Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/232

CONFEDERATE STATES protection, bounties, and internal improve- ments, referred to controverted points in American politics on which public opinion is yet undecided ; while those relating to slaves were intended to cover the whole ground of quarrel on which the Confederate States had seceded from the Union. Before, the adoption of the permanent constitution, in fact on the day following the adoption of the provisional constitution, that is, on Feb. 9, an election for president and vice president was held by con- gress, voting by states as that constitution directed. All the states present (the delegates from Texas not having yet arrived) voted for Jefferson Davis of Mississippi for president, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia for vice president. Mr. Davis was not a member of congress, and was absent in Mississippi. It was understood that he aspired to the com- mand of the army and did not wish to be pres- ident. He however accepted the office, ar- rived at Montgomery Feb. 16, and was inau- gurated on the 18th. Mr. Stephens, who was a member of congress, had been sworn into office as vice president on the 10th. A few days later Mr. Davis appointed his cabinet, as follows: secretary of state, Robert Toombs of Georgia ; secretary of the treasury, Charles G. Memminger of South Carolina ; secretary of war, Leroy P. Walker of Alabama ; secre- tary of the navy, Stephen R. Mallory of Florida ; postmaster general, John H. Reagan of Texas ; attorney general, Judah P. Benja- min of Louisiana. All of these except Mem- minger and Walker had been senators or rep- resentatives in the congress of the United States. The principles upon which the new government was founded were very clearly expounded by its vice president, Mr. Stephens, in a speech made by him at Savannah, March 21, 1861, as follows: ting questions relating to our peculiar institutions Ai slavery as it exists among us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this as the rock upon which the old Union would split. The prevailing ideas entertained by him, and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the forma- tion of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature ; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas ; its foundations are laid, its corner stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man ; that sla- very, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first in the history of the world based upon this great physical, philo- sophical, and moral truth. It is the first government ever in- stituted upon principles in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the prin- ciple of enslaving certain classes ; but the classes thus enslaved were of the same race, and enslaved in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws. The negro by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect in the construction of buildings, lays the foun- dation with the proper material, the granite ; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior but for the in- ferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of his ordinances or to question them. For his own purposes he has made one race to differ from another as he has made ' one star to differ from another in glory.' The great objects of humanity are best attained when conformed to his laws and decrees, in the formation of governments as well as in all things else. Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone, which was re- jected by the first builders, 'is become the chief stone of the corner ' in our new edifice." The two governments, that of Washington and that of Montgomery, alike in form and organization, but radically different in princi- ples, thus stood face to face in the month of March, 1861. Between them stood the border states, as they were called, the slave states of Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Dela- ware, which naturally sympathized with the slave states south of them, but in which the Union sentiment was still strong, and the sense of danger from their exposed position was calculated to impress upon the prudent part of their population the necessity of caution and moderation. Both sides were anxious to gain their support, and from the beginning of the secession movement their capitals had swarmed with ardent emissaries, official and volunteer, imploring them to join their brethren of the south. Their population and resources made tbeir accession to either side of great impor- tance; but to the south their assistance was essential in case of war. Their population was between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000, a large majority of whom were whites, while the whole population of the seven seceded states was less than 5,000,000, of whom nearly one half were slaves, of no value for military pur- poses. On the other hand, the free states, the states certain to uphold the Washington gov- ernment, numbered 20,000,000 inhabitants, and were incomparably richer in money and cred- it, and in military and especially naval re- sources, than the south. They were in fact nearly twice as strong in numbers as all the slave states together, and in wealth and re- sources were even more formidable than in numbers. But their superiority in these re- spects was weakened by party divisions. The republican party by its success in the presi- dential election had obtained control of the national government, and was also in posses- sion of all the free-state governments except that of Oregon. But it found itself every- where confronted by a democratic minority, little inferior to itself in numbers, exasperated by a defeat at the polls which had wrested from it the control of a continent and the revenues of an empire, and still strongly af- fected, on the one hand, by the animosities engendered by its long and bitter controversy with the republicans, and on the other by its natural sympathy with the southern democ- racy, with whom it had been for many years in perfect political alliance and agreement, and from whom it now differed on no point of principle or policy except that of secession. The secession leaders counted largely on the support of the northern democrats, and re- peatedly declared that they had positive as-