144

SOUTH CAROLINA VOLUNTEERS.

entirely of immediate secessionists, and by which, on December 20th, an Ordinance of Secession was unanimously passed, and a declaration of the causes of secession adopted. On December 25th, the Convention adopted a resolution to form a Confederate Government of the slave-holding States. About the same time, South Carolina sent Commissioners to Washington; but they were not received by the President. Meanwhile, the State authorities proceeded energetically in raising and arming troops, and in erecting strong fortifications, bearing upon the National forts in the harbor of Charleston, and commanding its approaches. They had the audacity to demand of the Government that those forts should be evacuated and surrendered to the State, and gave the clearest evidence of a settled and earnest purpose in making that demand, by continuing the erection of heavy offensive works, immediately under their guns.

On the 28th of December, they seized the Custom House, Post Office, and Arsenal in Charleston, the latter containing a large quantity of arms and military stores. They sent Commissioners to other slave-holding States, with a view to the formation of a Southern Confederacy.

So energetic had been the work on the batteries in the harbor of Charleston, that before the end of December, they had become so formidable as to render the re-enforcement of the national forts there extremely hazardous.

Thus, in less than two months after the election of President Lincoln, were those open, undisguised and violent proceedings taking place in South Carolina. She was in open revolt. She had done, or was doing, everything possible to destroy the government, and to organize and array against it the forces of Treason. It was not the rash and tumultuous proceedings of an excited mob, acting from sudden and violent impulses; but the cool and deliberate execution of a long contemplated, and fully developed plan. She proceeded in the

SECESSION OF THE COTTON STATES.

145

work of treason with that system and order, which indicated the fullest preparation, and the widest concert of views and purposes.

While South Carolina was engaged in those violent and highhanded proceedings, kindred events were transpiring in Georgia and other Southern States. The Legislature of Georgia voted one million dollars to arm that State. She called a Convention to consider the question of secession, and an Ordinance, dissolving her connection with the Union, was passed on the 19th day of January, ayes 208, noes 89.

During that mouth, similar ordinances were passed by the States of Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Alabama. The passage of those secession ordinances was followed immediately by the resignation of the Senators and members of Congress, and by the openly avowed and active treason of most of the naval and military officers from the seceded States. The Legislature of Texas voted their State out of the Union on the fifth of February, and which was subsequently ratified by the people, Arkansas and North Carolina in May, and Tennessee in June.

Thus, all except the "Border States" proper, in rapid succession, left the Union. In those movements, a pre-concerted plan and order were observed;- those States first leaving, in which the least opposition existed, and their example, influence and powers were strenuously employed to drag other States into the same vortex. The State governments, and nearly all holding official or influential positions, were in the the plot, and pledged to secession. The plan of seizing all the military positions and property, of whatever description, of the United States, lying within their States, seemed to have been early agreed upon, and, with but few exceptions, it was carried out. Over 300,000 muskets, it is said, were thus stolen, with vast quantities of cannon, mortar, powder, ball and shell, and about six million of treasure, to say nothing of the value of

FORTRESSES SEIZED.

147

the forts, buildings and ships thus appropriated. In that way, most of the important military and commercial stations in the entire South were seized and occupied without resistance.

The fortresses thus seized, were:

These seizures, as well as the general direction of the secession movement, were guided by the secession Senators and Representatives in Congress, pending the organization of a general government, which the conspirators had planned. Delegates from the seceded States met at Montgomery, Alabama, on the 11th of February, and organized a Provisional Government, and adopted a Provisional Constitution, which were to continue for one year. Jefferson Davis was elected President, and inaugurated on the 16th day of February. The policy of the new Government was thus avowed:

"It will be the policy of the new Government to preserve the status quo of affairs until the 4th of March, when the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln will enable him to indicate the course his administration will pursue towards the Southern

148

POLICY OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT.

Confederacy. The hope is not yet entirely relinquished that more rational counsels may prevail at Washington, and that, 'making a virtue of necessity,' the Republicans will abandon their idea of coercion, and by a peaceful and conciliatory policy, endeavor to preserve all that their folly has not entirely lost to them-commercial relations with the South. It is probable that one of the first acts of the new Government will be to send a commission to Washington, to treat for a peaceable and equitable arrangement of matters between the two Republics -the acknowledgment of our independence, the surrender of the forts, a fair division of the public property and of the public debt. Until it is known how our Commissioners will be received, and whether the Federal Government is willing to treat for a peaceable and equitable adjustment of these matters, it would be unwise to take any steps that would be likely to precipitate hostilities. We should prepare for the worst, while we hope for the best. As the moral sense of a very large portion of the North is on our side, we should do nothing rashly to forfeit our just claim to the fair judgment of that portion of our late confederates, who are blameless for the causes which led to the disruption of the Union and forced the South to assume her present attitude toward the Federal Government."

Active military preparations were carried on in all parts of the South. Powder mills were set actively at work, shot and shell were being cast as rapidly as possible, and recruiting for the army was very active, every man tendered being accepted, and the first recruits were concentrated at Charleston and other points most likely to be first assailed. The Provisional Con'gress authorized the raising of 100,000 men; and as most of the officers of the army, whose residence was in the South, proved traitors to their Government, little trouble was found in supplying officers for the new recruits.

All the Government property seized by the respective States