  Status of the Controversy Regarding Slavery, at the Time Virginia Seceded from the Union (Concluded) With respect to the institution of slavery, itself, in the Southern States, the position of the Republican Party, as a party, was even more reassuring. The platform of the party, upon which Mr. Lincoln was elected President, gave the most explicit assurance of the purpose of the incoming Administration to refrain from any interference with slavery, in the states where it was recognized by law. "The maintenance inviolate," declared that platform, "of the rights of the states, and especially of each state, to order and control its own domestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to the balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend." Mr. Lincoln was nominated chiefly because of his conservative position with respect to slavery, over his more conspicuous opponents, Seward and Chase, who were defeated because of their more radical anti-slavery utterances. While never concealing his strong antipathy to the institution, Mr. Lincoln always declared his regard for the constitutional rights of slaveholders, in the states where slavery existed. Time and again, he said, "I have no purpose, After his election, Mr. Lincoln, under date of December 22, 1860, wrote to Alexander H. Stephens, "Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would directly or indirectly interfere with the slaves, or with them about the slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and I still hope not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears." REPUBLICAN PARTY AND SLAVERY The charge is often made that, despite the platform of the Republican Party and the ante-election pledges of its candidate, the people of the South were convinced that, with its advent to power, a movement for the abolition of slavery would be inaugurated; and that, because of this fear, the Cotton States seceded from the Union. No such charge can be made with respect to Virginia. Over two months before her secession, the Republican Party, as we have seen, acquired control of both branches of Congress, and immediately proceeded to allay any such apprehensions by the adoption of resolutions and the enactment of laws of the most ultra pro-slavery type. In January, 1861, a series of resolutions was adopted by the Senate and the House of Representatives, among which was one declaring that Congress recognized, "Slavery as now existing in fifteen of the United States, by the usages and laws of those states, and we recognize no authority, legal or otherwise, outside of a state where it exists, to interfere with slaves or slavery in such states." In February, 1861, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution with but four dissenting votes wherein it was declared, "that neither the Federal Government, nor the people, have a purpose or a constitutional right to legislate upon or interfere with slavery in any of the states of the Union." "Resolved, That those persons in the North who do not subscribe to the foregoing propositions are too insignificant in numbers and influence to excite the serious attention or alarm of any portion of the people of the Republic." Following these resolutions both Houses of Congress adopted by the necessary two-thirds vote, a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Federal Constitution, as follows: Article 13. "No amendment shall be made to the constitution which shall authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish, or to interfere within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said state." This amendment passed the House of Representatives February 28, 1861, by a vote of one hundred and thirty-three to sixty-five, and the Senate on the 2nd of March, 1861, by a vote of twenty-four to twelve. Ohio and Maryland promptly ratified this proposed amendment to the constitution, but the outbreak of the Civil War brought the movement to a close. In his inaugural address, President Lincoln reiterated his previous pledges and expressed his approval of the movement to adopt the amendment to the constitution "I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace and security of no section are to be any wise endangered by the now incoming Administration." PRO-SLAVERY AMENDMENT TO CONSTITUTION Continuing, he said, "I understand a proposed amendment to the constitution—which amendment, however, I have not seen—has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the states, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconception of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied Constitutional Law, I have no objection to its being made expressed and irrevocable." Even after the conflict of arms had occurred, the position of the Administration was reiterated in the most solemn form. On the 22nd of April, 1861, Mr. Seward, as Secretary of State, in an official communication to Mr. Dayton, Minister to France, wrote: "The territories will remain in all respects the same, whether the revolution shall succeed or shall fail. The condition of slavery in the several states will remain just the same, whether it succeed or fail.... The rights of the states and the condition of every being in them will remain subject to exactly the same laws and forms of administration, whether the revolution shall succeed or whether it shall fail. In one case the states would be federally connected with the new Confederacy; in the other, PLEDGE OF CONGRESS AS TO OBJECT OF WAR On the 22nd of July, 1861, both houses of Congress, with but few dissenting votes, adopted a joint resolution which declared: "This war is not waged, on our part, in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those states; but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality and rights of the several states unimpaired; that, as soon as these objects are accomplished, the war ought to cease." Such were the attitude of the Republican Party, the avowals and pledges of President Lincoln and the enactments of Congress, with respect to slavery, at the time of Virginia's secession. It is not, however, to be concluded that the Republican Party had renounced its hostility to slavery. The pledges referred to were simply assurances of the purpose of the Federal administration to respect the constitutional rights of states where the institution existed, and of their slave-holding citizens. Nor is it claimed that slavery itself had acquired, in Virginia, or elsewhere, in the Union, an indefinite lease of life. The forces which had destroyed slavery in other lands were ever at work. They were dynamic, and gathered ever increasing influence from the economic, political and ethical conditions of the times. REPUBLICANS AND ABOLITIONISTS Care must be taken not to confound the formally declared Alluding to the extra-constitutional measures advocated by the Abolitionists, Mr. Lincoln in his speech at Quincy, Ill., October 13, 1858, said: "If there be any man in the Republican Party who is impatient over the necessity springing from its (slavery's) actual presence, and is impatient of the constitutional guarantees thrown around it, and would act in disregard of these, he too is misplaced, standing with us. He will find his place somewhere else; for we have a due regard, so far as we are capable of understanding them, for all these things." So too with respect to armed invasions and the attempt of John Brown and his abettors to precipitate servile insurrection. Mr. Lincoln, in his speech at Cooper Union, New York, February 27th, 1860, said: "You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. We deny it; and what is your proof? Harper's Ferry! John Brown!! John Brown was no Republican; SLAVERY A DOOMED INSTITUTION If it be urged that Mr. Lincoln's oft-quoted words uttered before his nomination for the Presidency, that "The Government could not endure half slave and half free," were at war with his assurances and that Virginia was thus threatened in her "peculiar institution," yet it must be remembered that Mr. Lincoln, time and again before his election, disclaimed any such purpose and denied that his words were susceptible of any such construction. Morse, in his Biography of Lincoln, says: "Again and again Mr. Lincoln called attention to the fact that he had expressed neither 'a doctrine' nor an 'invitation'; nor any 'purpose,' nor 'policy' whatsoever." To quote the language of Mr. Lincoln himself in meeting the charge in his debate with Stephen A. Douglas: "In the passage I indicated no wish or purpose of my own. I simply expressed my expectations. Cannot the Judge perceive a distinction between a purpose and an expectation? I have often expressed an expectation to die, but I have never expressed a wish to die."
|
|
