The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government | Page 2

was on
the question of territorial governments; and, if in this work it has not
been demonstrated that the position of the South was justified by the
Constitution and the equal rights of the people of all the States, it must
be because the author has failed to present the subject with a sufficient
degree of force and clearness.

In describing the events of the war, space has not permitted, and the
loss of both books and papers has prevented, the notice of very many
entitled to consideration, as well for the humanity as the gallantry of
our men in the unequal combats they fought. These numerous
omissions, it is satisfactory to know, the official reports made at the
time and the subsequent contributions which have been and are being
published by the actors, will supply more fully and graphically than
could have been done in this work.
Usurpations of the Federal Government have been presented, not in a
spirit of hostility, but as a warning to the people against the dangers by
which their liberties are beset. When the war ceased, the pretext on
which it had been waged could no longer be alleged. The emancipation
proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, which, when it was issued, he
humorously admitted to be a nullity, had acquired validity by the action
of the highest authority known to our institutions--the people
assembled in their several State Conventions. The soldiers of the
Confederacy had laid down their arms, had in good faith pledged
themselves to abstain from further hostile operations, and had
peacefully dispersed to their homes; there could not, then, have been
further dread of them by the Government of the United States. The plea
of necessity could, therefore, no longer exist for hostile demonstration
against the people and States of the deceased Confederacy. Did
vengeance, which stops at the grave, subside? Did real peace and the
restoration of the States to their former rights and positions follow, as
was promised on the restoration of the Union? Let the recital of the
invasion of the reserved powers of the States, or the people, and the
perversion of the republican form of government guaranteed to each
State by the Constitution, answer the question. For the deplorable fact
of the war, for the cruel manner in which it was waged, for the sad
physical and yet sadder moral results it produced, the reader of these
pages, I hope, will admit that the South, in the forum of conscience,
stands fully acquitted.
Much of the past is irremediable; the best hope for a restoration in the
future to the pristine purity and fraternity of the Union, rests on the
opinions and character of the men who are to succeed this generation:

that they maybe suited to that blessed work, one, whose public course
is ended, invokes them to draw their creed from the fountains of our
political history, rather than from the lower stream, polluted as it has
been by self-seeking place-hunters and by sectional strife.
THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS.
Introduction

PART I.

CHAPTER I.
African Servitude.--A Retrospect.--Early Legislation with Regard to the
Slave-Trade.--The Southern States foremost in prohibiting it.--A
Common Error corrected.--The Ethical Question never at Issue in
Sectional Controversies.--The Acquisition of Louisiana.--The Missouri
Compromise.--The Balance of Power.--Note.--The Indiana Case.
CHAPTER II.
The Session of 1849-'50.--The Compromise Measures.--Virtual
Abrogation of the Missouri Compromise.--The Admission of
California.--The Fugitive Slave Law.--Death of Mr.
Calhoun.--Anecdote of Mr. Clay.
CHAPTER III.
Reëlection to the Senate.--Political Controversies in
Mississippi.--Action of the Democratic State Convention.--Defeat of

the State-Rights Party.--Withdrawal of General Quitman and
Nomination of the Author as Candidate for the Office of
Governor.--The Canvass and its Result.--Retirement to Private Life.
CHAPTER IV.
The Author enters the Cabinet.--Administration of the War
Department.--Surveys for a Pacific Railway.--Extension of the
Capitol.--New Regiments organized.--Colonel Samuel Cooper,
Adjutant-General.--A Bit of Civil-Service Reform.--Reëlection to the
Senate.--Continuity of the Pierce Cabinet.--Character of Franklin
Pierce.
CHAPTER V.
The Territorial Question.--An Incident at the White House.--The
Kansas and Nebraska Bill.--The Missouri Compromise abrogated in
1850, not in 1854.--Origin of "Squatter Sovereignty."--Sectional
Rivalry and its Consequences.--The Emigrant Aid Societies.--"The
Bible and Sharpe's Rifles."--False Pretensions as to Principle.--The
Strife in Kansas.--A Retrospect.--The Original Equilibrium of Power
and its Overthrow.-- Usurpations of the Federal Government.--The
Protective Tariff.-- Origin and Progress of Abolitionism.--Who were
the Friends of the Union?--An Illustration of Political Morality.
CHAPTER VI.
Agitation continued.--Political Parties: their Origin, Changes, and
Modifications.--Some Account of the "Popular Sovereignty," or
"Non-Intervention," Theory.--Rupture of the Democratic Party.--The
John Brown Raid.--Resolutions introduced by the Author into the
Senate on the Relations of the States, the Federal Government, and the
Territories; their Discussion and Adoption.
CHAPTER VII.
A Retrospect.--Growth of Sectional Rivalry.--The Generosity of

Virginia.--Unequal Accessions of Territory.--The Tariff and its
Effects.--The Republican Convention of 1860, its Resolutions and its
Nominations.--The Democratic Convention at Charleston, its Divisions
and Disruption.--The