 Part 1. OF THE HISTORIC PAPERS ON THE CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR THE OLD SOUTH Read before the Lexington chapter U.D.C. February 14, 1909, by Eugena Dunlapotts, historian. No pen or brush can picture life in the old southern states in the antebellum days. The period comprehends two hundred and fifty years of history without a parallel. A separate and distinct civilization was there represented, the like of which can never be reproduced. Socially, intellectually, politically and religiously, she stood pre-eminent among nations. It was the spirit of the cavalier that created and sustained our greatness. Give the Puritan his due, and still the fact remains, the impetus that led to freedom from Great Britain came from the south. A southern general led the raggy Continentals on to victory. Southern jurists and southern statementship guided the Councils of Wisdom. The genius of war pervaded her people. She gave presidents, cabinet officers, commanders, tacticians and strategists. Her legislation extended the country's territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A writer aptly says, For more than fifty formative years of our history the Old South was the dominating power in the nation, as it had been in the foundation of the colonies out of which came the Republic, and later in fighting its battles of independence and informing its policies of government. Whatever of strength or symmetry the Republic had acquired at home, or reputation it had achieved abroad, in those earlier crucial days of its history, was largely due to the patriotism and the ability of southern statementship. Why that scepter of leadership was passed from its keeping or why the New South is no longer at the front of national leadership is a question that might well give pause to one who recalls the brave days when the Old South sat at the head of the table and directed the affairs of the nation. There was the manor and there was the cabin. Each head of the house was a potentate in his own domain, an absolute ruler of a principality as marked as in feudal times without the despotism of the feudal system. The plantation of the old regime was tastefully laid out for beauty and productiveness. Flower gardens and kitchen gardens stretched away into the magnificence of orange trees, shady avenues and fruitful plants. Unbroken retreats of myrtle and laurel and tropical foliage bantered the sun to do his worst. Flowers perfumed the air, magnolia, bloom and other rich tree flora regaled the senses. Extensive orchards yielded fruit of all kinds adapted to the soil and climate. Vineyards were heavy with much bearing. Fields were carefully cultivated till such a thing as the failure of crops was almost unknown. It was largely supplied with sheep and their wool, with geese, ducks, turkeys, guinea fowls and every variety of poultry without stint. Eggs were gathered by the bushel, myriads of birds clouded the sky and daily intoxicated their little brains with the juice of the black cherry. Herds of cattle were luxuriously pastured by Pompey and his sable mates. There were quantities of rich cheese, fresh butter, milk and cream. Vast barns were gorged with corn, rice and hay. Hives were bursting with honey. Vegetables were luscious and exhaustless. Melons sprinkled and dotted many acres of patches. Shrimp and fish filled the waters. Crawfish wriggled in the ditches. Raccoons and opossums formed the theme of many negro-ditting. Carriages and horses filled the stables, and splendid mules were well fed and curried at the barns. High up on the cypress trees hung the grey moss with which the upholsterer Yom Marketplace replenished his furniture vats. The farm produce alone yielded six or seven thousands a year, while the plantation crops of cotton, sugar and rice were clear profit. Rows of white cabins were the homes of the coloured citizens of the community, and infirmary stood apart for the sick. The old grand-dams cared for the children. Up yonder at the mansion house, black mammy held sway in the nursery. Aunt Dinah was the cook. Aunt Rachel carried the housekeeper's keys, while Jane and Anne, the mulatto-lady's maids, flitted about on duty. And Jim and Jack tended on young master and degemen. Such hospitality as was made possible by that style of living can never repeat itself in changed conditions. Grant that these conditions are improved. Grant that the lifted incubus of slavery has opened the doors for the march of intellectual and industrial progress. The fact remains that the highest order of social enjoyment and of exercise of the charming amenities of life was blotted out when the old plantation of Dixieland was divided up by the spoils of war. It is interesting to read of the first attempt to a sugarcrop in Louisiana by a Frenchman named Bore in 1794. His indigo plant, once so profitable, had been attacked and destroyed by a worm and dire poverty threatened. He conceived the project of planting sugarcane. The great question was would the syrup granulate and the hundreds gathered to watch the experiment. It did granulate and the first product sold for $12,000, a large sum at that time. The maker of the cotton gin worked another revolution in commerce and rice proved to be an unfailing staple. Armies of negroes tilled the soil and were happy in the circumscribed sphere humanely cared for by the whites. Enter the home and lo, a palace greets you. With mahogany furniture, now alas in scattered remnants, meets the eye at every turn. Treasures, now elegant trifles of many lands attest the artistic taste of the owners. Gorgeous china, plate and glass are there in everyday use. Fruits of the looming rare as silk and linen embellish the chambers and luxury sits enthroned. The chateau lane, gracious and cultured, is to the manna born and from season to season she fills her house with congenial people to come but not, as with present house parties, told when to go. As long as they found it comfortable and convenient, the latch-string was out. A guest was never permitted to pay for anything, expressage, laundry and all the incidentals were as free as air. The question of money, nowadays impertinently thrust forth, was never hinted at in the olden time. It was considered bad form and the luckless boaster of how poor he was would have been properly stared at as a boar as well as a boar. For past times men had fishing and hunting and for women there was lawn games and indoor diversions. Speaking of the women of the south, a writer aptly said they dwell in a land goodly and pleasant to the eye, a land of fine resources both agricultural and mineral, where may be found fertile cotton fields, vast rice-tracks, large sugar plantations, bright skies and balmy breezes. The whole land is plowed by mighty rivers, is ribbed by long mountain chains and washed by the sea. Fitting environment we add for the gorgeous residences notable in Georgia and South Carolina, built by the nobility and gentry of the Republic and inherited by the descendants of the old colonial aristocracy. What wonder that they held themselves aloof from the manual labourer, black or white, and that they were uncontaminated by the attrition of commercial competition. In the summer the family sought the cooler climate of old Kentucky or Virginia or further north to Saratoga, Longbranch or one of the then attractive resorts. They travelled in state, frequently bringing the family coach and never without a retinue of servants. What a sensation they made! And money flowed like water. The young men, rich and idle, paid court to pretty girls sure of a welcome from both parents and daughters for to marry a southern planter was to achieve a social victory for all time to come. The mechanical and athletic age had not yet dawned. The accepted escort must be a professional man or else lord of a domain such as I have described. Pride and prejudice blinded judgment and the aristocracy of merit alone was unappreciated. And yet the southern woman, even of great wealth, could not afford to be idle. She could not save in exceptional cases the useless, half-educated, irresponsible creature she has been represented. Some there are always and everywhere whose lives are given over to fans, fancies and frivolities. But the true mothers were priestesses at the home altar and kept the sacred fires bright and burning. Their duty was to keep others busy and to direct and oversee the vast domestic machinery of the home. The views were somewhat narrow for as yet the bright sun of woman's emancipation was barely peeping over the horizon. Their minds did not grasp the vexed questions of theology, politics or economics. They accepted the faith of their fathers and shifted all burdens to stronger shoulders. They were eminently religious and charitable. Ways and means were at hand and they did not bother their brains with isms and oligies. Regular attendance upon the nearest church and reverence for the clergy were prominent in their creed. Education for the masses was not provided as it is now. But the majority of the better class were finally educated either at northern schools or by the governess and tutor at home. In many cases where their wife was widowed she nobly and intelligently arose to the management of business affairs. If misfortune came and the woman felt obliged to earn a livelihood it did not occur to her to seek it behind a counter or in a workshop as we do in this generation. She was inclined to walk in the old paths and follow old customs. They believed their own skies were bluest, their own cornfields greenest, their tobacco finest, their cotton the whitest on earth. They were devoted to old friends, to old manners and customs and gloried in their birthright. In the line of literary productions the South was backward. Augusta Evans-Wilson's remarkable novels Hula, St. Elmo and others were read and re-read but not for any lasting good but for passing interest and largely for the glamour that invested a southern writer. Madame Lavert produced Souvenirs of Travel among the very earliest of books on European scenes. Marion Harland's works were read and possessed the selling quality notwithstanding the bitter taste left by her humiliated heroines. Caroline Lee Hunt's Mrs. Holmes, Mrs. Southworth and a small army of essayists in the field clamoured for recognition. But time was when to see the sun-woman imprint was an innovation displeasing to the household gods. Time came when the slumbering faculties were stirred into splendid and successful activity. The depth of the nature's hitherto unsounded arose to the new demands right valiantly. We behold its fruits in the rearing of splendid monuments, the erection of noble charity institutions. The endaring of colleges, the equipment of missionaries, the awakening of wide philanthropies and in the high lines of Christian endeavour. The men who shouldered arms from father to son to defend their state's rights were the same who, in times of peace, knew no burdens of life save those they voluntarily assumed. The women who sewed night and day upon garments fulfilled in hospital were the same who were want to employ their white hands with fragile china and heirloom plate or dally with needlework in the morning-room. These were the mothers who, standing by their slaughtered first-born, gave his sword to the next son and paid him to go to his country's core. There was the spirit of heroism not surpassed by the heroes of the sterner sex. They suffered privations and terrors without a murmur. To visit one of these antebellum homes was a privilege indeed, and something of the spirit of the canal of the French Revolution must have animated the foreign hordes, who not content with confiscating these captured palaces, ruthlessly cut and destroyed the richness and elegance they were beholding for the first time in their commonplace lives. It was not the spirit of conquest but a vandalism that animated them. Want and destruction and not spoilation common in war tactics was their watchword. A domain fairer than Elysium opened to their astonished gaze whenever they penetrated some silvan grove where stood the plantation manor house. Alas! for the old plantation days, alas! for the easygoing spirit that marked the times. The long pitiless hot Sundays were not inspirers of extraordinary energy. Yankee thrift was as pygmy play to these owners of bursting coffers. The hurry and bustle of our northern neighbours was an unknown quantity in their economy. It is to the forcible resting from the south of their inherited institutions of the machinery which made their social order possible that the land of Dixios the prosperity and thrift of today. Evil was done and good came therefrom. Years of wasted substance and enforced poverty were groped through till at last the day-style rose upon new industries. Hands and feet and awakened faculties spring to the keynote of progress and our days are marching on. Here were inserted in the manuscript twenty pages from the diary of the historian written when, as a schoolgirl, she visited with her parents some of the sugar plantations of Louisiana. They give the picture of an eyewitness of the social and commercial life in the south, but while perhaps interest in the reading of a paper are not necessary in print to the theme. Future generations may hug to themselves the consolation that we were pulled down only to be built up again in greater prosperity under a different order of things. The tears and woes of the old south may change into smiles and good cheer, forgetting the glory that once encircled us like a radiant halo. But many there are who feel that such things were and were most deeterous. These look back with brimming eyes and force down the rising sod as they sorrowfully murmur, my native land, good night. End of part one of the historic papers on the causes of poverty Part two of the historic papers on the causes of the Civil War by Mrs. Eugenia Dunlap Potts Recording by FNH please visit www.bookranger.co.uk Part two of the historic papers on the causes of the Civil War This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org FNH Historic papers on the causes of the Civil War by Mrs. Eugenia Dunlap Potts Part two Slavery Read March 14, 1909 In my first paper I endeavoured to present a picture of the sunny south land in the antebellum days when wealth and culture and hospitality were the watch words of the hour before the invasion of hostile hordes the sacred old traditions and crumpled the household gods in the dust. But long before the toxin of the Civil War had sounded there were mutterings of thunder in the halls of Congress and the cloud at first no bigger than a man's hand was yearly gathering force till it finally burst in a cyclone of passion and prejudice and tyranny and swept all before it in one bosom of destruction. That the question of slavery lay at the root of the dissension cannot be doubted by any who are conversant with the political history of the United States. The tariff rulings had their weight as did the unfair division of new territory but the main issue was Negro slavery which always a stumbling block to the north had most violently agitated the whole country for eleven years before the appeal to arms. Negro laborers were brought to Virginia and sold as slaves fifty years after the first cargo landed at Jamestown. In the 1619 a Dutch vessel brought over twenty Negroes to be thus held in bondage. To the men who watched the landing of this handful of Africans it was doubtless and unimportant matter yet it was the beginning of a system that had an immense influence upon the country. In those days few persons in the world opposed slavery. Even kings and queens made money out of the traffic. But for tobacco slavery would not have taken such a hold on America. When it was found that the Negro made the cheapest labor for cultivating the plantation many more were imported. They were also employed in the New England and middle states largely as household servants the soil not being favourable to the production of rice, indigo, cotton and sugar which were the staples of southern agriculture. Moreover the African is not physically adapted to the northern climate. He was especially liable to tubular disease hence he was sold to the southern planters except in a few cases where the Puritan spirit caused his emancipation. In the year that Harvard College was erected 1636 the first slave ship built in America was launched at Marblehead, Massachusetts. It brought a large cargo of slaves to be sold to the settlers. During the one hundred years preceding the 1776 millions of slaves had been imported to the states. King George III favoured the institution and forbade any interference with the colonies in this matter. The horrors of slavery in Massachusetts are recorded by reliable documents of the period. Far exceed all those that have been charged against the south by Uncle Tom's cabin or any other records of fact or remarks. The encyclopedia of political economy in United States history, volume 3 page 733 is the following taken from the New York evening post. During the 18 months of the years 1859-60 85 slave ships, giving their names belonging to New York merchants brought in cargos annually of between 30,000 and 60,000 African slaves who were sold in Brazil. There being great demand for them in that country owing to new industries. Old Peter Faniel built Faniel Hall with slave money and many other fortunes were thus made. Thomas Jefferson says in his autobiography that though the northern people owned very few slaves themselves at the time of writing of the Declaration of Independence yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of slaves to others. In 1761 Virginia and South Carolina alarmed at the rapid increase of slaves, passed an act restricting their importation. But as many persons in England were growing rich from the trade, the act was negative or vetoed. While providing in the Constitution of the United States for the southern planters to hold slaves the North thought that the laws that were in the course of events to be passed for prohibiting their foreign importation would so work out so that the institution would die a natural death. They little dream that economy and political conditions were destined to fasten it upon the south. At the framing of the Constitution, slaves were held in all the states except Massachusetts and she only had very lately abolished the institution. The south owned twice as many by reason of her special agricultural products and even at this early day the slavery question became sectional. Mason's and Dixon's line, which was an imaginary boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, was recognized as the division line between the free and slave states. Here are omitted several pages illustrating the utter absence of affinity between the two sections of the country introduced in the manuscript as social not historical matter. During the Revolutionary War it was deemed expedient to enlist the colored race as soldiers. In Rhode Island they were made free by law on condition that they enlisted in the army and this measure met with General Washington's approval. After the Declaration of Independence in 1777 Vermont, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts freed their slaves and permitted them to vote, provided that they had the requisite age, property and residence. The 15th Amendment of a later day was an outrageous document framed regardless of any qualifications but giving the ignorant black man rights even above the white citizens. In order to induce the southern states to accept the federal constitution in the beginning and to have the country becoming union states, the opposes of slavery had to compromise the use of terms and take measures that seemed expedient. They fondly hoped, as time rolled on, to legislate the freedom of slaves. But the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 immensely increased the value of slave labor and forever fastened the institution upon the southern planters so far as future legislation was concerned. It had been so difficult to separate the cotton fiber by hand, requiring a whole day to do one pound, that it was only a minor product. But now the wonderful source of revenue made possible by the new invention caused the importation of many more slaves and cotton growing in a million acres became king of the marts. The planter would not willingly give up his property honestly acquired and plainly permitted by the constitution. Slavery was a constant obstacle to the perfect union of states. In 1790 during the second session of the first congress, the Quakers and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society through Benjamin Franklin its president, prayed Congress to restore to liberty those held in bondage. The question was debated in the house in a warm, excited manner. Members from South Carolina and Georgia argued that slavery, being commended by the Bible, could not be wrong that the southern states would not be commended into the Confederacy unless their property had been guaranteed them and any action of the general government looking to the emancipation of slavery would not be submitted to. They said that South Carolina and Georgia could only be cultivated by Negro slaves for the climate, the nature of the soil and ancient habits precluded whites from performing their labor. If the Negro were freed he would not remain in those states. Hence all the fertile rice and those swamps must be deserted and would become a wilderness. Furthermore the prohibiting of the slave trade was at the time unconstitutional. James Madison poured oil on the troubled waters by stating that Congress could not interfere according to the constitutional restrictions yet, he said, there are a variety of ways by which it could countenance the abolition and regulations might be made to introduce the freed slaves into new states to be formed out of the western territory. In parentheses I remarked that if Madison could have looked down the years he would have found that even though emancipated the Negro will not leave the white settlements. Take our own little city of Lexington where some 17,000 of them are congregated living in discomfort and poverty in most cases yet their nature is to depend in some fashion upon their white neighbors and employers. It was finally decided in the House that Congress could not prohibit the slave trade until the year 1808 that Congress had no authority to interfere in the emancipation of slaves or in the treatment of them within any of the states. This last resolution which is of great historic importance may be found on page 1523 of the second volume of Annals of Congress. Washington wrote to David Stewart in June 1790 the introduction of the Quaker Memorial respecting slavery was to be sure not only ill-timed but occasioned a great waste of time. In 1793 the fugitive slave law was passed whereby a runaway slave captured in a free state must be returned to his owner. As the new states were admitted into the union they came in for the most part alternately free and slave states. This was done to preserve the balance of power in Congress. The great aggressive abolition movement that led eventually to the Civil War had its birth in 1831. Fanatics like John Brown and Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe fanned into flame the sparks that had so long smoldered till the helpless Negro was dragged from his havens of peace and comfort. If he felt bitterness towards the whites what was to prevent his rising in insurrection and slaying them all? There were plantations where 600 or 700 slaves were governed by two or three white owners. They occupied little villages and had no care upon earth. They had their pastimes and religious worships. The courtly old planter, high bread and gentle the plantation uncle who copied his master's manners and the broad bosomed black mammy with very coloured turban, spotless apron and beaming face, the friend and helper of every living thing in the cabin or mansion formed a trio we love to remember. The black woman cared more for her white nursing than her own child. This seems unnatural, but it was true and many of us recall the times that the mistress of the house had to interfere to prevent the kitchen mother from cruelly whipping her naughty offspring. Some relic of ancient African barbarism still lingered in their unshooted minds. We loved our coloured playmates and their sable mothers and fathers. Many a winning story of way down upon the old plantation has been truthfully told. Will S. Hayes immortalised it in soul. A southern writer has thus betrayed the Christmas time for weeks beforehand everything was full of stir and preparation holly and mistletoe and cedar were being put about the rooms of the big house to welcome home the boys and girls from school. Secret councils were held as to the Christmas gifts to be given to everyone white and black. The wood pile was loaded with oak and hickory logs to make bright and warm Christmas nights. The negro seamstresses were busy making new suits for all the servants. The king was in the parlour counting out his money to pay out for gifts of the season and the queen was in the kitchen dealing bread and honey to paraphrase Mother Goose into the stately plantation home with its lofty white columns its big rooms and its great fireplaces poured the sons and daughters grandchildren, uncles and aunts nephews and nieces. Assembled around the groaning board Criac asked the divine blessing and the twin spirits of Christianity were rife in the land. There was only a fitful sleep for the small boys and girls who were up at peep of day stealing from room to room crying Christmas gift. Out on the back porches waited the negroes in grinning rows to follow the example. All week the cabin fires burnt brightly and constant was the rejoicing over their treasures not forgetting the grand eatables and the big bowl of eggnog. Negroes are own religious as well as superstitious rags. At midnight Saturday it was their custom to ring the great plantation bell and spend the next several hours in extorting, praying and singing their curious doleful hymns. The whites gave them instruction and training along these lines. Heart and conscious were alike cultivated not alone the sounding brass and tingling symbol. Statistics show that there were 466,000 slaves belonging to the churches in the south. Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian and other sects. So the owners of these Christianized people thought that they were doing missionary work in saving them from the cannibalism of heathen Africa. Both men and women were taught trades and useful occupations. There were tanners, shoemakers, blacksmiths, farmers, gardeners, water-culturalists and carpenters among the men. The women could sew, cook, card, spin, weave, knit, wash, iron. In fact, what they produced in this way would put to shame the requirements and accomplishments of free labour. Many of the older Negroes refused to be freed when the mighty proclamation came. They would not withdraw from the protection of the old master. Look at the product of these two generations of freedom. What is he? Well, we know the painful answer. But while the buying of slaves for domestic or field service was legitimate, the man who purchased the traffic as a business and purchased merely to sell again was despised. He was termed a nigger buyer and was a pariah in the lowest sense of ostracism. It was claimed that there was a distinction with a very great difference. Three or four servants for ordinary household duties were deemed sufficient. On a farm more hands were needed and the plantations farther south required several hundred. The refractory slave of Kentucky in the border states were sold down the river in commercial parlance where the discipline of the rice, sugar and cotton plantations kept in check his evil inclinations. There might have been cases of cruel punishment, but the rule was kindness. If for no other reason the master would not injure that which stood for money for property. The expense of keeping slaves was enormous, whereas the labourer of today who has furnished his house, clothing, doctors, medicine are not a little pocket money on occasions. The South employed her labourers to produce the great staple of cotton which was to clothe mankind. They were properly clothed, fed, made comfortable. In addition they were cared for when sick and there existed the warmest affection for the majority of them. The world can nowhere show human beings as carefree in bondage as were the negroes of antebellum days. Judge the Southern owner by the rule and not by the exception. As well, judge a town by its halt, maimed, blind, diseased and lawless citizens as the slave owners by the occasional acts of oppression to be found on the plantations. But it was the down-east Yankee overseer who was cruel, not the master. It was the African in New England who was denied religious teaching and even baptism. There was no sympathy there to quote from a writer for the poor creatures from their native sunny clime dying by hundreds from disease on the bleak northern shores. It was merely a question of profit and loss. They were sold to the South as fast as they could be shipped. Even when the great hue and cry for freedom led the Northern Senators to legislate for the cessation of foreign slavery in 1808, these great philanthropists rushed over some 5,000 slaves to sell to the South before the limited date could come around. Many prominent rich men of New England made their money by this traffic, then pulled a long face over condemnation for the southern planter whose money had been paid over to swell the northern coffers. It is worthy of note that the South never owned or sailed a slave ship. In 1861 Mr. C. C. Gley of Alabama made a bitter speech in the United States Senate. Part of his arrangement was not a decade had passed that the North had not persecuted the South on account of her slaves. You denied us Christian communion because you could not endure slave holding. You refused as permission to sojourn or even pass through the North with our property. You refused us any share of the lands acquired mainly by our diplomacy and blood and treasure. You robbed us of our property and refused to restore it. The speaker went minutely into the outrages perpetrated by the abolition party. The list of oppressions had reached a crisis. Meanwhile the cotton and the cane went on in Dixieland to the weird ditties and quaint folklore of the happy-go-lucky race. So the outbreak of the war found the American slave in the height of its prosperity unmindful of the so-called wrongs and utterly unfit for the boasted freedom that was thrust upon him. The cruel decree was carried out and millions of helpless beings were turned to drift without rudder or compass to bemoan the loss of the good old times when they were provided with the comforts of life and were never more to know. With the moral question of slavery this paper has nothing to do. Facts and facts alone dictate the record. But who has been and who is now the friend of the erstwhile slave? The northerner or the southerner? Says one. We have freed you, but we don't want you. Says the other. We did not free you. But we will take you and make you comfortable. We love your people. You who have rocked us on your faithful breasts, who have interladed our very speech with your dialect, and who were our playmates in the joyous days of youth. We have laid your hoary heads in honoured graves and will treasure your memory till the final hour when death shall make all men equal. End of Part 2 Of Historic Papers on the Causes of Civil War by Mrs. P. Eugenia Dunlop-Pott Recording by F. N. H. Please visit www.bookranger.co.uk Part 3 Of the Historic Papers on the Causes of Civil War This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by F. N. H. The Historic Papers on the Civil War are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Historic Papers on the Causes of Civil War by Mrs. Eugenia Dunlop-Pott Part 3 Secession Read April 11, 1909 We seem not to have been a happy family during our first 100 years as a union of states. We quarrelled frequently among ourselves and like the dissatisfied children of the household there was often threatened disruption. If you do not treat me fairly I will leave home," said the stubborn northern child no less than the warm-hearted southern offspring. And they stood alike in the attitude of going out the door the moment the provocation became unbearable. The rite of secession and the thought of secession was frequently in the mind of all along the infant years of the Republic. But the word secession did not become a familiar term until the early sixties. Then the greeting was hello old secession or are you secession? One might have thought that this awful thing the south had done was heard of for the first time and had had birth alone in the brains of the fiery aristocrats who tore themselves away from their pleblian cousins whereas history shows, as I have said, that every state believed it had a right to secede from the general government by the wording of our Constitution. So when the pressure grew too close the terms southern rites and secession became the slogan of battle and sounded the toxin of war. Let us begin at the beginning and get at the actual situation. The 13 original colonies were as follows. Virginia, settled by the English called the Cavaliers in 1607 became a royal colony in 1624. Massachusetts settled by the Puritans in 1620 became a royal colony in 1629. New York called Amsterdam settled by the Dutch in 1623 became a royal colony in 1688. English were in New York in 1664. New Hampshire settled by Puritans in 1729 became a royal colony in 1679. Maryland settled by the Catholics from England in 1632 became a royal colony in 1691. Connecticut settled by Dutch and English in 1633 became a royal colony in 1662. Rhode Island was settled in 1638 and never became a royal colony. She was excluded from the New England Federation because she harbored all kinds of religions. She especially reserved to herself a state government alone and a right to secede in any case. So this terrible crime of secession had birth in that pious patriotic north that so bitterly condemned the states of Dixieland for clamouring for a future right. Delaware settled by Swedes in 1638 became a separate colony owned by William Penn in 1703. North Carolina settled by Virginians and Quakers in 1653 became a royal colony in 1629. New Jersey settled by the English in 1665 became a royal colony in 1702. Pennsylvania and Scottish Irish in 1681 was given by King Charles II of England to W. N. Penn in 1770. South Carolina settled by French Huguenots and Germans in 1691 became a royal colony in 1729. Georgia the last English colony was settled by the English in 1732 and had her royal charter in 1762. I have given the colonial dates in regular order of chronology. A more convenient division may be made thus. The New England colonies were Massachusetts New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island all belonging to England except Rhode Island. The middle colonies were New York, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, two belonging to England and two to W. N. Penn. The southern colonies were Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina South Carolina and Virginia all belonging to England all together by common cause were English, French, German, Dutch, Swedes, Quakers Epicaplians, Catholics and all desired forms of religious worship. Wise legislation indeed was needed to harmonize these conflicting elements and dispositions merely on general principles. But when grave questions came then trouble began. What was to the commercial interest of one section seemed to militate against the prosperity of the other and the glorious endings of the war for independence was soon clouded by the acts of Congress concerning the polity of the United States. The African slave trade begun by the North for purposes of profit became a bone of contention to the year 1808 when the law was passed against further importation of foreign slaves. Those already owned and employed must on no account be disturbed. They might increase and multiply ad libitum on their own plantations but they were the legitimate property of their owners. Even when Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Act he said that he had not the right as president to do it but that it must be done as a war measure by depriving the southern soldier of his laborers the homes must go to waste and the strife must cease. Politically each of the original colonies was independent and had its own assembly and its own governor. From the very first this idea of state sovereignty was inherent and consequently it was granted. The royal colonies sent all legislative acts to England to be approved or vetoed by the king. It must have required patience to await the going and returning of the documents across the vastly deep in that day. The royal colonies so governed by the king were New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Virginia and Georgia. In the proprietary colonies or those granted by royalty to individuals the owner appointed the governor but the king exercised the right of veto in Pennsylvania and Delaware but not in Maryland. The charter colonies were Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. These held charters from the king permitting a complete government by themselves. At this time black slaves were in all the states. Even after New England states had grown rich by the selling of negroes to the south where the climate suited their natures they kept up the traffic in white slaves who, too poor to pay their passage to New land flowing with milk and honey, sold themselves hoping to buy back their freedom in the perhaps near future. When the Constitution of the United States was framed many compromises were made. The framers had to select words with extreme care less some state might refuse to join the federation. A notable compromise and the very first quarrel was the one just quoted in the reference to placing the limitation of slave trade as far ahead as 1808. The next disagreement was about war debt. This was called the assumption the general government had contracted a debt of $54 million and the states about $25 million. This was in 1790. Alexander Hamilton proposed that the government assume the whole debt hence the word assumption. The South argued that each state should pay its own debt and the government assume the state debts it would be taking away the sovereign rights that have been guaranteed them. Fiz, the right to do as they pleased with what was their own and that national legislation had nothing to do with the question. About this time they were looking about for a site upon which to build the national capital. Sectional spirit ran high. New England declared that her states would secede if the South succeeded in defeating assumption and in getting the capital too. So a compromise was affected. The assumption bill passed and the South got the capital. After the seat of government was established at Philadelphia during ten years. In this year too many petitions to abolish slavery were forced upon Congress. After a heated debate the fiat went forth that Congress should not take action until 1808. Next came the adding of ten amendments to the Constitution all for the purpose of protecting state rights. Thomas Jefferson became the leader of the Republican Party afterwards known as Democrats and not to be confounded with the Republican Party of today. There was a most bitter wrangle over the wording of the Constitution during which even President Washington received abuse. Threats of breaking up the union were heard on all sides. Then there was the quarrel over the national bank question. The first one was established in Philadelphia in 1791 and the United States became a stockholder. The purpose was to furnish a safe currency and one that would be uniformed throughout the states. In 1791 Vermont a part of New York was admitted a free state. In 1792 Kentucky cut off from Virginia entered as a slave state and in 1796 Tennessee given up by North Carolina came in as a slave state. They were involved in trouble with other countries in regard to territory but this sketches chiefly to do with our disputes as a family. While John Adams was president the successor of Washington the alien and sedition laws created a stir in the country. The Federalists gave the President power to send out of the country all foreigners whom he considered dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States. I fear that these foreign citizens by their free speech and writings would involve us in a war with Great Britain. This was the alien law. The Democrats contended that they had a right to bring over all the foreigners they pleased and make them citizens. The sedition law condemned to fine or imprisonment any writer of false, scandalous or malicious statement against the government, Congress or the President. The Democrats urged that this law took away freedom of speech and liberty of the press. Virginia by James Madison and Jackie by Thomas Jefferson passed resolutions which have become famous in political history. Each set of resolutions proclaimed the Union to be only a compact between the states. They declared the alien and sedition laws to be unconstitutional, null and void. Virginia actually strengthened her military forces and made ready for secession as far back as this date 1799. The laws were not passed. In 1803 Ohio the 17th state was ceded by Virginia and was admitted the first state carved from the Northwest Territory and employed free labor. The purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon in 1803 caused much discussion and interest. It comprised a vast area equal to the whole United States. Exploring expeditions was sent out to find what unknown territory was like. Whenever there was a question of an acquisition to the Union the slave question was also in agitation. We next hear of secession when the Embargo Act was passed. In 1807 Congress in order to avoid the war with Great Britain which was fated to come five years later it acted that no American vessel should leave the country for foreign ports. New England where commerce was still the chief industry suffered most. She threatened to secede and both Massachusetts and Connecticut proclaimed the right to nullify the law. Two years later the act was repealed and again the Union was saved. Truly Uncle Sam had rest if children who could not be driven but who might at times be coaxed into a good humor. Now came the quarrel between the state banks and the national bank. The National Bank Charter expired in 1811 and Congress refusing to grant another. It had to go out of business. In 1812 Louisiana a slave state came in to make the 18th addition. When war with England was declared in order to protect our commerce again the New England states wanted to secede. Bells were told, business was suspended, flags were at half mass and the war was condemned in town meetings from the press and the pulpit. They believed it would ruin rather than protect commerce so they wanted to run away by themselves. When the administration called for militia they refused to obey. The Hartford Convention, just after our successful war with Great Britain proposed some amendments to the Constitution and justified secession as a remedy for any uncongenial union but one that should not be resorted to except when absolutely necessary. They confirmed the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. The Democrats openly charged that the object of the convention was disunion. The Federalist Party went to basis. A new national bank was established in 1816 to continue 20 years. In 1817 Indiana, the second state from the northwest territory became a member of the union with free labour. She was the 19th state and asked permission to hold slaves but Congress prohibited slavery north of the Ohio River. The North had air this, freed or sold her slaves but the convention was legalized in the southern states. There were now 19 states and 5 territories viz Mississippi, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri and Alabama. Immigration poured into the west. Each section of the young republic watched its own prosperity with jealous interest. The tariff question caused excited sectional feeling. The tax on foreign goods for the sake of revenue only had satisfied everybody. But a protective tariff was unpopular with the South. The North having manufactories was glad to protect her infant industries. The South had no manufactories. Also agricultural products and her representatives combated the measure with zeal. This tariff bill had always opposed opposition and a glance at the daily doings in Washington shows that it is still a bone of contention. Mississippi was admitted as a state in 1817 with slaves. Illinois in 1818 free and Alabama in 1819 slave making 22 states 11 free and 11 slave states an equal division. In 1819 Florida was bought from Spain. The greatest quarrel came when Missouri was talked off as a state. The South wanted to let free to choose slave labor. The North feared that this southern legislatures control of the Senate. There were numerous slaves in Missouri territory and she wanted to retain them as a state. So angry were the debaters and so heated the feeling that it was feared the country would go to pieces. This was as far back as 1819. Maine cut off from Massachusetts now wanted to come into the Union. As she would be a free labor site the Southerners would not vote for her admission because Missouri could have slaves. Hence the Missouri Compromise Bill of which we have all heard. Senator Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois proposed this compromise. The terms of it admitted Missouri with slaves but prohibited slavery in any other portion of the Louisiana Purchase north of a certain specified latitude which was the southern boundary of Missouri. This quelled the matter for many years. But most of us have seen the celebrated steel engraving where Henry Clay stands speaking on this question and pouring oil on the troubled waters. His powerful oratory so often saved the country from dissension that he was termed the great pacifator. The gifted triumvir Henry Clay from Kentucky, Daniel Webster from Massachusetts and John C. Calhoun from South Carolina had labored through the years to reconcile the national vexed questions. All three died in the early 50s and remembering the results of their mighty genius. There were many to say, ten years after that if they had lived there would have been no war, save perhaps another war of words in Congress. But their patriotic heads were laid low and there were none to take their places. The two sources of dissension slavery and the tariff were always on hand to make a stormy session so that a detailed history of the wrangling among the north, south and west would be a tedious transcription. What suited one section was adverse to the best interests of the others. The south abided strictly by the wording of the Constitution. The north was ever ready to put a liberal construction onto its meaning and naturally they took issue. In 1824 the tariff question became so untenable that some of the southern states rebelled outright and protested through their legislatures against the measure as unconstitutional. Some favoured succession, others advocated nullification and this was what was done. They nullified the law and refused to stand by it. Clammer for state rights was heard on every side, but they did not take this step till they had waited two or three years for Congress to give relief by reducing the tariff. In 1832 the crisis came. Nullification was pronounced by South Carolina and she forbade the collection of tariff duties in her own state. She also declared that if the United States used force she would withdraw from the Union and organise a separate government. Andrew Jackson who was the president determined to enforce the tariff law in the state and asked Congress for the power to use an army to sustain the law. Volunteers had offered in South Carolina and the country stood aghast at the prospect of civil war. Here again Henry Clay's eloquence gave the day. He proposed the measure of gradually reducing the tariff through a period of ten years till it would provide only for the expenses of the government. This removed the cause of the trouble so South Carolina rescinded her act of nullification. The South had continually yielded up portions of her immense territory to the Union and thus far there had been an equal balance of power in the legislative voting of the two sections. The Declaration of Texas raised a stormy conflict. The South hoped for a division of this large tract into five slave states. The North as usual wished to obtain the lion's share. In 1835 Arkansas was admitted as a slave state. In 1836 Michigan came in with free labor. After the Mexican War the retrospect showed that since the Declaration of Independence the North had possessed herself only fourths of all the territory added to the original states. She fought the annexation of Texas because it would be slave-holding. In 1845 Florida was admitted with slave labor. In the same year Texas came in as a slave state. In 1846 Iowa came in with free labor. In 1848 Wisconsin also free. When California applied for admission in 1850 there was such bitter antagonism that it was universally feared the Southern states would secede from the Union. Should she be a free state there would then be no other state to offset it with slaves. It was finally decided to leave the choice to California herself. Henry Clay was again at hand to effect a satisfactory compromise. In a former paper I have referred to the fugitive slave law whereby runaway slaves could be captured and sent back to their owners. But about a decade before the war a great abolition wave had begun to flood the country. Thurlow Weed, William Lloyd Garrison Parson Brownlow, John Brown and Mrs. Stowe by the power of tongue and pen and printing press endeavored to stir up the North to the picture fanatical desperation and the slaves to revolt against their masters. It was not for the sake of the Union perish the Union if only the slaves were free. Drive out the Southern states if they refuse to abolish them. Their acts and their words were the extreme of anarchy and tyranny. Jealousy had long formed a vindictive element in their breasts. And how could the two sections be wholly fraternal? They had come from not only different stocks of population but from different creeds in religion and politics. There could be no congeniality between the Puritan exiles who settled upon the cold, rugged and cheerless soil of New England and the Cavaliers who sought the brighter climate of the South and the ironial halls felt nothing in common with roundheads and regicides. In 1859 the tragic raid of John Brown at Harper's Ferry, his execution and the startling effects of the open outbreak against slavery put the Southern states on guard. When the next presidential election came on it was apparent from Mr. Lincoln's debates with Mr. Douglas what the future policy of the Government would be. When he therefore won the election the South withdrew her representatives from Congress and her states from the Union. Secession no longer threatened by both sections in turn, had come at last. Everything had been done on the floor of the House to harmonize the issues but without avail. On December 20th, 1860 South Carolina passed the ordinance of secession. On January 9th, 1861 Mississippi followed. Florida January 10th, Alabama January 11th Georgia January 19th Louisiana January 26th Texas February 1st Virginia April 17th Arkansas May 6th North Carolina May 20th Tennessee June 8th To sum up the causes for the secession of the South. One, the state had always been supreme. Each was a distinct sovereignty not subject to the general Government in matters of their own home rule. Two, the interests of the South were injured by the burden of tax and the benefit of the North. Three, the Republican Party had determined that slavery should not be admitted in the territories. The Republicans were in power and for seeing future interference in their rights the South thought the time had come to form an independent government. Four, the North refused to accept the compromise proposed by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, which might have averted the war, nor would she consent to submit the matter to a vote of the people. Hence there was no chance for harmony. The aggressive measures of the North were such as no self-respecting state in the South could endure. It had come to be a habit in Congress to insult the South because she held slaves. Reason and right alike succumbed to prejudice and hatred and the dissatisfied states, weary of wrong and oppression, sounded the note of separation and from every throat burst the refrain We are a band of brothers native to the soil fighting for the property we've gained by honest toil. Hurrah, hurrah for Southern rights hurrah, hurrah for the Bonnie Blue flag that bear a single star. End of Part 3 of the Historic Papers on the Causes of the Civil War by Mrs. Eugenia Dunlap-Pott Recording by F. N. H. Please visit www.bookranger.co.uk Part 4 of Historic Papers on the Causes of the Civil War This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by F. N. H. Historic Papers on the Causes of the Civil War by Mrs. Eugenia Dunlap-Pott Part 4 The Southern Confederacy Red May 11th, 1909 More than a hundred years ago the American states rebelled against the tyranny of England the mother country and formed a confederacy of and among themselves to work together for their own welfare and prosperity. It was granted by their constitution and by the states that to each or any individual state had the right, under provocation to withdraw from the pact. Not quite fifty years ago the southern states of this union having endured provocation after provocation withdrew from their northern oppressors and formed themselves into the confederacy whose brief existence ran red with the best blood of a chivalrous land. War was not contemplated. A peaceable separation was desired. A peace conference was held to which representatives of the states were invited. Measure after measure was proposed so that war might be averted. All were rejected. The recusant states must be whipped back into submission to the autocrats that would direct their affairs. With restricted territory a minority of population and home interests directly opposed to those of the overriding north what was there to hope for but continuous degradation? Our leaders have been accused of precipitating the war for their own personal ambition. It was another a Ron Burr conspiracy. Let us hear what they have to say about it. Jefferson Davis the fearless soldier and upright citizen the man who by reason of his supreme fitness was a little later chosen president of the confederacy said in his last speech before the United States Senate secession is to be justified upon the basis that the states are sovereign. When you deny us the right to withdraw from a government which threatens our rights we but tread in the paths of our fathers when we proclaim our independence. I am sure I but express the feelings of the people whom I represent towards those whom you represent when I say I hope and they hope for peaceable relations with you though we must part. This step is taken 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 commit unshawn to our children. Alexander Hamilton Stevens of Georgia vice president of the confederacy was a wick unlike others of the leading statesmen loved the union when the north began to control the new territories and thus denied the south her legitimate share in the government thereof Mr. Stevens made a long and powerful argument in the House of Representatives at Washington some years before the secession he said in part if you the men of the north by right of superior numbers persist in ignoring the claims of the south separation must follow but why not in pace we say as did the patriarch of old let there be no strife I pray thee between me and thee for we be brethren is not the whole land before thee separate thyself I pray thee from me if thou will take from the left hand then I will go to the right or if thou depart to the right hand then I will go to the left in other words if we cannot enjoy this public domain in common let us divide it this is a fair proposition unless these bitter and sectional feelings of the north be kept out of the national halls we must be prepared for the worst are your feelings too narrow to make concessions and deal justly by the whole country have you formed a fixed determination to carry your measures by numerical strength and then enforce them by the bayonet if so the consequences be upon your own head you may think that the suppression of an outbreak of the southern states would be a holiday job for a few of your northern regiments but you may find to your cost in the end that seven million of people fighting for their rights, their homes and their heathstones cannot be easily conquered I submit the matter to your deliberate consideration Mr. Stevens in a speech before Georgia legislature opposed the session but said should Georgia determine to go out of the union whatever the result may be I shall bow to the will of my people their cause is my cause and their destiny is my destiny these speeches and sentiments do not savour of stirring up strife of leading the south into rebellion so that I may be king and thou my standard bearer there could be no treason in doing what the constitution of the united states permitted and so every speech of farewell made by southern representatives was one first of pleading for redress then of sincere regret that self-respect and justice forced the rupture the south never desired war or bloodshed the north defied possible war believing that within a month at least any resistance must certainly be conquered we can easily whip them back well it was done but not so easily until years of carnage had wrought their destiny John C. Breckenbridge of Kentucky vice president of the united states was turned the arch traitor of all his published speeches are in the same spirit of regret and of affection for the union in burning words he showed how the northern representatives were trampling down the constitution and in eloquent remonstrance he pointed the way of escape from threatened disaster after leaving congress he entered the confederate army as major general and served as secretary of war in the cabinet of president davis Robert tombs of georgia was secretary of state in his speech before the u.s. senate in january 1861 he reminded his hearers that the southern states had hundreds of sympathizers among men of the north who respect their oaths, abide by compacts and love justice the brave and patriotic men of the south appealed to the constitution they appealed to justice they appealed to fraternity until the constitution, justice and fraternity were no longer listened to in the legislative halls of their country and then sir they prepared for the arbitrament of the sword and now you see the glistening bayonet and you hear the tramp of armed men from your capital to the Rio Grande and all that they have ever demanded is that you abide by the constitution as they have done what is it that we demand that we may settle in present or acquired territories with our property including slaves and that when these territories shall be admitted as states they shall say for themselves whether they wish to have free or slave labor that is our territorial demand we have fought for this territory when blood was its price we have paid for it when gold was its price new england has contributed very little of blood or money the senator goes on to specify what further measures the south demanded in sharp incisive terms but this extract suffices to show that our leaders used every power of tongue and moral persuasion to stave off bloodshed houston governor of texas in a public speech advised constitutional means anything in reason to prevent war robert e lee the great the good was cut to the heart at the impending calamity one of his friends said i have seldom seen a more distressed man lee said if virginia stands by the old union so will i but if she secedes then i shall follow my native state with my sword and if need be with my life these are my principles and i must follow them many public men in the north urged peaceable secession notably horris greely foreign eyes were turned anxiously towards america the south were sending out millions of pounds of cotton of which the great apart went to england a london paper of the decade said the lives of nearly two million of our country are dependent upon the cotton crops of the states should any dire calamity before the land of cotton a thousand of our merchant ships would rot idly in dock ten thousand mills must stop their busy looms two thousand mouths would starve for lack of food to feed them in eighteen sixty a southern senator said in congress there are five million of people in great britain who live upon cotton exhaust the supply one week and all england is starving i tell you cotton is king but the die was cast the ordinance of secession of south carolina unanimously passed on december twentieth at a quarter past one o'clock great crowds were outside the hall of conference awaiting the results the charleston mercury issued an extra of which six thousand copies were sold the chimes of saint michael's peeled exultant notes bells of all the other churches simultaneously rang the gun by the post office christened old secession belched forth in thundering celebration cannons in the citadel echoed the glad tidings houses and shops emptied their people into the streets cares of business and family were forgotten all faces were smiles joy prevailed old men ran shouting down the streets friend met friend in hearty hand class the sun shone brilliantly after three days of rain volunteers donned their uniforms and hastened to the armories new palmetto flags appeared everywhere everyone wore a blue cockade in his hat great enthusiasm was shown at the unfurling of a banner on which blocks of stone in an arch typified the fifteen southern states these were surmounted by the statue of john c calhoun with the constitution in his hand and the figures of faith and hope at the base of the arch were blocks broken in fragments representing the northern states a scroll interpreted the allegory to amine the southern republic built from the ruins of the other half of the country the sentiment of the community was shared by boys firing noisy crackers and roman candles the patricians of charleston drank champagne with their dinners that night there were grand ceremonies with military companies, bonfires and glad demonstrations the sister states soon caught the infection and in sharing the hope of independence they too withdrew from the union on february 4th 1861 delegates from the seceded states virginia, arkansas, florida, georgia north and south carolina mississippi, texas, louisiana alabama and tennessee had met at montgomery alabama to organize the government of the confederate states the president and commander in chief jefferson davis was inaugurated at the state house montgomery febru 18th 1861 and again at richmond virginia febru 22nd 1862 inauguration of jefferson davis the congress of delegates from the seceding states met at montgomery alabama on febru 4th 1861 and prepared a provisional constitution of the new confederacy this constitution was discussed in detail and was adopted on the 8th on the next day febru 9th an election was held for the selection of chief executive officers jefferson davis born in kentucky but a resident of mississippi being elected president and alexander h stevens of georgia vice president while these important events were transpiring mr davis was at his home bryerfield in mississippi it was his preference to take active service in the field and the will of his people and set out for montgomery to take the oath of office and assume the tremendous responsibilities to which he had been assigned in the great drama about to be enacted on his way to montgomery he passed through jackson grand junction chattanooga west point and oppa laika at every principal station along the route he was met by thousands of his enthusiastic fellow countrymen clamouring for a speech during the trip he delivered about 25 short speeches the reception at montgomery was an ovation 8 miles from the capital he was met by a large body of distinguished citizens and amid the hazards of thousands and the booming of canon he entered the city from the balcony of the exchange hotel he addressed shortly after his arrival the immense throng that filled the streets february 18th had been chosen for the day of the inauguration and as the time drew near the excitement increased the ceremony was carried out with all the solemnity and ceremony that could be thrown about it the military display was a beautiful one and the martial maneuvers of the troops seemed to portend a victorious issue a platform was erected in front of the portico of the state house and standing with uplifted hand on this eminence while all the approaches were filled with vast crowds of people jefferson davies took the oath of office as the hour of noon approached an immense procession was formed and to the music of fife, drama and artillery it moved towards the capital building on the platform awaiting the arrival of mr. davies with the members of congress the president of that body the governor of alabama and committees and a number of other distinguished persons round after round of cheers greeted mr. davies after being seated on the platform the reverend dr. manly arose and offered an impressive prayer president davies arose and read his inaugural address then turning he placed one hand upon the bible and with the other uplifted he listened to the oath his face was upturned and reverential in expression at the conclusion of the oath in solemn earnest voice he exclaimed so help me god he lowered his head in tears and hundreds wept as they viewed the solemn scene thus was officially launched upon a tempestuous sea the confederate ship of state order of procession music military escort of montgomery fusiliers captain schlesner montgomery rifles captain farris ufala rifles captain baker columbus guard captain sims president elect vice president and chaplain in an open carriage drawn by six horses congressional committee on ceremonies various committees commissioners to the government from states other than the states of the confederacy ministers of the gospel all in carriages citizens in carriages and on foot the department of state of justice the treasury, war, navy, post office and various military corps with officers and attachés all in short that it takes to form and conduct a government was ordered from the best picked material a constitution was framed like that of the united states in the main but the unsatisfactory clauses that had wrought such havoc in the halls of congress had changed for the better there were in the confederate service one commander in chief, seven generals nineteen lieutenant generals eighty-four major generals and three hundred and thirteen brigadier generals the roster of the union greatly exceeded these numbers when all the departments were organized ready for the administration of the new republic commissioners were sent to president lincoln at washington to negotiate for an equitable transfer of southern thoughts and for terms of an amicable separation they were refused audience every method known to national and international arbitration was attempted without success so when the strife was precipitated the south had no resource left but to resist by arms no matter how overwhelming the odds of the invading section on april twelfth eighteen sixty one general Beauregard learning that a fleet was forcing its way into charleston harbour to join major anderson at sumpter opened fire upon the fort the north charged the war was thus inaugurated by the south the south believed its action was necessary for self-defense however that might be it was the onset of battle of the greatest civil war the world has ever known president lincoln and president davis both called for troops mass meetings were held in every part of the country north and south the role of the drum and of the shrill fife of the march were heard in every direction drills were drawn up drills were in progress in hall and on the green every youth rushed to take up arms after the great confederate victory at ball run someone wrote they have met at last a storm clouds meet in heaven and the north men back and bleeding have been driven and their thunders have been stilled and their leaders crushed or killed and their ranks with terror thrilled rent and riven they had indeed met and they met and met again throughout the length and breadth of the prolific country where cotton was king the honest achievements of a hundred years were ground into dust by the engines of destruction the north came on as invaders the south stood firm as defenders and in all the histories of the struggle this fact should be preeminent of the hundred battles fought only that of gettysburg was on northern soil the beautiful lands of the garden spot of earth as I have said were torn and pillaged and ruined not alone by the fortunes of civilized warfare but by the ghastly horrors of cruelty and needless vandalism it is not the purpose of this paper to fight those battles over the strife lasted four years the population of the north was 22 million that of the south 9 million of whom three and one half millions were slaves the north was four times as great in numbers as the south the north had three times as many armies could not get enough small arms for many months all foundries for cannon and all except two powder mills were in the north the north had food and provisions in abundance the south planted cotton and tobacco but could not even in times of peace raise enough food but were accustomed to buy from the north and from Europe the union had a treasury and a navy the confederacy had neither the north could renew supplies from abroad the southern ports were blockaded and many necessaries of life were shut off the confederacy set to work to make arms, ammunition, blankets, saddles harness and other necessities bells from churches and halls dinner bells, plantation and fire bells along with stray pieces of metal were melted and cast into cannon old nails were saved and blacksmiths made of them clumsy needles pins and scissors for coffee was burnt rye okra, corn, bran, chicory and sweet potato peelings raspberry leaves, corn fodder and sassafras root there was not enough bacon to be had to keep the soldiers alive sorghum was used for sugar the women and girls helped in every possible manner silk dresses were made into banners woollen dresses and shawls into soldiers' shirts carpets into blankets curtains, sheets and all linens were made into lint for bandages for the wounded soft white fingers knitted socks, shirts and gloves to keep the cold from the men in the trenches calico was ten dollars per yard quite early in the strife homespun was made upon the old colonial wheels and looms that had been kept to souvenirs and curios buttons were obtained from persimmon seeds with holes pierced for eyes women plaited their hats from straw or palmetto leaf and used feathers from barnyard fowls one morning dress would be loaned from house to house as disaster came shoes were made of wood or carriage curtains buggy tops, saddle tops or anything like leather there were thin iron soles like horseshoes they were patched with bits of old silk dresses for little children's shoes were made from old morocco pocket books flour was two hundred and fifty dollars per barrel meal fifty dollars a bushel corn forty dollars a bushel oats twenty five black eyed peas forty five brown sugar ten dollars coffee twelve dollars, tea thirty five dollars a pound french merino or mohair sold at eight hundred dollars to one thousand dollars a yard cloth cloak one thousand and fifteen hundred dollars Balmoral boots two hundred and fifty dollars the pair french gloves a hundred and twenty five and a hundred and fifty dollars the stores came to be opened only on occasions salt was the most difficult of all the necessities the earth remold smoke houses was dug up and boiled for the drippings of ham and bacon these being crystallized by some primitive process newspapers were printed on coarse half sheets every scrap of blank paper in old notebooks letters or waste was utilized wallpaper and pictures were turned for envelopes glue from the peach tree gum served to seal the covers pokeberries, oak balls and green persimmons furnished ink the devotion of the people was sublime always dividing with their neighbours and the refugees were noted for heroic acts the negroes were faithful in guarding the families all of whom were left unprotected and in working the plantations nowhere in their annals of nations has such fidelity been known two negro men belonging to an army officer's widow who lived with her young daughters on an Arkansas plantation conveyed fifty thousand dollars in gold in the cushions of an ambulance to Houston, Texas a place of safety from marauding troops who burned the house and cabins and captured the livestock the Yankees were not molest escaping negroes these were faithful to their trust similar instances are legion, leal and true always and everywhere the memory of those hardships cannot die until all the survivors are dead fertile fields and pleasant villages were destroyed by great armies two billions of dollars in slaves were swept away cotton the chief staple was burned or captured wealth placed in confederate bonds was lost forever of the one million men in the southern army three fourths were killed four hundred thousand were crippled and no estimate was made of the wounded who recovered the cost of the war was eight million dollars men and horses perished of starvation and disease the southern confederacy died not for lack of will and of the spirit to fight on for not to even Washington's ragged troops at valley forge endured great sufferings or displayed greater heroism the confederacy died of exhaustion I have said that the women of the south gave all their energies and ingenuities to the cause they shared the burdens of conflict they encouraged and stimulated the men by their sympathy and cheerful fortitude to the country they gave their dearest and best and bore up bravely in defeat as well as in victory with silent courage they faced privation and danger they nursed the sick and wounded took charge of farms and plantations with wonderful resource they supplied the growing deficiency in domestic affairs they cared for and directed the thousands of Negroes left dependent upon them they never lost their trust in God or in the righteousness of their cause though their loved ones languished in prison or lay dead on the battlefield their patriotism and womanly fidelity will be held in honor while the world lasts and the women refugees from the border states suffered in addition the cutting off of news from those they left behind them that is went by chance messengers through the lines or around by Liverpool, England and finally by special indulgence in one page missives are unsealed by flag of truce via Newport news and Norfolk, Virginia sometimes months of silence elapsed often at the letters were lost in many cases they straggled in after two or three years 44 years have dragged their slow length since the last roll call we the survivors and descendants have buckled on the armor of faithfulness and are honoring the memory of our martyred heroes we are rearing monuments to perpetuate their deeds of valor we are cleaning their revered names from aspersion we are striving to educate the generations to come in the true history of their marvellous struggle for the inalienable rights of every free born American how sublime that struggle how undaunted their attitude how unsurpassed their fortitude amid the upheaval of their colossal ruin the conquered banners tattered folds hang on the wall her standard bearer lies in the dust the soddies green above the heads of her valiant leaders her rank and file sleep in many an unknown grave we are the cooling valley of peace where unrefreshing lies and above us waves the flag of the old old union our people once loved so well so moat it be we were loyal to the powers that were we are loyal to the powers that be good citizenship is now as ever the watchword of the south we do not forget our martyrs upon our devoted heads rest the sacred duty of consecration let us cling together in a cause so noble let us merge all thought of self in the glorious work that lies before us and what of our beautiful our historic south land about which the halo of posey so lovingly lingers nature and man have wrought a mighty restoration through the grand old states of virginia and south carolina whose annals contain names which will ever adorn the pages of history down into the prosperous states of georgia alabama and mississippi through louisiana unrivaled infertility and onto the vast expanse of texas whose coming wealth and power may not be measured there arise prophetic voices from field, forest, mine and workshop for telling the grand stirring into life of extended commerce enterprise and capital her products have increased and multiplied in kind and in variety till we hear in the senate chamber of congress an eloquent plea for the protection of her interests in the country's political economy we hear from the lips of the kentucky senator a full recognition of our worth our greatness and alas the tardy acknowledgement of our rights these beautiful states are swept by the ocean and mountain winds and nurtured by the glowing sun and gentle rains the palmetto and the cypress and the lordly live oak stand above the glowing orange grove and fragrant magnolia bloom and the grey moss on the trees wearing the uniform of the men in grey wafts a solemn requiem above their narrow beds the light of prosperity spreads transcendent radiance over the land the throb of commercial triumph pulsates in the hum of the factory in the smelting furnace and ascends in the soft twilight from the rich furrows of her incomparable fields while the salt sea billows and as they rock her shipping and dash against pier and wharf add their exultant voices in prophecy of still greater prosperity may advancing wealth rebuild her mansions and fill her coffers and fittingly crown the efforts of her ambition and of her genius may she never lose the aspirations that have made her people through sunshine and storm a lofty and noble race End of Part 4 End of Historic Papers on the Causes of the Civil War by Mrs Eugena Dunlop Potts Recording by FNH please visit www.bookranger.co.uk