The Heritage of The South / A History of the Introduction of Slavery; Its Establishment From Colonial Times and Final Effect Upon the Politics of the United States

by Jubal Anderson Early

In regard to this question of the right of the states to withdraw, and the power of coercion, it is not inappropriate to call attention to the following views expressed by Mr. Horace Greeley, one of the ablest writers and firmest supporters of the Republican or abolition party. In an article published in the New York Tribune a few days after the election of Lincoln in 1860, and reproduced in his work styled "The American Conflict" he says:

"That was a base and hypocritic row that was once raised at Southern dictation about the ears of John Quincy Adams, because he presented a petition for the dissolution of the Union. The petitioner had a right to make the request; it was the member's duty to present it. And now if the Cotton States consider the value of the Union debatable, we maintain their perfect right to discuss it. Nay! we hold, with Mr. Jefferson, to the inalienable right of communities to alter or abolish forms of government that have become injurious or oppressive, and if the Cotton States shall decide that they can do better out of the Union than in it, we insist upon letting them go in peace. The right to secede may be a revolutionary one but it exists nevertheless, and we do not see how one party can have a right to do what another party has a right to prevent. We must ever resist the asserted right of any state to coercion in the Union, and nullify and defy the laws thereof; to withdraw from the Union is quite another matter. And whenever a considerable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, we shall resist all coercive measures to keep it in. We hope never to live in a republic whereof one section is pinned to another by bayonets.

"But while we uphold the practical liberty, if not the abstract right of secession, we must insist that the step be taken, if ever it shall be, with the deliberation and gravity becoming so momentous an issue.

"Let ample time be given for reflection, let the subject be fully canvassed before the people, and let a popular vote be taken in every case before secession is decreed. Let the people be told just why they are asked to break up the Confederation; let them reflect, deliberate, then vote; and let the act of secession be the echo of an unmistakable popular fiat. A judgment thus rendered, a demand for separation so backed, would either be acquiesced in without effusion of blood, or those who rushed upon carnage to defy or defeat it, would place themselves clearly in the wrong."

It would be hard to conceive language more forcible for defining the right of the states to withdraw and the wrong and criminality of the attempt to coerce them when they had exercised that right, than this of Mr. Greeley's. It derives additional force as coming from him, when it is recollected that he had ever been inimical to the institutions of the South, and it announced principles which had been previously asserted in all questions of the Union, and underlay the whole superstructure of a government which itself was founded on the right of revolution. It is difficult to realize the fact that the man who uttered language like that quoted, subsequently became one of the most strenuous advocates of the war of coercion, which was waged on the Southern states. Mr. Greeley cannot avoid the effect of his statement of the principles asserted in his article, by contending that the act of separation was not "the echo of an unmistakeable popular fiat," and that the Southern people were precipitated into secession without due deliberation.

When the right to discuss, deliberate and decide, exists, those possessing it, must necessarily be the sole judges of how it is to be exercised. The Southern states did deliberate and did decide that they could no longer remain in the Union with safety, and therefore they determined to withdraw from it. If the Southern people had been hurried into secession by their leaders, they are the parties to complain and to hold the guilty ones responsible. They have not done so, and what right had Mr. Greeley and his party to become their champions against their wishes? He and his party are estopped from denying that the Southern people, did with almost entire unanimity, adopt secession and willingly gave their support to the cause of separation; for since their country was overrun by a superior military force, their state governments overthrown; military despotisms established over them; and in the effort to reconstruct the Union, the great mass of the people disfranchised, and the right of suffrage given to the freed slaves, because it was alleged that the Southern people were still rebellious, and so wedded to the idea of secession, notwithstanding the bitter experience of the war, that they could not be trusted with the right to vote and hold office. All of this was done with Mr. Greeley's full knowledge and sanction.

It has been shown how long, how earnestly, and how anxiously the question was discussed in Virginia, and that secession was resorted to by that state only when a war of coercion had been proclaimed, and she had been required to furnish troops to carry it on. The state of Virginia believed, with Mr. Greeley, that it would be a grievous wrong to "rush upon carnage to defy and defeat" the right of the Cotton States to withdraw from the Union; and she determined to do what he had declared his purpose of doing: that is "resist all coercive measures." The ordinance of secession was submitted to the popular vote at an election held more than one month after its adoption by the convention, and it was ratified by an overwhelming majority, thus showing beyond dispute that it was "the echo of an unmistakable popular fiat." Did not "those who rushed upon carnage to defy and defeat" "a judgment thus rendered, a separation so backed," "place themselves clearly in the wrong?"

Yet Virginia was the first of the seceding states invaded by the Federal army; her towns and plains were devastated by a long and cruel war; her people plundered, imprisoned and murdered; her territory severed, and a new state erected within her limits, in violation of the Constitution of the United States. Subsequently a military despotism was thrust upon them, and the freed slaves were vested with the right of suffrage and the capacity to hold office, while such wide measures of disfranchisement were adopted that enough men competent to fill the petty offices of state, even with those whose fears and cupidity led them to apostatize and the influx of adventurers could not be found in all the limits of that old commonwealth which has been designated "the mother of states and of statesmen."

In the case of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, the people were overrun by Federal troops owing to the peculiar nature of their situation, and they were deprived of the opportunity of freely discussing and deliberating upon the questions involved, though the legislature of Missouri did pass an ordinance of secession. Did not those people, under such circumstances, have the right individually to resist so flagrant an outrage upon their rights and liberties? They were not only deprived of the liberty of peaceably assembling to discuss their grievances, but it was sought to deprive them of the right "to keep and bear arms," as expressly guaranteed by the second amendment to the Constitution, in order that they might have the means always of defending their liberties and rights, and the only resource they had was to unite as individuals in the defence of the common cause, and of their own violated homes and liberties.

It has been said that the Confederate states began the war by firing upon Fort Sumter. If those states had the right to withdraw from the Union and the United States had no right to resist or coerce them then the attempt to maintain a garrisoned fort in one of the most important harbors of the Confederacy, was an act of war. This had, nevertheless, been patiently borne with, for nearly three months after the secession of South Carolina, in whose principal harbor the Fort was situated, and it was only when the Government of the United States had given notice of its intention to supply Fort Sumter "peaceably, if possible, otherwise by force," and the vessels for that purpose had appeared off the harbor, that the attack began. The commissioners sent to Washington to effect a peaceable settlement of all questions had then been denied an audience, and informed that the authorities at Washington would hold no intercourse with them.