The Day of the Confederacy | Page 4

view had been the early discussions of this committee that a
conference of Southern members of Congress had sent out their famous
address To Our Constituents: "The argument is exhausted. All hope of
relief in the Union . . . is extinguished, and we trust the South will not
be deceived by appearances or the pretense of new guarantees. In our
judgment the Republicans are resolute in the purpose to grant nothing

that will or ought to satisfy the South. We are satisfied the honor, safety,
and independence of the Southern people require the organization of a
Southern Confederacy--a result to be obtained only by separate state
secession." Among the signers of this address were the two statesmen
who had in native talent no superiors at Washington--Judah P.
Benjamin of Louisiana and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi.
The appeal To Our Constituents was not the only assurance of support
tendered to the convention of South Carolina. To represent them at this
convention the governors of Alabama and Mississippi had appointed
delegates. Mr. Hooker of Mississippi and Mr. Elmore of Alabama
made addresses before the convention on the night of the 17th of
December. Both reiterated views which during two days of lobbying
they had disseminated in Columbia "on all proper occasions." Their
argument, summed up in Elmore's report to Governor Moore of
Alabama, was "that the only course to unite the Southern States in any
plan of cooperation which could promise safety was for South Carolina
to take the lead and secede at once without delay or hesitation...that the
only effective plan of cooperation must ensue after one State had
seceded and presented the issue when the plain question would be
presented to the other Southern States whether they would stand by the
seceding State engaged in a common cause or abandon her to the fate
of coercion by the arms of the Government of the United States."
Ten years before, in the unsuccessful secession movement of 1850 and
1851, Andrew Pickens Butler, perhaps the ablest South Carolinian then
living, strove to arrest the movement by exactly the opposite argument.
Though desiring secession, he threw all his weight against it because
the rest of the South was averse. He charged his opponents, whose
leader was Robert Barnwell Rhett, with aiming to place the other
Southern States "in such circumstances that, having a common destiny,
they would be compelled to be involved in a common sacrifice." He
protested that "to force a sovereign State to take a position against its
consent is to make of it a reluctant associate.... Both interest and honor
must require the Southern States to take council together."
That acute thinker was now in his grave. The bold enthusiast whom he

defeated in 1851 had now no opponent that was his match. No great
personality resisted the fiery advocates from Alabama and Mississippi.
Their advice was accepted. On December 20, 1860, the cause that ten
years before had failed was successful. The convention, having
adjourned from Columbia to Charleston, passed an ordinance of
secession.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, at a hundred meetings, the secession issue was
being hotly discussed. But there was not yet any certainty which way
the scale would turn. An invitation from South Carolina to join in a
general Southern convention had been declined by the Governor in
November. Governor Brown has left an account ascribing the
comparative coolness and deliberation of the hour to the prevailing
impression that President Buchanan had pledged himself not to alter the
military status at Charleston. In an interview between South Carolina
representatives and the President, the Carolinians understood that such
a pledge was given. "It was generally understood by the country," says
Governor Brown, "that such an agreement...had been entered Into...and
that Governor Floyd of Virginia, then Secretary of War, had expressed
his determination to resign his position in the Cabinet in case of the
refusal of the President to carry out the agreement in good faith. The
resignation of Governor Floyd was therefore naturally looked upon,
should it occur, as a signal given to the South that reinforcements were
to be sent to Charleston and that the coercive policy had been adopted
by the Federal Government."
While the "canvass in Georgia for members of the State convention
was progressing with much interest on both sides," there came
suddenly the news that Anderson had transferred his garrison from Fort
Moultrie to the island fortress of Sumter. That same day commissioners
from South Carolina, newly arrived at Washington, sought in vain to
persuade the President to order Anderson back to Moultrie. The
Secretary of War made the subject an issue before the Cabinet. Unable
to carry his point, two days later he resigned.*
* The President had already asked for Floyd's resignation because of
financial irregularities, and Floyd was shrewd enough to