The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government | Page 2

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.
Re?lection 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.--Re?lection 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 Nominations at Baltimore.--The "Constitutional-Union" Party and its Nominees.--An Effort in Behalf of Agreement declined by Mr. Douglas.--The Election of Lincoln and Hamlin.--Proceedings in the South.--Evidences of Calmness and Deliberation.--Mr. Buchanan's Conservatism and the weakness of his Position.--Republican Taunts.--The "New