The Life of Lyman Trumbull Part 13

But, sir, the Union survived the disunion movement of 1832; it survived the excitement upon the slavery question in 1850; it survived the disturbances in Kansas in 1855 and 1856, consequent upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. It survived them all without an actual attempt at disruption, until we came down to 1860, and Abraham Lincoln was elected President; and even now, notwithstanding the dissatisfaction at his election in some portions of the country, and all the previous troubles, the laws to-day would have had force in every part of the Union, and secession would have been checked in its very origin, had the Government done its duty and not acted in complicity with the men who had resolved to destroy it.

The secession movement, then, dates back several years. It received an impetus in 1850; another in 1854; and in 1860, by the connivance and the a.s.sistance of the Government itself, it acquired the strength which it now has. What has been the policy of the expiring administration? Its Cabinet officers boasting of their complicity with the men who were plotting the destruction of the Government; openly proclaiming in the face of the world that they had used their official power, while members of the Cabinet, and sworn to protect and preserve the Government, to furnish the means for its destruction; openly acknowledging before the world that they had used the power which their positions gave them to discredit the Government, and also to furnish arms and munitions of war to the men who were conspiring together to a.s.sault its fortifications, and seize its property; openly boasting that they had taken care, during their public service, to see that the arms of the Federal Government were placed in convenient positions for the use of those who designed to employ them for its destruction.

More than this, members, while serving in the other branch of Congress, go to the Executive of the United States, and tell him, "Sir, we are taking steps in South Carolina to break up this Government; you have forts and fortifications there; they are but poorly manned; now if you will leave them in the condition they are until the state of South Carolina gets ready to take possession, we will wait until that time before we seize them"; and the Executive of the nation asks that the treasonable proposition be put in writing, and files it away.

Why, sir, is there another capital on the face of the globe, to which men could come from state or province, and inform the executive head that they were about to take steps to seize the public property belonging to the Government, and warn the Executive to leave it in its insecure and undefended state until they should be prepared to take possession, and they be permitted to depart? Is there another capital on the face of the globe where commissioners coming to the Executive under these circ.u.mstances would not have been arrested on the spot for treason? But your Government, if it did not directly promise not to arm its forts, certainly took no steps to protect its public property; and this went on, until a gallant officer who was in command of less than a hundred men in the harbor of Charleston, acting upon his own responsibility, thought proper to throw his little force into a fort where he could protect himself; and then it was that these insurgents, rebelling against the Government, demanded that he should be withdrawn, and the Executive then was forced to take position.

Then his Cabinet officers who had been in conspiracy with the plotters of treason, then the Chief Magistrate himself was forced to take position. He must openly withdraw his forces, and surrender the public property he was sworn to protect, openly violate the oath he had taken to support the Const.i.tution of the United States, and execute the laws, and take side with traitors; or else he must leave Major Anderson where he was. Exposed to public view, brought to this dilemma, I am glad to say that even then, at that late day, the President of the United States concluded to take sides for the Union; that even he came out, though feebly it was, on the part of the United States, and his Secretary of War retired from his Cabinet, not in disgrace, so far as its executive head was concerned, for he parted pleasantly with the President of the United States, but he retired because the President would not carry out the policy which he understood to have been agreed upon, which was to leave the fortifications in a position that Carolina might take them whenever she thought proper.

But, sir, notwithstanding this, the Executive of the nation, disregarding the advice of the Lieutenant-General who commands the armies of the United States, and who had warned him months before of the movements which were taking place to seize the public property at the South, still leaves the property unprotected; and the insurgents go on in some of the states, before even pa.s.sing ordinances of secession, and continue to seize the public property; to capture the troops of the United States; to take possession of the forts; to fire into its vessels; to take down its flag; until they have at this time in their possession fortifications which have cost the Government more than $5,000,000, and which mount more than a thousand guns.

All this has been done without any effort on the part of the Government to protect the public property; and this is the reason that secession has made the head it has. Why, sir, let me ask, is it that the United States to-day has possession of Fort Sumter? Can you tell me why is Fort Sumter in possession of the United States? Because there are a hundred soldiers in it--for no other reason. Why is Fort Moultrie in possession of the insurgents? Because there were no men there to protect it; and it is now matter of history that, had the Executive done his duty, and placed a hundred men in Fort Moultrie, a hundred in Castle Pinckney, and a hundred in Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor to-day would have been open, and your revenues would have been collected there, as elsewhere throughout the United States.

Will it be said that Carolina would have attacked those forts, thus garrisoned? She does not attack a hundred men in Fort Sumter. It is a wonder that she does not. The little, feeble garrison there is well calculated to invite attack; but this thing of secession, under the policy of the Administration, has been made a holiday affair in the South. This great Government, one of the most powerful on the face of the globe, is falling to pieces just from its own imbecility.

MR. WIGFALL. Mr. President--

THE PRESIDING OFFICER (MR. BRIGHT). Does the Senator from Illinois yield the floor?

MR. TRUMBULL. I have some further observations to make. I will yield for a single question; not for a speech.

MR. WIGFALL. For a single question. I do not wish to interrupt the Senator if it is not agreeable to him. I desire to ask a single question.

MR. TRUMBULL. I have no objection to the question.

MR. WIGFALL. I understand the Senator to object to the course that the present outgoing Administration has pursued in reference to the forts. I know the Senator's candor, directness of purpose, fairness, and boldness of statement; and I desire to know whether the succeeding Administration will pursue the same peace policy of leaving the forts in the possession of the seceding states, or whether they will attempt to recapture them?

MR. TRUMBULL. The Senator will find out my opinions on this subject before I conclude. The opinions of the incoming Administration, I trust, he will learn to-morrow from the eastern front of the capitol.

MR. WIGFALL. I trust we shall, sir.

MR. TRUMBULL. I speak for myself, without knowing what may be said in the inaugural of to-morrow; but I apprehend that the Senator will learn to-morrow that we have a Government; and that will be the beginning of the maintenance of the Union.

MR. WIGFALL. I hope we may.

MR. TRUMBULL. While the forts in the South were left thus unprotected, and to be seized by the first comers, where was your army? Scattered beyond reach, and sent to the frontiers, so as not to be made available when it was wanted. And where was your navy? The navy of the United States, when it was known that the secession movement was on foot, was sent to distant seas, until there was not at the command of the Secretary of the Navy a single vessel, except one carrying two guns, that could enter Charleston Harbor--a small vessel destined, I believe, to take supplies to the African squadron, which carried two guns. Does anybody suppose this was accidental? If it were a question of fact to be tried before an intelligent jury in any part of Christendom, does any one doubt that the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy would both be convicted of having purposely, and by design, removed the army and navy out of reach, in order that the forts might be seized, and that the secession movement might progress? And how has it been from that day to this? Irresolution and indecision on the part of the Executive--one day sending a vessel with troops to Charleston, and the next countermanding the order; and the Senator from Texas, with a taste which I cannot admire, spoke in terms of derision of his country's flag, when it returned in disgrace--"struck in the face," I think, was his expression--from Charleston Harbor. I admit it was disgraceful; but I am sorry it should have afforded the Senator from Texas, a member of the Senate of the United States, as the eloquent Senator from Kentucky said he was, any pleasure that such a transaction should have occurred.

This, then, briefly, is the reason that this secession movement has acquired the strength it has. It is because this Government has either favored it, or refused to do anything to check it.

Notwithstanding the mistake of 1854, the country would have survived it all, had we had a Government to take care of and preserve it.

Now, sir, what are the remedies that are proposed for the present condition of things, and what have they been from the beginning? They have been propositions of compromise; and Senators have spoken of peace, and of the horrors of civil war; and gentlemen who have contended for the right of the people of the territories to regulate their own affairs, and who have been horrified at the idea of a geographical line dividing free states from slave states, free territory from slave territory, and who have proclaimed that the great principle upon which the Revolution was fought was that of the right of the people to govern themselves, and that it was monstrous doctrine for Congress to interfere in any way with its own territories, come forward here with propositions to divide the country on a geographical line; and not only that, but to establish slavery south of the line; and they call this the Missouri Compromise!

The proposition known as the "Crittenden Proposition" is no more like the Missouri Compromise than is the Government of Turkey like that of the United States. The Missouri Compromise was a law declaring that in all the territory which we had acquired from Louisiana, north of a certain line of lat.i.tude, slavery or involuntary servitude should never exist. But it said nothing about the establishment of slavery south of that line. It was a compromise made in order to admit Missouri into the Union as a slave state, in 1820. That was the consideration for the exclusion of slavery from all the country north of 36 30'. Now, sir, I have no objection to the restoration of the Missouri Compromise as it stood in 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska Bill pa.s.sed; and I have drawn up--and I intend to offer it at the proper time as an amendment to some of these propositions--a clause declaring that so much of the fourteenth section of the act to organize the territories of Nebraska and Kansas, approved the 30th of May, 1854, as repeals the Missouri Compromise, and contains the little stump speech, shall be repealed, and that we may hear no more of it, I trust, forever.

Since its authors have repudiated it, and have come forward with a proposition to establish not the Missouri Compromise, but to establish a geographical line running through the territory which we now have, establis.h.i.+ng slavery south of it, and prohibiting it north, and providing that, in the territory we may hereafter acquire, slavery shall be established south of that line, I suppose we shall hear no more about leaving the people "perfectly free to regulate their own affairs in their own way"! The proposition known as the "Crittenden Compromise"

declares not only that, "in the territory south of the said line of lat.i.tude, slavery of the African race is hereby recognized as existing, and shall not be interfered with by Congress"; but it provides further, that, in the territory we shall hereafter acquire south of that line, slavery shall be recognized, and not interfered with by Congress; but "shall be protected as property by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance"; so that, if we make acquisitions on the south of territories now free, and where, by the laws of the land, the footsteps of slavery have never been, the moment we acquire jurisdiction over them, the moment the stars and stripes of the Republic float over those free territories, they carry with them African slavery, established beyond the power of Congress, and beyond the power of any territorial legislature, or of the people, to keep it out; and we are told that this is the Missouri Compromise! We are told that slavery now exists in New Mexico; and I was sorry to find even my friend from Oregon [Mr. Baker] ready to vote for this proposition, which establishes slavery. Why, sir, suppose slavery does exist in New Mexico; are you for putting a clause into your Const.i.tution that the people of New Mexico shall not drive it out?

But, sir, unlike the Senator from Oregon, I will never agree to put into the Const.i.tution of the country a clause establis.h.i.+ng or making perpetual slavery anywhere. No, sir; no human being shall ever be made a slave by my vote. No foot of G.o.d's soil shall ever be dedicated to African slavery by my act--never, sir. I will not interfere with it where I have no authority by the Const.i.tution to interfere; but I never will consent, the people of the great Northwest, numbering more in white population than all your Southern States together, never will consent by their act to establish African slavery anywhere.

Why, sir, the seven free states of the Northwest, at the late presidential election, cast three hundred thousand more votes than all the fifteen Southern States together. Senators talk about the North and the South, and speak of having two Presidents, a Northern President and a Southern President, as if we had no such country as the Northwest, more populous with freemen than all the South. The people of the South and the people of the East both will, by and by, learn, if they have not already learned, that we have a country, and a great and growing country, in the Northwest; a free country--made free, too, by the act of Virginia herself. I do not propose to discuss the House Resolution. I have said on any and all proper occasions, and am willing to say at any time, to our brethren of the South, we have no disposition, and never had any, and have no power, if we had the disposition, to interfere with your domestic inst.i.tutions.

I think, then, sir, that none of these compromises will amount to anything; but still I am willing to do this, and I think if there is any difficulty it may be settled in this way: three of the states of this Union, the state of Kentucky, the state of New Jersey, and the State of Illinois, have called upon Congress to call a convention of all the states for the purpose of proposing amendments to the Const.i.tution. I do not think the Const.i.tution needs amendment. In my judgment, the Const.i.tution as it is, is worthy to be lived up to and supported. I doubt if we shall better it; but out of deference to those states, one of which is my own state, I am willing to vote for the resolution which has been introduced into this body recommending to the various states to take into consideration this proposition of calling a convention, in order to make such amendments as may be deemed necessary by the states themselves to this instrument. So far, I am willing to go. Would it not have been better for the seceding states to have done that? Why did they not propose, instead of attempting hastily to break up the Government and seizing its public property, to call a convention, in the const.i.tutional form, of the various states, and if the Federal Const.i.tution needed amendment, amend it in that way. No such proposition came from them; but Kentucky has made the proposition for a convention, and I am willing to meet her in the spirit in which it is made, and am ready, for one, and would be glad if we could all unitedly pa.s.s the resolution suggesting to the states to call a convention to make any and all amendments to the Const.i.tution which the exigencies of the times may require.

The Senator from Texas wants to know how we are going to preserve the Union; how we are going to stop the states from seceding? And our Southern friends sometimes ask us to give them something to stand upon in the South. The best political foundation ever laid by mortal man upon which to plant your foot is the Const.i.tution. Take the old Const.i.tution as your fathers made it, and go to the people on that; rally them around it, and not suffer it to be kicked about, rolled in the dust, spit upon, and their efforts to be wasted in vain efforts to amend it. Why, sir, has that old instrument ceased to be of any value? These gentlemen who are talking about amending it, and talking about guarantees as a condition to remain in the Union, claim to be _par excellence_ the Union men. Why, sir, I conceive I am a much better Union man than they. I am for the Union under the Const.i.tution as it is. I am willing, however, that a convention should be called out of deference to those who may wish to alter it; but I am not one of those who declare that unless this provision is made, and unless this guarantee is given, I will unite to destroy the Union, and cease to observe the Const.i.tution as it is.

Sir, the Southern States have been arming. The Senator from Virginia [Mr. Mason] told us the other day that his state had appropriated $1,500,000 to arm its citizens. For what? To arm its citizens to fight against this Government; and then tell us that, to a man, they will fight against this Government, if it undertakes to enforce its laws, which they call coercion, the coercion of a State! Why, sir, a government that has not the power of coercing obedience to its laws is no government at all. The very idea of a law without a sanction is an absurdity.

A government is not worth having that has not power to enforce its laws. If the Senator from Texas wants to know my opinion, I tell him yes, I am for enforcing the laws. Do you mean by that you are going to march an army to coerce a state? No, sir; and I do not mean the people of this country to be misled by this confusion of terms about coercing a state. The Const.i.tution of the United States operates upon individuals; the laws operate upon individuals; and whenever individuals make themselves amenable to the laws, I would punish them according to the laws. We may not always be able to do this. Why, sir, we have a criminal code, and laws punis.h.i.+ng larceny and murder and arson and robbery and all these crimes; and yet murder is committed, larcenies and robberies are committed, and the culprits are not always punished and brought to justice. We may not be able, in all instances, to punish those who conspire against the Government. So far as it can be done, I am for executing the laws; and I am for coercion. I am for settling, in the first place, the question whether we have a government before making compromises which leave us as powerless as before.

Sir, if my friend from Kentucky would employ some of that eloquence of his which he uses in appealing to Republicans--and talking about compromise--in defense of the Const.i.tution as it is, and in favor of maintaining the laws and the Government, we should see a very different state of things in the country. If, instead of coming forward with compromises, instead of asking guarantees, he had put the fault where it belongs; if he called upon the Government to do its duty; if, instead of blaming the North for not making concessions where there is nothing to concede, and not making compromises where there was nothing to compromise about, he had appealed to the South, which was in rebellion against the Government, and painted before them, as only he could do it, the hideousness of the crimes they were committing, and called upon them to return to their allegiance, and upon the Government to enforce its authority, we would have a very different state of things in this country to-day from what now exists.

This, in my judgment, is the way to preserve the Union; and I do not expect civil war to follow from it. You have only to put the Government in a position to make itself respected, and it will command respect. As I said before, five hundred troops in Charleston would unquestionably have kept that port open; and if you will arm the Government with sufficient authority to maintain its laws and give us an honest Executive, I think you will find the spread of secession soon checked; it will no longer be a holiday affair. But while we submit to the disgrace which is heaped upon us by those seceding states, while the President of the United States says, "You have no right to secede; but if you want to, you may, we cannot help it," you may expect secession to spread.

Why, sir, the resolutions of the legislature of the state of New York, which were pa.s.sed early in the session, tendering to the Federal Government all the resources of the state in money and men to maintain the Government, had a most salutary effect when it was heard here. I saw the effect of it at once. It was the first blow at secession. Let the people of the North understand that their services are required to maintain this Union, and let them make known to the people of the South, to the Government, and to the country, that the Union shall be maintained; and the object is accomplished. Then you will find Union men in the South. But while this secession fever was spreading, and the Union men of the South had no support from their Government, it is no wonder that state after state undertook to withdraw from a confederacy which manifested no disposition to maintain itself.

My remedy for existing difficulties is, to clothe the Government with sufficient power to maintain itself; and when that is done, and you have an Executive with the disposition to maintain the authority of the Government, I do not believe that a gun need be fired to stop the further spread of secession. I believe, sir, after the new Administration goes into operation, and the people of the South see, by its acts, that it is resolved to maintain its authority, and, at the same time, to make no encroachments whatever upon the rights of the people of the South, the desire to secede will subside. When the people of the Southern States, on the 5th of March, this year, and on the 5th of March, 1862, shall find that, after a year has transpired under a Republican administration, they are just as safe in all their rights, just as little interfered with in regard to their domestic inst.i.tutions, as under any former Administration, they will have no disposition to inaugurate civil war and commence an attack upon the Federal Government.

Why, sir, some Senators talk about the Federal Government making war. Who proposes it? The Southern people affect to abhor civil war, when they, themselves, have commenced it.

Inhabitants of the six seceding states have begun the war. What is war? Is firing into your vessels war? Is investing your forts war? Is seizing your a.r.s.enals war? They have done it all, and more; and then have the effrontery to say to the United States, "Do not defend yourselves; do not protect your Government; let it fall to pieces; let us do as we please, or else you will have war." The highwayman meets you on the street, demands your purse, and tells you to deliver it up, or you will have a fight. You can always escape a fight by submission. If in the right--and which is far better than to submit to degradation--you can often escape collision by being prepared to meet it. The moment the highwayman discovers your preparation and ability to meet him, he flees away. Let the Government be prepared, and we shall have no collision.

I cannot think the people of this country in the loyal states would causelessly inaugurate civil war by attacking the Government; and I regard all the states as loyal, which have not undertaken to secede. I regard Kentucky and Tennessee and Missouri as loyal states, just as much so as Illinois. Why, sir, I live right upon the borders of Missouri, and I know that the people across the river were, last fall, just as good Union men as they were in Illinois. They never thought of secession until the thing was started in South Carolina, and until some persons here in Congress began to talk about guarantees, instead of coming out for the Const.i.tution and the Union as they are. When Senators began to introduce propositions demanding guarantees as a condition of continuing in the Union, the real true Union men, in many instances, took sides with them, and thus became, in fact, only conditional Unionists. I am happy to say that they are getting over it, not only in Missouri, but they are already cured of it in Tennessee, and I trust in all the other states save those which, in their hurry, and with inconsiderate zeal, have already taken measures, as far as they could, to dissolve their connection with the Government. Sir, I cannot think it possible that this great Government is to go out without a struggle--a Government which has been blessed so highly, and prospered so greatly. What occasion is there for breaking it up? Are we not the happiest people in the world? Do we not enjoy personal liberty and religious freedom? What is it that the people of these Southern States would have? Does anybody propose to interfere with their domestic inst.i.tutions? n.o.body. Does anybody deny their equal rights in the territories? n.o.body. Why, sir, look at our condition. We are one of the great nations of the world. At the peace of 1783, we had, I think, something like three million population; we have now more than thirty million. At that time we had thirteen states; now we have thirty-four states; and our territories have spread out until they extend across the continent. The boundaries of the Republic embrace to-day a greater extent of country than was contained within the Roman Empire in the days of its greatest extent, or within the empire of Alexander when he was said to have conquered the world.

Sir, I cannot believe that this mad and insane attempt to break up such a Government is to succeed. If my voice could reach them, I would call upon my Southern brethren to pause, to reflect, to consider if this Republican party has yet done them any wrong. What complaints have they to make against us? We have never wielded the power of Government--not for a day. Have you of the South suffered any wrong at the hands of the Federal Government? If you have, you inflicted it yourselves. We have not done it. Is it the apprehension that you are going to suffer wrong at our hands? We tell you that we intend no such thing. Will you, then, break up such a government as this, on the apprehension that we are all hypocrites and deceivers, and do not mean what we say? Wait, I beseech you, until the Government is put into operation under this new administration; wait until you hear the inaugural from the President-elect; and, I doubt not, it will breathe as well a spirit of conciliation and kindness towards the South as towards the North. While I trust it will disclose a resolute purpose to maintain the Government, I doubt not it will also declare, in unequivocal terms, that no encroachments shall be made upon the const.i.tutional rights of any state while he who delivers it remains in power.

FOOTNOTES:

[38] Presumably Judge Read, of Pennsylvania.

[39] MS. in the collection of the late Major W. H. Lambert, Philadelphia.

[40] _Cong. Globe_, 1860-61, p. 30.

[41] Trumbull's speech on the Crittenden Compromise, which was impromptu and was delivered about midnight, is printed as an appendix to this chapter.

[42] Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church.

[43] "Old Public Functionary"--a name that Buchanan in one of his messages had given to himself.

[44] Jefferson Davis says, in his _Rise and Fall of the Confederate States_, that Buchanan told him that "he thought it not impossible that his homeward route would be lighted by burning effigies of himself and that on reaching his home he would find it a heap of ashes."

CHAPTER VIII

CABINET-MAKING--THE DEATH OF DOUGLAS

During all this storm and stress the President-elect was at home struggling with office-seekers. They came in swarms from all points of the compa.s.s, and in the greatest numbers from Illinois. Judging from the Trumbull papers alone it is safe to say that Illinois could have filled every office in the national Blue Book without satisfying half the demands. Every considerable town had several candidates for its own post-office, and the applicants were generally men who had real claims by reason of party service and personal character for the positions which they sought. But there were exceptions, and Trumbull brought trouble on his own head many times by taking part in the melee. Yet there seemed to be no way of escape, even if he had wished to stand aloof. The day of civil service reform had not yet dawned. Time has kindly dropped its veil over those struggles except as relates to Lincoln's Cabinet. The selection of the Cabinet will be considered chronologically so far as the Trumbull papers throw light on it.

On his journey to Was.h.i.+ngton for the coming session of Congress, Trumbull stopped a few days in New York. While there he received a call from three gentlemen, who were a sub-committee of a larger number who had been chosen, by the opponents of the Weed overlords.h.i.+p in New York politics, to call upon Lincoln and remonstrate against the appointment of Seward as a member of his Cabinet. The three men were William C.

Bryant, William Curtis Noyes, and A. Mann, Jr. They said that finding it impracticable to see Lincoln, they had decided to call upon Trumbull and ask him to present their views to the President-elect. Although Trumbull disclaimed any peculiar knowledge or influence in respect of Cabinet appointments, they proceeded to make their wishes known. They said that a division had taken place in the Republican party of New York, growing out of corruption at Albany during the last session of the legislature, in which many Republicans were implicated; that so strong was the feeling against certain transactions there, that but for the presidential election the Republicans would have lost the state in November; and that unless the transactions were repudiated by the coming legislature the party would be beaten next year. They did not connect Governor Seward personally with these transactions, but said that several of his particular and most intimate friends, whom they named, were implicated, and that if he went into the Cabinet he would draw them after him.