Chapter CLXXXIII

PROGRESS OF THE SLAVERY AGITATION: MEETING OF MEMBERS FROM THE SLAVE STATES: INFLAMMATORY ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN STATES.

The last days of Mr. Polk's administration were witness to an ominous movement--nothing less than nightly meetings of large numbers of members from the slave States to consider the state of things between the North and the South--to show the aggressions and encroachments (as they were called), of the former upon the latter--to show the incompatibility of their union--and to devise measures for the defence and protection of the South. Mr. Calhoun was at the bottom of this movement, which was conducted with extraordinary precautions to avoid publicity. None but slave State members were admitted. No reporters were permitted to be present; nor any spectators, or auditors. As many as seventy or eighty were assembled; but about one half of this number were inimical to the meeting, and only attended to prevent mischief to the Union, and mostly fell off from their attendance before the work was concluded. At the first meeting a grand committee of 15 (Mr. Calhoun one) were appointed to consider of resolutions: when they met, a sub-committee of five (Mr. Calhoun at their head) was carved out of the 15 to report an address to the slave States: and when they met, Mr. Calhoun produced the address ready written. So that the whole contrivance of the grand and petty committees was a piece of machinery to get Mr. Calhoun's own manifesto before the public with the sanction of a meeting. Mr. Calhoun's manifesto, sanctioned by the sub-committee, was only saved from condemnation in the committee of 15 by one vote, and that vote his own. Saved by one vote, and got before the meeting itself, it there underwent condemnation, and was recommitted for amendment. Four of the grand committee, consisting of those who were averse to the whole proceeding, were excused upon their own request from serving longer upon it. Got back into the grand committee, it was superseded _in toto_ by an entire new address, not to the slave States, but to the people of the whole Union, and addressed not to their angry, but to their good feelings. That address was reported to an adjourned meeting of the members; and those opposed to the whole proceeding having nearly ceased to attend, the original manifesto of Mr. Calhoun was adopted in place of it: and thus, after a tedious and painful process, and defeated half the time, and only succeeding when the meeting had become thin and nearly reduced to his own partisans, that gentleman succeeded in getting his inflammatory composition before the public as the voice of the Southern members. But even then not as he first drew it up. In the primitive draft the introductory clause asserted that the present wrongs of the North upon the South were equal to those which produced the separation of these States, when colonies, from the British empire: that clause was softened down, and generalized in the amended and adopted manifesto into the assertion of a dangerous conflict between the two sections of the Union, and the perpetration of encroachments and aggressions upon the slave States which their safety would no longer allow them to stand, and for which a cure must be found. In the original it stood thus: "_Not excepting the declaration which separated you and the United Colonies from the parent country. That involved your independence; but this your all, not excepting your safety._" As softened it ran thus:

"We, whose names are hereunto annexed, address you in the
discharge of what we believe to be a solemn duty on the most
important subject ever presented for your consideration. We
allude to the conflict between the two great sections of the
Union, growing out of a difference of feeling and opinion in
reference to the relation existing between the two races, the
European and African, which inhabit the Southern section, and
the acts of aggression and encroachment to which it has led.
The conflict commenced not long after the acknowledgment of our
Independence, and has gradually increased until it has arrayed
the great body of the North against the South on this most
vital subject. In the progress of this conflict, aggression has
followed aggression, and encroachment encroachment, until they
have reached a point when a regard for peace and safety will not
permit us to remain longer silent. The object of this address
is to give you a clear, correct, but brief account of the whole
series of aggression and encroachments on your rights, with a
statement of the dangers to which they expose you. Our object
in making it, is not to cause excitement, but to put you in
full possession of all the facts and circumstances necessary
to a full and just conception of a deep-seated disease, which
threatens great danger to you and the whole body politic. We act
on the impression, that in a popular government like ours, a
true conception of the actual character and state of a disease
is indispensable to effecting a cure."

The manifesto was modelled upon that of the Declaration of the Independence of the United States; and, by its authors, was soon saluted as the second Declaration of Independence. After the motive clause, showing the inducements to the act, followed a long list of grievances, as formidable in number as those which had impelled the separation from Great Britain, but so frivolous and imaginary in substance, that no one could repeat them now without recourse to the paper. Strange to see, they have become more remarkable for what they omitted than contained. That Missouri compromise, since become an outrage which the constitution and the slave States could no longer endure, was then a good thing, of which the slave States wished more, and claimed its extension to the Pacific Ocean. The Wilmot proviso, which had been the exasperation of the slave States for three years, was skipped over, the great misfortune having happened to the South which had been deprecated in the letter to the Alabama member of the General Assembly: it had been defeated! and for the express purpose of taking a handle of agitation out of the hands of the enemies of the Union: but without benefit, as others were seized upon immediately, and the slavery contention raged more furiously than ever. But past, or present, "encroachments and aggressions" were too light and apocryphal to rouse a nation. Something more stirring was wanted; and for that purpose, Time, and Imagination--the Future, and Invention--were to be placed in requisition. The abolition of slavery in the States--the emancipation of slaves, all over the South--the conflict between the white and the black races--the prostration of the white race, as in San Domingo: the whites the slaves of the blacks: such were the future terrors and horrors to be visited upon the slave States if not arrested by an instant and adequate remedy. Some passages from this conglomeration of invented horrors will show the furious zeal of the author, and the large calculation which he made upon the gullibility of the South when a slavery alarm was to be propagated:

"Such, then, being the case, it would be to insult you to
suppose you could hesitate. To destroy the existing relation
between the free and servile races at the South would lead to
consequences unparalleled in history. They cannot be separated,
and cannot live together in peace or harmony, or to their mutual
advantage, except in their present relation. Under any other,
wretchedness, and misery, and desolation would overspread
the whole South. The example of the British West Indies, as
blighting as emancipation has proved to them, furnishes a very
faint picture of the calamities it would bring on the South.
The circumstances under which it would take place with us
would be entirely different from those which took place with
them, and calculated to lead to far more disastrous results.
There, the government of the parent country emancipated slaves
in her colonial possessions--a government rich and powerful,
and actuated by views of policy (mistaken as they turned out
to be) rather than fanaticism. It was, besides, disposed to
act justly towards the owners, even in the act of emancipating
their slaves, and to protect and foster them afterwards. It
accordingly appropriated nearly $100,000,000 as a compensation
to them for their losses under the act, which sum, although
it turned out to be far short of the amount, was thought at
that time to be liberal. Since the emancipation it has kept up
a sufficient military and naval force to keep the blacks in
awe, and a number of magistrates, and constables, and other
civil officers, to keep order in the towns and plantations,
and enforce respect to their former owners. It can only be
effected by the prostration of the white race; and that would
necessarily engender the bitterest feelings of hostility
between them and the North. But the reverse would be the case
between the blacks of the South and the people of the North.
Owing their emancipation to them, they would regard them as
friends, guardians, and patrons, and centre, accordingly, all
their sympathy in them. The people of the North would not fail
to reciprocate and to favor them, instead of the whites. Under
the influence of such feelings, and impelled by fanaticism and
love of power, they would not stop at emancipation. Another step
would be taken--to raise them to a political and social equality
with their former owners, by giving them the right of voting and
holding public offices under the federal government. But when
once raised to an equality, they would become the fast political
associates of the North, acting and voting with them on all
questions, and by this political union between them, holding the
white race at the South in complete subjection. The blacks, and
the profligate whites that might unite with them, would become
the principal recipients of federal offices and patronage, and
would, in consequence, be raised above the whites of the South
in the political and social scale. We would, in a word, change
conditions with them--a degradation greater than has ever yet
fallen to the lot of a free and enlightened people, and one from
which we could not escape, should emancipation take place (which
it certainly will if not prevented), but by fleeing the homes
of ourselves and ancestors, and by abandoning our country to
our former slaves, to become the permanent abode of disorder,
anarchy, poverty, misery and wretchedness."

Emancipation, with all these accumulated horrors, is here held to be certain, "if not prevented:" certain, so far as it depended upon the free States, which were rapidly becoming the majority; and only to be prevented by the slave States themselves. Now, this certain emancipation of slaves in the States, was a pure and simple invention of Mr. Calhoun, not only without evidence, but against evidence--contradicted by every species of human action, negative and positive, before and since. Far from attacking slavery in the States, the free States have co-operated to extend the area of slavery within such States: witness the continued extinctions of Indian title which have so largely increased the available capacity of the slave States. So far from making war upon slave States, several such States have been added to the Union, as Texas and Florida, by the co-operation of free States. Far from passing any law to emancipate slaves in the States no Congress has ever existed that has seen a man that would make such a motion in the House; or, if made, would not be as unanimously rejected by one side of the House as the other--as if the unanimity would not be the same whether the whole North went out, and let the South vote alone! or the whole South went out, and let the North alone vote. Yet, this incendiary cry of abolishing slavery in the States has become the staple of all subsequent agitators. Every little agitator now jumps upon it--jumps into a State the moment a free territory is mentioned--and repeats all the alarming stuff invented by Mr. Calhoun; and as much more as his own invention can add to it. In the mean time events daily affix the brand of falsehood on these incendiary inventions. Slave State Presidents are continually elected by free State votes: the price of slaves themselves, instead of sinking, as it would if there was any real danger, is continually augmenting, and, in fact, has reached a height the double of what it was before the alarming story of emancipation had begun.

Assuming this emancipation of the slaves in the States to be certain and inevitable, with all its dreadful consequences, unless prevented by the slave States, the manifesto goes on seriously to bring the means of prevention most closely to the consideration of the slave States--to urge their unity and concert of action on the slavery question--to make it the supreme object of their labors, before which all other subjects are to give way--to take the attitude of self-defence; and, braving all consequences, throw the responsibility on the other side. Thus:

"With such a prospect before us, the gravest and most solemn
question that ever claimed the attention of a people is
presented for your consideration: What is to be done to prevent
it? It is a question belonging to you to decide. All we propose
is to give you our opinion. We, then, are of the opinion that
the first and indispensable step, without which nothing can be
done, and with which every thing may be, is to be united among
yourselves on this great and most vital question. The want of
union and concert in reference to it has brought the South, the
Union, and our system of government to their present perilous
condition. Instead of placing it above all others, it has been
made subordinate not only to mere questions of policy, but to
the preservation of party ties and insuring of party success.
As high as we hold a due respect for these, we hold them
subordinate to that and other questions involving our safety
and happiness. Until they are so held by the South, the North
will not believe that you are in earnest in opposition to their
encroachments, and they will continue to follow, one after
another, until the work of abolition is finished. To convince
them that you are, you must prove by your acts that you hold
all other questions subordinate to it. If you become united,
and prove yourselves in earnest, the North will be brought to
a pause, and to a calculation of consequences; and that may
lead to a change of measures, and to the adoption of a course
of policy that may quietly and peaceably terminate this long
conflict between the two sections. If it should not, nothing
would remain for you but to stand up immovably in defence of
rights involving your all--your property, prosperity, equality,
liberty, and safety. As the assailed, you would stand justified
by all laws human and divine, in repelling a blow so dangerous,
without looking to consequences, and to resort to all means
necessary for that purpose. Your assailants, and not you, would
be responsible for consequences. Entertaining these opinions, we
earnestly entreat you to be united, and for that purpose adopt
all necessary measures. Beyond this, we think it would not be
proper to go at present."

The primitive draft of the manifesto went further, and told what was to be done: opinions and counsels are as far as the signers thought it proper to go then. But something further was intimated; and that soon came in the shape of a Southern convention to dissolve the Union, and a call from the legislatures of two of the most heated States (South Carolina and Mississippi), for the assembling of a "Southern Congress," to put the machinery of the "United States South" into operation: but of this hereafter. Following the Declaration of Independence in its mode of adoption, as well in its exposition of motives as in its enumeration of grievances, the manifesto was left with the secretary of the meeting for the signature of the slave-holding members who concurred in it. The signers were the following:

"Messrs. Atchison of Missouri; Hunter and Mason of Virginia;
Calhoun and Butler of South Carolina; Downs of Louisiana;
Foote and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi; Fitzpatrick of
Alabama; Borland and Sebastian of Arkansas; Westcott and Yulee
of Florida; Atkinson, Bayley, Bedinger, Bocock, Beale, W. G.
Brown, Meade, R. A. Thompson of Virginia; Daniel, Venable of
North Carolina; Burt, Holmes, Rhett, Simpson, Woodward of South
Carolina; Wallace, Iverson, Lumpkin of Georgia; Bowdon, Gayle,
Harris of Alabama; Featherston, I. Thompson of Mississippi; La
Sere, Morse of Louisiana; R. W. Johnson of Arkansas; Santon of
Kentucky."

ADMINISTRATION OF ZACHARY TAYLOR.