Читать книгу Disunion and Restoration in Tennessee - John Randolph Neal - Страница 4

The vote of Tennessee in the presidential election of 1860 shows conclusively that at that time a majority of her citizens did not hold disunion sentiments. Her electoral vote was cast for John Bell and Edward Everett, who represented, as their platform expressed it, “no political principle other than the Constitution of the country, the Union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws.”

The first step toward secession was not the result of popular initiative, but was mainly due to the efforts of the Governor of the State, Isham G. Harris. Governor Harris had entered public life just after the rupture between Andrew Jackson and Hugh Lawson White, which had resulted in the formation, in Tennessee, of the Whig party. For thirty years the Whigs and Democrats contended for the control of the State. They were so equally matched that victory often turned upon the individual strength of the candidate. This resulted in the development of a class of public men who possessed, in a high degree, the usually divergent abilities of public speakers and party leaders. From this school of practical politics were graduated James K. Polk, Cave Johnson, Felix Grundy, John Bell, and Andrew Johnson.

The contest between the Whigs and Democrats, which was at first merely a personal quarrel, soon ripened into a division along true party lines. The Democrats, after the death of Andrew Jackson, joined the national Democratic party in its struggle for the perpetuation and extension of slavery. The Whigs on the other hand shared in the broad policies and national aspirations of the national Whig party.

Governor Harris had at the very beginning of his career allied himself with the Democrats. As early as 1849, he had been elected to Congress, where he became conspicuous for his advocacy of extreme State rights. In 1857 he defeated Neil S. Brown for governor, and was re-elected in 1859. It was not difficult to predict what his action would be in the crisis of 1860. Immediately after the election of President Lincoln, he issued a call for an extra session of the Legislature. It convened on the seventh day of January, and on the same day he sent in his message. This message is worthy of study, as it has been pronounced by a distinguished writer to be “the ablest and most succinct as well as the most intelligent presentation and justification of the reasons for the action of the seceding States.”[1] It began with the following description of the crisis confronting the State: “The long, systematic, and wanton agitation of the slavery question, with actual and threatened aggressions of the Northern States and a portion of their people upon the well-defined constitutional rights of the Southern citizens, the rapid increase of a purely sectional party, whose bond of union is uncompromising hostility to the rights and institutions of the fifteen Southern States, have produced a condition in the affairs of the country unparalleled in the history of the past, resulting already in the withdrawal from the Confederacy of one of the sovereignties which compose it, while others are rapidly preparing to move in the same direction.”[2]

This opening statement was followed by an historical review in which was traced the growth of the Republican party. The offences it had committed against the Southern States were then enumerated. Among other things, he said:

“It has sought to appropriate to itself, and to exclude the slaveholders from, the territory acquired by the common blood and treasure of all. It has, through the instrumentality of the Emigrants’ Aid Society under State patronage, flooded the territories with its minions armed with Sharp’s rifles and bowie knives, seeking thus to accomplish by intimidation, violence, and murder what it could not do by constitutional means.

“It claimed the constitutional right to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, the forts, arsenals, dock-yards, and other places ceded to the United States within the bounds of the slaveholding States. It proposed a prohibition of the slave-trade between the States, thereby crowding the slaves together, and preventing the exit south until they became unprofitable to such an extent that it would force the owner finally to abandon them in self-defence. It has, by the deliberate legislative enactments of a large majority of the Northern States, openly and flagrantly nullified the clause of the Constitution which provided for the return of fugitive slaves.

“It has, through the executive authority of the States, denied the extradition of murderers and marauders.

“It obtained its own compromise in the Constitution to continue the importation of slaves, and now sets up a higher law than the Constitution to destroy the property imported and sold to us by their fathers.

“It has caused the murder of owners in the pursuit of the fugitive slave, and shielded from punishment the murderers.

“It has on many occasions sent its emissaries into the Southern States to corrupt our slaves, induce them to run off, and excite them to insurrection. It has by its John Brown and Montgomery raids invaded sovereign States and murdered peaceful citizens. It has justified and exalted to highest honors of admiration the horrid murders, arsons, and rapines of the John Brown raid, and canonized the felons as saints and martyrs.

“It has burned the towns, poisoned the cattle, and conspired with the slaves to depopulate Northern Texas. In has through certain leaders proclaimed to the slaves the terrible motto: ‘Alarm to the sleep, fire to the dwellings, and poison to the food and water of the slaveholders.’

“It has repudiated the decision of the Supreme Court.

“It has assailed our rights, guaranteed by the plainest provisions of the Constitution, from the floor of each House of Congress, the pulpit, the hustings, the schoolroom, their State Legislatures, and through the public press, dividing churches, and disrupting political parties and civil government.”

The party that had committed the offences enumerated was in possession of the House of Representatives, and had elected one of its leaders to the presidency, and in the progress of events the Supreme Court and Senate must also pass into its hands. With such a party in power, Governor Harris contended that the Union could be preserved only on the condition that certain amendments to the Constitution should be adopted, which would put slavery beyond its attacks.

The amendments he suggested were:

1. Establish a line upon the northern boundary of the present slave States, extend it through the territories to the Pacific Ocean, upon such parallel of latitude as will divide them equitably between North and South, expressly providing that all territory now owned, or that may be hereafter acquired, north of said line shall be forever free, and south of it forever slave.

2. In addition to the fugitive-slave clause, provide, that, whenever a slave has been demanded of the executive authority of the State to which he has fled, and is not delivered, and the owner permitted to carry him out of the State in peace, the State so failing to deliver shall pay to the owner double the value of such slave, and secure his right of action in the Supreme Court.

3. Provide for the protection of the owner in the peaceable possession of his slave while in transition or temporarily sojourning in any of the States of the Confederacy, and, in the event of the slave’s escaping or being taken from the owner, require the State to return, or account for, him as in the case of a fugitive.

4. Especially prohibit Congress from abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, in any dock-yard, navy-yard, arsenal, or any district of any character whatever, within the limits of any slave State.

5. Provide that these amendments shall never be changed except by consent of all the slave States.

With these amendments to the Constitution, Governor Harris said that he could feel that the rights of the Southern States were reasonably secure, not only in theory, but in fact, and should indulge the hope of living in the Union in peace. “If the non-slaveholding States refuse to comply with a demand so just and reasonable; refuse to abandon at once and forever their unjust war upon us, our institutions, and our rights; refuse, as they have heretofore done to perform, in good faith, the obligations of the compact of the Union, much as we appreciate the power, prosperity, and glory of this government, deeply as we deplore the existence of the causes which have already driven one State out of the Union, much as we regret the imperative necessity which they have wantonly and wickedly forced upon us, every consideration of self-preservation and self-respect requires that we should assert and maintain our equality in the Union, or our independence out of it.”

The message closed with the following recommendation to the Legislature: “I recommend that you provide by law for submitting to the people of the State the question of Convention or No Convention; and also the election of delegates by the people to meet in State Convention at the Capitol at Nashville, at the earliest day practicable, to take into consideration our federal relations, and determine what action shall be taken by the State of Tennessee for the security of the rights and the peace of her citizens. This will place the whole matter in the hands of the people, for them, in their sovereignty, to determine how far their rights have been violated, the character of the redress or guaranty they will demand, or the action they will take for their present and future security.”

The Legislature proceeded without delay to put into effect the recommendations contained in Governor Harris’s message. On January 19th it passed an act known as the Convention Bill,[3] which provided for submitting the question of holding a convention to the vote of the people. The convention was to take into consideration the relation between the government of the United States and the people of the State, and was to have the power to adopt any measures for vindicating the sovereignty of the State and the people it saw fit.

Only a few days intervened between the passage of the Convention Bill and the day appointed for taking the popular vote; nevertheless, an exciting canvass of the State ensued. The people came together in vast crowds to hear the question debated. The Whig leaders were almost unanimous in their opposition. They were joined by the Democrats of East Tennessee. The vote was taken on the fifth of February, 1861. The result was: 24,749 for the Convention; and, 91,803 against it.

This defeat put a stop for the moment to all official action, as the Legislature had adjourned, but the public agitation and discussion continued. The disunion sentiment began to grow very rapidly as a result of events which were transpiring outside the State. Amid the intense excitement which followed the taking of Fort Sumter, Governor Harris issued a call for a second extra session of the Legislature. On the 18th of April he had replied to President Lincoln’s call for troops: “Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but fifty thousand, if necessary, for the defence of our rights and those of our Southern brothers.”

The Legislature convened on the twenty-seventh of April. The public were excluded from its meeting, and its members were pledged to secrecy. The session opened with the reading of the gubernatorial message,[4] which asserted that the President of the United States had wantonly inaugurated an internecine war upon the people of the slave States. “This war,” he said, “is likely to assume an importance, nearly, if not equal to the struggle of our revolutionary fathers in their patriotic efforts to resist usurpations and throw off the tyrannical yoke of the British Government.

“This declaration of war upon the South has virtually dissolved the Union. It will be idle to speak of ourselves any longer as members of the Federal Union; and it is believed by many whose opinions are entitled to the highest respect, that, by reason of the subversion of the Constitution by the authorities in power, inaugurating a revolution between the States thereof, each and every individual is already released from his obligations to that government; yet, as best comports with the dignity of the subject, and also from due regard to those who may hold a different opinion—​and further still, that all the world may be advised of our action,—​I respectfully recommend that our connections with the Federal Union be formally annulled in such manner as shall involve the highest exercise of the sovereign authority of the people of the State and best secure that harmony, so much to be desired, in times like the present, in questions of detail. The speediest method of accomplishing this will be the perfecting of an ordinance by the Legislature formally declaring the independence of the State of Tennessee of the Federal Union, renouncing its authority, and resuming each and every function belonging to a separate sovereignty; and said ordinance when perfected should be submitted to a vote of the people to be by them adopted or rejected. Under existing circumstances I can see no propriety in encumbering the people of the State with the election of delegates, to do that which is in our power to enable them to do directly for themselves. The most direct as well as the highest act of sovereignty, according to our theory, is that by which the people vote, not merely for men, but for measures submitted for their approval or rejection. Since it is only the voice of the people that is to be heard, there is no reason why they may not as readily and effectively express themselves upon an ordinance framed and submitted to them by the Legislature as if submitted by a convention.“

The Legislature was as eager as before to execute the will of the Governor. It embodied his recommendations in an act passed May 6, 1861.[5] This act contained two important provisions. The first was:

“Declaration of Independence and Ordinance dissolving the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the United States of America.

“We the people of the State of Tennessee, waiving any expression of opinion as to the abstract doctrine of secession, but asserting the right, as a free and independent people, to alter, reform, or abolish our form of government in such manner as we think proper, do ordain and declare, that all the laws and ordinances by which the State of Tennessee became a member of the Federal Union of the United States of America are hereby abrogated and annulled, and that all obligation on our part be withdrawn therefrom; and we do hereby resume all the rights, functions, and powers which by any of said laws and ordinances were conveyed to the Government of the United States, and absolve ourselves from all obligations, restraints, duties, incurred thereto; and do hereby henceforth become a free, sovereign, and independent State.“

This ordinance was to be submitted to a direct vote of the people. Two sets of tickets were to be prepared; one set marked Separation, the other Non-Separation. Those favoring the ordinance were to vote the former ticket, those opposed, the latter. The act of May 6th further provided for the submission at the same election of the question as to whether Tennessee, if it severed its relations with the Union, should join the Confederacy. This question was also embodied in the form of an Ordinance.

But the Governor and the Legislature did not wait for the popular verdict upon these Ordinances. As early as May 7th, they extended an invitation to the Confederacy to select Nashville as its capital city. A few days later a still more extraordinary step was taken. Governor Harris, acting under a joint resolution of the Legislature, appointed three commissioners to negotiate a military league with the Confederate authorities. These commissioners, representing the State of Tennessee, and Mr. Henry W. Hilliard, an agent of the Confederacy, drew up the following agreement:

“Convention between the State of Tennessee and Confederate States of America.[6]

“The State of Tennessee, looking to a speedy admission into the Confederacy established by the Confederate States of America, in accordance with the Constitution for the Provisional Government of said States, enters into the following temporary Convention, Agreement, and Military League with the Confederate States, for the purpose of meeting pressing exigencies affecting common rights, interests, and safety of said State and said Confederacy.

“First. Until the said State shall become a member of said Confederacy, according to the constitutions of both powers, the whole military force and military operations, offensive and defensive, of said State in the impending conflict with the United States, shall be under the chief control and direction of the President of the Confederate States, upon the same basis, principle, and footing as if said State were now during the interval a member of said Confederacy, said force, together with that of the Confederate States, to be employed in common defence.

“Secondly. The State of Tennessee will, upon becoming a member of said Confederacy under the permanent Constitution of said Confederate States, if the same shall ever occur, turn over to the Confederate States all the public property acquired from the United States on the same terms as the other States of said Confederacy have done in like case.”

This agreement was laid before the Legislature in a special message, and almost unanimously ratified. Its provisions were promptly executed. The vote of the people upon the Declaration of Independence and the Ordinance adopting the Provisional Constitution of the Confederacy did not occur till the eighth of June. The result of the vote, as shown by the official returns, was as follows:

	Separation.	NoSeparation.
East Tennessee	14,780	32,923
Middle Tennessee	58,265	7,956
West Tennessee	29,127	6,117
Camps	6,246
Total	108,418	46,996

	Representation.	NoRepresentation.
East Tennessee	14,061	32,962
Middle Tennessee	58,198	8,298
West Tennessee	28,912	6,104
Camps	6,340
Total	107,511	47,364

Immediately after the election, Gov. Harris issued a proclamation announcing Tennessee’s withdrawal from the Union. This was followed by the proclamation of Jefferson Davis, officially declaring that Tennessee had become a member of the Confederacy. On the first of August the State adopted the permanent Confederate Constitution by vote of 83,133 for, 30,357 against.

Nothing now remained to complete Tennessee’s absorption into the Confederacy but the election of representatives to the Confederate Congress. In October, the Legislature selected Langdon C. Haynes and Gustavus Henry as Confederate Senators. Haynes was a distinguished Democrat of East Tennessee, while Henry was a Whig. Representatives to the Lower House were chosen by a vote of the people. Here again the Whigs and Democrats were equally represented.

[1] Cox: Three Decades of Federal Legislation.

[2] Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1861, pp. 1 to 13.

[3] Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1861, p. 14.

[4] Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, pp. 1 to 11.

[5] Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, p. 13.

[6] Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, p. 19.