the addition of the declaration of independence.  Agreed to, and referred to the committee on printing.

The consideration of the Upton contested election case was resumed.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 28, 1862, p. 1

Jefferson Davis' Farewell Address

Senate Chamber, U.S. Capitol, January 21, 1861

I rise, Mr. President, for the purpose of announcing to the Senate that I have satisfactory evidence that the State of Mississippi, by a solemn ordinance of her people in convention assembled, has declared her separation from the United States. Under these circumstances, of course my functions are terminated here. It has seemed to me proper, however, that I should appear in the Senate to announce that fact to my associates, and I will say but very little more. The occasion does not invite me to go into argument; and my physical condition would not permit me to do so if it were otherwise; and yet it seems to become me to say something on the part of the State I here represent, on an occasion so solemn as this.

It is known to Senators who have served with me here, that I have for many years advocated, as an essential attribute of State sovereignty, the right of a State to secede from the Union. Therefore, if I had not believed there was justifiable cause; if I had thought that Mississippi was acting without sufficient provocation, or without an existing necessity, I should still, under my theory of the Government, because of my allegiance to the State of which I am a citizen, have been bound by her action. I, however, may be permitted to say that I do think she has justifiable cause, and I approve of her act. I conferred with her people before that act was taken, counseled them then that if the state of things which they apprehended should exist when the convention met, they should take the action which they have now adopted.

I hope none who hear me will confound this expression of mine with the advocacy of the right of a State to remain in the Union, and to disregard its constitutional obligations by the nullification of the law. Such is not my theory. Nullification and secession, so often confounded, are indeed antagonistic principles. Nullification is a remedy which it is sought to apply within the Union, and against the agent of the States. It is only to be justified when the agent has violated his constitutional obligation, and a State, assuming to judge for itself, denies the right of the agent thus to act, and appeals to the other States of the Union for a decision; but when the States themselves, and when the people of the States, have so acted as to convince us that they will not regard our constitutional rights, then, and then for the first time, arises the doctrine of secession in its practical application.

A great man who now reposes with his fathers, and who has been often arraigned for a want of fealty to the Union, advocated the doctrine of nullification, because it preserved the Union. It was because of his deep-seated attachment to the Union, his determination to find some remedy for existing ills short of a severance of the ties which bound South Carolina to the other States, that Mr. Calhoun advocated the doctrine of nullification, which he proclaimed to be peaceful, to be within the limits of State power, not to disturb the Union, but only to be a means of bringing the agent before the tribunal of the States for their judgment.

Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to be justified upon the basis that the States are sovereign. There was a time when none denied it. I hope the time may come again, when a better comprehension of the theory of our Government, and the inalienable rights of the people of the States, will prevent any one from denying that each State is a sovereign, and thus may reclaim the grants which it has made to any agent whomsoever.

I therefore say I concur in the action of the people of Mississippi, believing it to be necessary and proper, and should have been bound by their action if my belief had been otherwise; and this brings me to the important point which I wish on this last occasion to present to the Senate. It is by this confounding of nullification and secession that the name of a great man, whose ashes now mingle with his mother earth, has been invoked to justify coercion against a seceded State. The phrase "to execute the laws," was an expression which General Jackson applied to the case of a State refusing to obey the laws while yet a member of the Union. That is not the case which is now presented. The laws are to be executed over the United States, and upon the people of the United States. They have no relation to any foreign country. It is a perversion of terms, at least it is a great misapprehension of the case, which cites that expression for application to a State which has withdrawn from the Union. You may make war on a foreign State. If it be the purpose of gentlemen, they may make war against a State which has withdrawn from the Union; but there are no laws of the United States to be executed within the limits of a seceded State. A State finding herself in the condition in which Mississippi has judged she is, in which her safety requires that she should provide for the maintenance of her rights out of the Union, surrenders all the benefits, (and they are known to be many,) deprives herself of the advantages, (they are known to be great,) severs all the ties of affection, (and they are close and enduring,) which have bound her to the Union; and thus divesting herself of every benefit, taking upon herself every burden, she claims to be exempt from any power to execute the laws of the United States within her limits.

I well remember an occasion when Massachusetts was arraigned before the bar of the Senate, and when then the doctrine of coercion was rife and to be applied against her because of the rescue of a fugitive slave in Boston. My opinion then was the same that it is now. Not in a spirit of egotism, but to show that I am not influenced in my opinion because the case is my own, I refer to that time and that occasion as containing the opinion which I then entertained, and on which my present conduct is based. I then said, if Massachusetts, following her through a stated line of conduct, chooses to take the last step which separates her from the Union, it is her right to go, and I will neither vote one dollar nor one man to coerce her back; but will say to her, God speed, in memory of the kind associations which once existed between her and the other States.

It has been a conviction of pressing necessity, it has been a belief that we are to be deprived in the Union of the rights which our fathers bequeathed to us, which has brought Mississippi into her present decision. She has heard proclaimed the theory that all men are created free and equal, and this made the basis of an attack upon her social institutions; and the sacred Declaration of Independence has been invoked to maintain the position of the equality of the races. That Declaration of Independence is to be construed by the circumstances and purposes for which it was made. The communities were declaring their independence; the people of those communities were asserting that no man was born--to use the language of Mr. Jefferson--booted and spurred to ride over the rest of mankind; that men were created equal--meaning the men of the political community; that there was no divine right to rule; that no man inherited the right to govern; that there were no classes by which power and place descended to families, but that all stations were equally within the grasp of each member of the body-politic. These were the great principles they announced; these were the purposes for which they made their declaration; these were the ends to which their enunciation was directed. They have no reference to the slave; else, how happened it that among the items of arraignment made against George III was that he endeavored to do just what the North has been endeavoring of late to do--to stir up insurrection among our slaves? Had the Declaration announced that the negroes were free and equal, how was the Prince to be arraigned for stirring up insurrection among them? And how was this to be enumerated among the high crimes which caused the colonies to sever their connection with the mother country? When our Constitution was formed, the same idea was rendered more palpable, for there we find provision made for that very class of persons as property; they were not put upon the footing of equality with white men--not even upon that of paupers and convicts; but, so far as representation was concerned, were discriminated against as a lower caste, only to be represented in the numerical proportion of three fifths.

Then, Senators, we recur to the compact which binds us together; we recur to the principles upon which our Government was founded; and when you deny them, and when you deny to us the right to withdraw from a Government which thus perverted threatens to be destructive of our rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers when we proclaim our independence, and take the hazard. This is done not in hostility to others, not to injure any section of the country, not even for our own pecuniary benefit; but from the high and solemn motive of defending and protecting the rights we inherited, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit unshorn to our children.

I find in myself, perhaps, a type of the general feeling of my constituents towards yours. I am sure I feel no hostility to you, Senators from the North. I am sure there is not one of you, whatever sharp discussion there may have been between us, to whom I cannot now say, in the presence of my God, I wish you well; and such, I am sure, is the feeling of the people whom I represent towards those whom you represent. I therefore feel that I but express their desire when I say I hope, and they hope, for peaceful relations with you, though we must part. They may be mutually beneficial to us in the future, as they have been in the past, if you so will it. The reverse may bring disaster on every portion of the country; and if you will have it thus, we will invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered them from the power of the lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear; and thus, putting our trust in God and in our own firm hearts and strong arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may.

In the course of my service here, associated at different times with a great variety of Senators, I see now around me some with whom I have served long; there have been points of collision; but whatever of offense there has been to me, I leave here; I carry with me no hostile remembrance. Whatever offense I have given which has not been redressed, or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, Senators, in this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any pain which, in heat of discussion, I have inflicted. I go hence unencumbered of the remembrance of any injury received, and having discharged the duty of making the only reparation in my power for any injury offered.

Mr. President, and Senators, having made the announcement which the occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains to me to bid you a final adieu.

From The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Volume 7, pp. 18-23. Transcribed from the Congressional Globe, 36th Congress, 2d Session, p. 487

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.

South Carolina Nullification Ordinance of 1832

AN ORDINANCE,

TO NULLIFY certain Acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be Laws, laying Duties and Imposts on the Importation of Foreign Commodities.

Whereas, the Congress of the United States, by various acts, purporting to be acts laying duties and imposts on foreign imports, but in reality intended for the protection of domestic manufactures, and the giving of bounties to classes and individuals engaged in particular employments, at the expense and to the injury and oppression of other classes and individuals, and by wholly exempting from taxation, certain foreign commodities, such as are not produced or manufactured in the United States, to afford a pretext for imposing higher and excessive duties on articles similar to those intended to be protected, hath exceeded its just powers under the Constitution, which confers on it no authority to afford such protection, and hath violated the true meaning and intent of the Constitution, which provides for equality in imposing the burdens of taxation upon the several States and portions of the Confederacy; — And, Whereas, the said Congress, exceeding its just power to impose taxes and collect revenue for the purpose of effecting and accomplishing the specific objects and purposes which the Constitution of the United States authorizes it to effect and accomplish, hath raised and collected unnecessary revenue, for objects unauthorized by the Constitution;

We therefore, the people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, do Declare and Ordain, and it is hereby Declared and Ordained, That the several acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect within the United States, and more especially an act entitled "an act in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on imports," approved on the nineteenth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, and also, an act entitled "an act to alter and amend the several acts imposing duties on imports," approved on the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, its officers, or citizens; and, all promises, contracts and obligations, made or entered into, or to be made or entered into, with purpose to secure the duties imposed by said acts, and all judicial proceedings which shall hereafter be had in affirmance thereof, are, and shall be, held utterly null and void.

And it is further Ordained, That it shall not be lawful for any of the constituted authorities, whether of this State, or of the United States, to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the said acts, within the limits of this State; but it shall be the duty of the Legislature to adopt such measures and pass such acts as may be necessary to give full effect to this Ordinance, and to prevent the enforcement and arrest the operation of the said acts and parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, within the limits of this State, from and after the first day of February next; and the duty of all other constituted authorities, and of all persons residing or being within the limits of this State, and they are hereby required and enjoined, to obey and give effect to this Ordinance, and such acts and measures of the Legislature as may be passed or adopted in obedience thereto.

And it is further Ordained, That in no case of law or equity, decided in the courts of this State, wherein shall be drawn in question the authority of this Ordinance, or the validity of such act or acts of the Legislature as may be passed for the purpose of giving effect thereto, or the validity of the aforesaid acts of Congress, imposing duties, shall any appeal be taken or allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States, nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that purpose; and if any such appeal shall be attempted to be taken, the Courts of this State shall proceed to execute and enforce their judgments, according to the laws and usages of the State, without reference to such attempted appeal, and the person or persons attempting to take such appeal may be dealt with as for a contempt of the Court.

And it is further Ordained, That all persons now holding any office of honor, profit or trust, civil or military, under this State, (members of the Legislature excepted) shall, within such time, and in such manner as the Legislature shall prescribe, take an oath, well and truly to obey, execute and enforce this Ordinance, and such act or acts of the Legislature, as may be passed in pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and meaning of the same; and on the neglect or omission of any such person or persons so to do, his or their office or offices shall be forthwith vacated, and shall be filled up, as if such person or persons were dead or had resigned; and no person hereafter elected to any office of honor, profit or trust, civil or military, (members of the Legislature excepted) shall, until the Legislature shall otherwise provide and direct, enter on the execution of his office, or be in any respect competent to discharge the duties thereof, until he shall, in like manner, have taken a similar oath; and no juror shall be impannelled in any of the Courts of this State, in any cause in which shall be in question this Ordinance, or any act of the Legislature passed in pursuance thereof, unless he shall first, in addition to the usual oath, have taken an oath, that he will well and truly obey, execute, and "enforce this Ordinance, and such act or acts of the Legislature, as may be passed to carry the same into operation and effect, according to the true intent and meaning thereof.

And we, the people of South Carolina, to the end that it may be fully understood by the Government of the United States, and the people of the co-States, that we are determined to maintain this, our Ordinance and Declaration, at every hazard, Do further Declare, that we will not submit to the application of force, on the part of the Federal Government, to reduce this State to obedience; but that we will consider the passage by Congress of any act authorizing the employment of a military or naval force against the State of South Carolina, her constituted authorities or citizens, or any act abolishing or closing the, ports of this State, or any of them, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress and egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or any other act, on the part of the Federal Government, to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce the acts hereby declared to be null and void, otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union: and that the people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection with the people of the other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate Government, and do all other acts and things, which sovereign and independent States may of right do.

Done in Convention at Columbia, the twenty-fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, and in the fifty-seventh year of the Declaration of the Independence of the United States of America.

JAMES HAMILTON, Jr., President of the Convention,

and Delegate from St. Peter's.

James Hamilton, Sen

Richard Bohun Baker, Sen.

Samuel Warren,

Nathaniel Heyward,

Robert Long,

J. B. Earle,

L. M. Ayer,

Benjamin Adams,

James Adams,

James Anderson,

Robert Anderson,

Wm. Arnold,

John Ball,

Barnard E. Bee,

Thos. W. Boone,

R. W. Barnwell,

Isaac Bradwell, Jr.,

Thomas G. Blewett,

P. M. Butler,

John G. Brown,

J. G. Brown,

John Bauskett,

A. Burt,

Francis Burt, Jr.,

Bailey Barton,

A. Bowie,

James A. Black,

A. H. Belin,

Phillip Cohen,

Samuel Cordes,

Thos. H. Colcock,

C. J. Colcock,

Chas. G. Capers,

Wm. C. Clifton,

West Caughman,

John Counts,

Benjamin Chambers,

I. A. Campbell,

Wm. Dubose,

John H. Dawson,

John Douglas,

Geo. Douglas,

F. H. Elmore,

Wm. Evans,

Edmund J. Felder,

A. Fuller,

Theo. L. Gourdin,

Peter G. Gourdin,

T. J. Goodwyn,

Peter Gailliard, Jr.,

John K. Griffin,

Geo. W. Glenn,

Alex. L. Gregg,

Robert Y. Hayne,

William Harper,

Thomas Harrison,

John Hatton,

Thomas Harllee,

Abm. Huguenin,

Jacob Bond I'On,

John S. Jeter,

Job Johnston,

John S. James,

M. Jacobs,

J. A. Keith,

John Key,

Jacob H. King,

Stephen Lacoste,

James Lynah,

Francis Y. Legare,

Alex. J. Lawton,

John Lipscomb,

John Logan,

J. Littlejohn,

A. Lancaster,

Benj. A. Markley,

John Magrath,

John S. Maner,

W. M. Murray,

R. G. Mills,

John B. McCall,

D. H. Means,

R. G. Mays,

George McDuffie,

James Moore,

John L. Miller,

Stephen D. Miller,

John B. Miller,

R. P. McCord,

John L. Nowell,

Jennings O'Bannon,

J. Walter Phillips,

Charles Parker,

William Porcher,

Edward G. Palmer,

Charles C. Pinckney,

Wm. C. Pinckney,

Thomas Pinckney,

Francis D. Quash,

John Rivers,

Donald Rowe,

Benjamin Rogers,

Thomas Ray,

James G. Spann,

James Spann,

S. L. Simons,

Peter J. Shand,

James Mongin Smith,

G. H. Smith,

Wm. Smith,

Stephen Smith,

Wm. Stringfellow,

Edwin J. Scott,

F. W. Symmes,

J. S. Sims,

T. D. Singleton,

Joseph L. Stevens,

T. E. Screven,

Robert J. Turnbull,

Elisha Tyler,

Peter Tidyman,

Isaac B. Ulmer,

Peter Vaught,

Elias Vanderhorst,

John L. Wilson,

Isham Walker,

William Williams,

Thomas B. Woodward,

Sterling C. Williamson,

F. H. Wardlaw,

Abner Whatley,

J. T. Whitefield,

Samuel L. Watt,

Nicholas Ware,

Wm. Waties,

Archibald Young,

R. Barnwell Smith.

{attest.} ISAAC W. HAYNE,

Clerk of the Convention

SOURCE:  South Carolina General Assembly, Journal of the conventions of the people of South Carolina, held in 1832, 1833 & 1852, P. 49-53

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 12^th 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 15^th 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 1^st 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