Dec., 1864.

To fully comprehend the fitting punishment of South Carolina we must keep in remembrance her position before the war. We must behold her as she appeared in 1860,—the leader and chief conspirator against the Republic.

She had always taken a prominent part in the political affairs of the nation. Although a State, she was hardly a republican commonwealth, and very far from being a democracy. The State was ruled by a clique, composed of wealthy men, of ancient name, who secured privileges and prerogatives for themselves at the expense of the people, who had but little voice in electing their lawgivers.

The basis of representation in the Legislature was exceedingly complex. In the House of Representatives it was a mixture of property, population, white inhabitants, taxation, and slaves. In the Senate it consisted of geographical extent, white and slave population, taxation, and property. The Senate was constituted after the "Parish system," which gave the whole control of political affairs in the State into the hands of a few wealthy men from the sea-coast.

There are two distinct classes of people in South Carolina,—the lowlanders and the uplanders. The settlers of the lowlands were emigrants from England and France, gentlemen with aristocratic ideas. The settlers of the uplands, in the western counties, were pioneers from Virginia and North Carolina,—small farmers, cultivating their own lands. During the Revolutionary war the uplanders were Whigs, the lowlanders Tories. The lowlanders had wealth, the uplanders were poor. When the Constitution was formed, organizing a State government, the lowlanders took care of their own interests. The lowlands in Colonial times were divided into parishes, and with the forming of the Constitution each parish was to have a Senator. The uplands, not being parishes, were districts of much larger territorial area, hence political power fell into the hands of a few individuals along the coast. As white population increased in the districts, and decreased or remained stationary in the parishes, the up-country men tried to emancipate themselves from political serfdom, but there was no remedy except by an amendment to the Constitution, through a Convention called by the Legislature; and as the lowlanders had control of that body, there was no redress. The State, therefore, became an engine of political power, managed and worked by a few men from Charleston, Beaufort, St. Helena, Edisto, Colleton, and other parishes along the sea-coast.

Nature gave South Carolina sunny skies and a genial clime. The sea contributed an atmosphere which gained for Edisto and St. Helena islands the monopoly in the world's markets for cotton of finest fibre. Wealth increased with the gathering in of each new crop, and with wealth came additional power. Superiority of political privilege made the few impatient of restraint and ambitious not only to control State, but national affairs. South Carolina attempted defiance of national law in 1832, and was defeated.

The parishes governed the State solely in the interests of slavery. It gave them power, to perpetuate which they made slavery aggressive. Here is exposed the root from which Secession sprung. Free labor in the North was a plant of vigorous growth. Slavery was slow. It left worn-out lands in its track. Hard work, brutality, and sin sent its victims to an early grave. Freedom was gaining ground. Slavery must be carried into the Territories and secure a foothold in advance of free labor. So the struggle began, and through pride, passion, and malignant hatred of the North Secession was at last accomplished.

Upon the assembling of the Legislature for the choice of Presidential electors, the President of the Senate, W. D. Porter, of Charleston, said to his fellow-legislators:—

"All that is dear and precious to this people,—life, fortune, name, and history,—all is committed to our keeping for weal or for woe, for honor or for shame. Let us do our part, so that those who come after us shall acknowledge that we were not unworthy of the great trusts devolved upon us, and not unequal to the great exigencies by which we were tried.... No human power can withstand or break down a united people, standing upon their own soil and defending their own firesides."[79]

They made their election. They thought it to be weal, but under God's providence it proved to be woe.

A Senator said:—

"We have two ways before us,—in one, whether we will or not, we must tread; for, in the event of this issue, there would be no repose. In both lie dangers, difficulties, and troubles, which no human foresight can foreshadow or perceive; but they are not equal in magnitude. One is beset with humiliation, dishonor, emeutes, rebellion,—with submission in the beginning to all, and at all times, and confiscation and slavery in the end. The other, it is true, has its difficulties and trials, but no disgrace. Hope, duty, and honor shine along the path. Hope beacons you to the end.... For himself he would unfurl the Palmetto flag, fling it to the breeze, and with the spirit of a brave man determine to live and die as became our glorious ancestors, and ring the clarion notes of defiance in the face of an insolent foe."[80]

When assembled in Hibernia Hall, in Charleston, since called Secession Hall, the delegates gave free utterance to their sentiments.

Said Mr. Parker:—

"It is no spasmodic effort that has come suddenly upon us; it has been gradually culminating for a long period of thirty years. At last it has come to that point where one may say the matter is entirely right."

"I have been engaged in this movement ever since I entered political life," said Lawrence M. Keitt.

"It is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election or by the non-execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. It has been a matter which has been gathering head for thirty years," said R. Barnwell Rhett.

It was the fire of 1832 flaming anew. No rights had been invaded. That Secession was inaugurated without cause must ever be the verdict of history. And history will forever hold John C. Calhoun, R. Barnwell Rhett, Right Rev. Bishop Elliott, Rev. Dr. Thornwell, and other statesmen, editors, ministers,—members of the slaveholding forum, bar, and pulpit,—responsible for all the suffering, bloodshed, and desolation which have come to the country.

Proud in spirit was South Carolina just then. The cotton crop was luxuriant. Planters were plethoric with money. The internal slave-trade established its marts of human flesh all through the South. Virginia became slave-breeding, and South Carolina slave-consuming. In former years slavery was deemed an evil, a curse; but the call for cotton, its rise in market value, with increased profit of culture and a consequent demand for labor, transformed it into a blessing, to be perpetuated for the best good of the human race.

It was found to be in perfect accordance with the teachings of the Bible. The system itself was right; the abuse of the good was only evil. Rev. Dr. Thornwell, Professor of Theology in the Presbyterian Seminary at Columbia, came boldly forward to advocate slavery as a Divine institution, ordained of God for the welfare of the human race. He preached thus:—

"Our slaves are our solemn trust, and while we have a right to use and direct their labors, we are bound to feed, clothe, and protect them, to give them the comforts of this life, and to introduce them to the hope of a blessed immortality. They are moral beings, and it will be found that in the culture of their moral nature we reap the largest reward from their service. The relation itself is moral, and in the tender affections and endearing sympathies it evokes it gives scope for the most attractive graces of human character. Strange as it may sound to those who are not familiar with the system, slavery is a school of virtue, and no class of men have furnished sublimer instances of heroic devotion than slaves in their loyalty and love to their masters. We have seen them rejoice at the cradle of the infant, and weep at the bier of the dead; and there are few among us who have not drawn their nourishment from their generous breasts."[81]

Such was the teaching from those who called themselves appointed of God to preach the Gospel of purity and peace. Church and State, morals and religion, everything that could give strength and respectability to their cause, were brought in to aid the work of the conspirators. So thorough were the teachings, that South Carolina became almost a unit on the question of Secession.

The people of the South charge the Union army with desecrating their church edifices. Is it a wonder that soldiers, reasoning from cause to effect, concluded that the religion which was foremost in precipitating a Rebellion which sustained such an inhuman system was not worth serious consideration? Is it a wonder that, after experiencing the horrors of Rebel prisons, they lost reverence for a religion which could uphold a government guilty of such fiendish cruelties?

Slavery was the corner-stone and foundation of the Confederacy. Never was the trade in slaves between States so thriving as during the winter of 1860. And the leaders of the Rebellion were looking forward to the time when the commerce with Africa would be reopened. Mr. Lamar of Savannah, who during the Rebellion was agent of the Confederacy in London for the purchase of army supplies, imported in the bark Wanderer a cargo of native Africans, some of whom were sold in Charleston. There was a large party in the Confederate Congress which advocated the resumption of the foreign trade, the abolition of which in 1808 was set down as one of the grievances of the South.

It is the province of history to make a record of the bad as well as the good, shameful and humiliating though it may be. Sin and wickedness are horrible facts. To view them as such, to contemplate them in contrast with holiness and righteousness, and draw useful lessons from such contemplation, is far better than to say that they have no place in history. Posterity will wonder that a Church which called itself Christian ever gave its support and advocacy to an institution which daily brought its victims, like cattle, to the auction-block, which made no distinction of age, which was remorseless as death, and which from the cradle to the grave held its victim as with a tiger's gripe.

On the opposite page is presented a sample of an auctioneer's handbill, which I found upon the floor of the slave-mart, with the prices paid by the buyers marked in pencil against the names of the "chattels," and now appearing in parentheses.

The Charleston Mercury was the organ of the Secessionists from the start. It not only advocated Secession as a political principle, but filled its columns with articles holding up to ridicule and contempt the people of the North. The spirit of hate seemed to seize the whole community, in which women even exceeded their husbands. Thus wrote a Southern lady:—

"I would rather die than hold a position of inferiority and vassalage to the North, and the dominant feeling of my heart is to leave a State where men are too cowardly to protect their women and too mercenary to risk their money."[82]

"The question has thrust itself into our domestic fireside, and you find all classes,—men, women, and children,—asking what they must do to be saved," said W. F. Cullock, Collector of Charleston, in a speech at the Pulaski House, Savannah, on the opening of the Charleston and Savannah Railroad.

"Fight! Secede!" was the response from the drunken crowd.

The South Carolina Muse tuned her lyre and sang,—

"We'll unfurl the Lone-Star banner,
And we'll keep it waving high;
For Secession we are pledged,
For Secession we will die."

The city of Charleston was foremost for Secession. When the news was received that Mr. Lincoln was elected President, a red flag, with the palmetto-tree and a lone star wrought upon it, was raised. Says the Mercury: "A shout and twice three cheers greeted its appearance. The Association of 1860 assembled. The feeling was for prompt action."

The Legislature was in session at Columbia. On the 11th of the month a bill was passed calling a State convention.

"Gentlemen, hats off!" said the Mercury. "Then hip-hip-hip-hurrah!—and hip-hip-hip-hurrah—hurrah—hurrah—hurrah—for the homes we love!"[83]

Then more soberly the editor added:—

"The news of the passage of the convention resolutions by an almost unanimous vote, at Columbia, was received in this city on Saturday night with demonstrations which have, perhaps, never been equalled in the political history of the country. Our whole community seemed to breathe freer and deeper, and upon every brow sat confidence and hope. It was as though the glorious sun had suddenly dispersed cloud and mist and vapor, and sent its illuminating rays to every heart and home. Men looked each other in the face as men should do who feel that under God their destinies are in their own hands."

Thus a "daughter of South Carolina" inflamed her sisters:—

"Listen, daughters of South Carolina, to the voice of a faithful sister. Should our State back out now she would be disgraced forever.... Shrink now, and we are crushed forever. Then there will be no end of the trouble you fear. Abolition emissaries will be at work all over the South, inciting the negroes in every direction. Trials must come, but let them come in the right way, and all will be well. Secede, put ourselves in a state of defence; be ready for any emergency. Should the government coerce, our sister States will come to the rescue. Let it be so. Better perish beneath the shock than to live degraded.... O women of South Carolina! Mothers, sisters, wives! do not wear the white feather now, unless, like that gallant king of old, it waves on our men to the war."[84]

Said another:—

"Let us women of Carolina prove that the same noble spirit which visited the mothers and maidens of '76 is alive, and glowing in the spirits of their descendants. I am myself a widowed mother, but I have said to my three sons, that if any one of them shall be craven enough to desert the State now, to temporize in her councils, or be backward if her honor calls them to the field, let him never look upon my face again."[85]

What had transpired to produce this white heat of passion? Simply that a party was coming into power opposed to the extension of slavery over free territory. True this party had also disavowed any intention of interference with slavery in the States; but restriction was loss of power,—paralysis and death at last. The grievance of South Carolina arose wholly from slavery. She claimed the right to traffic in human beings. She believed it was a natural right, authorized by the Creator of the universe, having the sanction and solemnity of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and Christ himself. It was a natural, moral, and scriptural right for a master to rob his brother in the Lord of his earnings during the week, commune with him on Sunday, whip him on Monday, and sell him on Tuesday. The institution being missionary in its nature, and designed to carry the Gospel to Africa, he had a right to separate husbands and wives, parents and children, break the marriage relation, and establish new alliances at will. No doubt they were sincere in their belief that the system was not only good in itself, but that it was a beneficent arrangement for the well-being of the human race. Certainly it was beneficial to the master; why should it not be to the slave? Men can be as sincerely zealous for Wrong as for Right. Eighteen hundred years ago a man zealous for the truth filled the prisons of Syria with Christians, and thought he was doing righteously in the sight of God; and human nature is the same now as then. Men and women who advocated the righteousness of slavery were scrupulous to a penny in their dealings with one another, and with colored people who were free,—but the loss of freedom gave the right to commit robbery! Strange, also, the confusion and delusion of moral ideas. Society prided itself on its virtue. Men and women of Caucasian blood departing from morality found the door of society shut against them; but slavery being patriarchal it was not a crime, not even an offence against morality, for a planter to choose a Hagar from his slaves. Society placed no bar in his way, the Church no ban upon his action. Hagar could be taken into the master's household, appear in silks and satins, with Ishmael for the pet of the family, or both could be knocked off to the highest bidder in the mart, separated and sent one to the rice-swamps of Georgia and the other to the cane-brakes of Louisiana, Hagar weeping and mourning for her child, and the planter, with the price of blood in his pocket, be received in any parlor in Charleston, or made Governor of the State! There were patriarchs in the convention which carried South Carolina out of the Union, who were urged on to treason by the women of the South. Ishmael would not rise in insurrection, even if his brother Isaac and father Abraham went to war. Said another "daughter of South Carolina":—

"Arming the State will keep the negroes in check. They are arrant cowards, those dear dark friends of ours.[?] Some of you can remember how in '22 they would shrink away at the gleam of their master's sword as he armed for the nightly patrol, and the creaking of the horseman's saddles as they paraded the streets sent them hiding in every hole and corner."[86]

Isaac was eager for the fray; he burned to fight the Yankees. Hence the consummation of the treason.