: John McElroy
: The Struggle for Missouri
: OTB eBook publishing
: 9783962727222
: 1
: CHF 1.80
:
: Altertum
: English
: 521
: kein Kopierschutz
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Excerpt: Whatever else may be said of Southern statesmen, of the elder school, they certainly had an imperial breadth of view. They took in the whole continent in a way that their Northern colleagues were slow in doing. It cannot be said just when they began to plan for a separate Government which would have Slavery as its cornerstone, would dominate the Continent and ultimately absorb Cuba, Mexico and Central America as far as the Isthmus of Panama.

CHAPTER II. THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER


The storm-clouds gathered with cyclonic swiftness. South Carolina seceded Dec. 20, 1860, and sent a Commission to Washington to negotiate for the delivery of all the forts, arsenals, magazines, lighthouses, and other National property within her boundaries, organizing in the meanwhile to seize them. Her Senators and Representatives formally withdrew from Congress; the Judges and other Federal officials solemnly resigned their places; and Maj. Robert Anderson, recognizing the impossibility of defending the decrepit Fort Moultrie against assault, transferred his garrison to Fort Sumter.

President Buchanan announced the fatal doctrine that while no State had the right to secede, the Constitution gave no power to coerce a State which had withdrawn, or was attempting to withdraw from the Union.

Mississippi seceded Jan. 9, 1861; Florida, Jan. 10; Alabama, Jan. 11; Georgia, Jan. 19; Louisiana, Jan. 26; and Texas, Feb. 1;—all the Cotton States precipitately following South Carolina's example.

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Each made haste—before or after Secession—to seize all the United States forts and property within her borders.

In the midst of this political cataclysm the Legislature of Missouri met on the last day of 1860.

The Senate consisted of 25 Democrats, seven Unionists, and one Republican; the House of 85 Democrats, 35 Unionists, and 12 Republicans.

The retiring Governor—Robert M. Stewart—sent in his final message Jan. 3, and the same day his successor—Claiborne F. Jackson—was inaugurated, and delivered his address. Gov. Stewart was a typical Northern Democrat, born in New York, but long a resident of Missouri. He was a strong Douglas man, and believed that the Southern people had the Constitutional right to take their slaves into the Territories and hold them there, and that this right ought to be assured them. He had never pretended to be in love with Slavery, but he believed that the Constitution and laws granted full protection to the Institution. He denied the right of Secession, particularly as to Missouri, which had been bought with the money of the whole country. In his final message he did not hesitate to clearly set this forth, and to denounce South Carolina as having acted with consummate folly. He recognized the Union as the source of innumerable blessings, and would preserve it to the last. He said:

As matters are at present Missouri will stand by her lot, and hold to the Union as long as it is worth an effort to prese