Within weeks of Lincoln's election, the Deep South states, led by perennial firebrand South Carolina, had seceded. This section of the project will examine not only secession and the formation of the Confederate Government in Montgomery, but also Northern and border state attempts to keep the Union together. In Pennsylvania and Virginia, the story will be drawn largely from newspapers. Virginia will take a prominent place in this narrative, as the people of Augusta are confronted with a terrible quandry.
Some subheadings will include the following:
Secession and Secessionist rhetoric
Formation of the Confederate States of America
Attempts to keep the Union together
Local responses
Not surprisingly, South Carolina was the first state to leave the Union. Immediately following Lincoln's election, the fire-eaters called a convention, and six weeks later, amid great fanfare, the convention unanimously passed an ordinance of secession, which formally dissolved "the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states."[2] The other Deep South states quickly followed, as the chart below indicates:
| State | Date | Vote in Favor |
|---|---|---|
| South Carolina | 20 Dec. | 169-0 |
| Mississippi | 9 Jan. | 85-15 |
| Florida | 10 Jan. | 62-7 |
| Alabama | 11 Jan. | 61-39 |
| Georgia | 19 Jan. | 208-89 |
| Louisiana | 26 Jan. | 113-17 |
| Texas | 1 Feb. | 166-8 |
Declarations of Causes of Secession for Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas.
Unlike the unanimity of opinion evidenced in the Palmetto state, secession was more contested elswhere. Specifically, delegates to the conventions tended to split into three factions: immediate secessionists, cooperationists, and unconditional unionists. The cooperationists were strongest in Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana, and they advocated collective action among the Southern states, perhaps on the model of the 1850 Nashville Convention, rather than each state seceding individually.
Even among the copperationists, opinions on timing and strategy were further divided. Some, known as cooperative secessionists evinced clear and uncompromising support for secession, but believed that their efforts would be more sucessful if the states stood together and presented a united front. Others, the ultimatumists, urges that the Southern states present the Republicans with demands for concessions, and see what they did, before leaving the Union. These demands, including a federal slave code for the territories and a pledge not to interfere in the interstate slave trade, were of course met by Republican opposition.
The Unionists were strongest in the border states and upper South, the same regions that had gone for Bell and Everett. They counseled moderation, and urged their Southern brethren to wait until Lincoln took overt action against them. Unlike in the lower South states, many of these conventions had Unionist majorities, until the firing on Fort Sumter. They shared a series of common assumptions about secession:
Secessionist Rhetoric In addition to this dry constitutionalism, secession and its
rhetoric also took on an air of emotionalism and celebration,
particularly in the lower South. Southerners had felt under siege for
over a year, and secession provided a sort of catharisis or relief.
Standard manifestations of nineteenth century political culture, like
parades, fireworks, and celebrations accompanied each secession
convention. Additionally, as each state seceded, it send comissioners
to sitting conventions, encouraging them to jump on the bandwagon as
well.
On February 4, 1861, delegates from the seven seceded states met in
Montgomery, Alabama to write a new constitution for their new nation.
The Confederate convention was the site of considerable jockeying for
political position, especially over the choice of President. The
convention eventually selected Jefferson Davis, of Missisippi, a
compromise candidate who was not even in attendance at Montgomery.
The vice-presidential slot went to Alexander Stephens of Georgia, head
of the Constituion drafting committee.
The
Confederate Constitution adopted in March was almost identical
to the United States constitution, with a few differences:
The delegates chose a provisional cabinet, and sent comissioners to
the secession conventions in the Upper South. They hoped to present a
moderate image, in order to convince the remaining slaveholding states
to join them.
The Crittenden Compromise Not surprisingly, Republicans in Congress opposed the Compromise,
seeing it as an utter repudiation of their platform. They were able
to kill it in committee on December 28, 1860, and on the Senate floor
on January 16, 1861.
The Peace Convention Augusta County
Secessionists were sensitive to criticsim of their actions as
illegitimate. Rather, they believed themselves to be fully
within their constitutional rights. Thus, they saw secession not as
revolution, but as an alternate reading of Constitutional provisions.
They subscribed to the "compact theory" first elucidated in the
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. According to this theory,
the individual states delegated their authority to the Federal
government when they ratified the Constitution and can
withdraw it through another convention. In general, the secession
ordinances passsed at these conventions rescinded ratification of the
constitution. The secessionists believed themselves to be the true
heirs of the Founders, and their rhetoric frequently harkened back to
1776. They argued that the Republicans were the true revolutionaries,
citing as evidence Lincoln's "House Divided" speech and Seward's
"Irrepressible Conflict."
Formation of the Confederate States of America
Attempts to keep the Union together
In an attempt to stem the rising tide of secession, the Senate's
Committee of Thirteen, led by John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, proposed
a compromise plan. It consisted of a series of proposed constitutional
amendments, which protected slavery in all territories south of the
Missouri Compromise line of 36° 30' "now held, or hereafter acquired,"
while prohibiting it north of the line; prohibited Congress from
abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, or in national
jurisdictions within slave states; forbade federal interference with
interstate slave trade; and indemnified owners prevented by "local
opposition" from recovering fugitve slaves. These amendments would
have been perpetually binding, unamendable and unrepealable for all
time. Other provisions tacked on to the Crittenden Compromise would
have modified the fugitive slave law and requested that states repeal
laws that conflcited with it.
The Virginia State Legislature sponsored a "Peace Convention," which
met in Washington DC in February, 1861. They invited delegates from
all states, including those that had already seceded, and sent
representatives to meet with President Buchanan. It was primarily a
forum for the upper South to express their moderate aims. While
Republican states did send delegates, the seceded states did not. The
Convention was basically a failure. Its members were unable to come
up with a coherent compromise plan, producing one very much like the
failed Crittenden Compromise. It too was rejected by Congress.
Local responses to Secession
As one might expect, sentiment in Augusta County ran strongly against
secession. On November 17, Alexander H. H. Stuart led a mass meeting
at the courthouse, "for the preservation of the Union in the present
alarming condition of the country. The citizens then formed a
committee to present resolutions at the November court seesion.
Stuart chaired the committee, whose other members included Hugh W.
Sheffy, George Baylor, John B. Baldwin, John L. Peyton, Kenton Harper,
John D. Imboden, George M. Cochran, Jr., Joseph A. Waddell, John
McCue, Benjamin Crawford, Gerard B. Stuart, and Robert Guy. Support
for the meeting was non-partisan; both the Spectator and the
Vindicator
At court on November 26, the committee presented its resolutions, proclaiming both the county's support for the Constitution and its sympathy for its aggrieved Southern bretheren. The committee counseled moderation, and in its last resolution urged:
That our senator and delegates be requested, in the discharge of the responsible duties which will soon devolve upon them, in the spirit of harmony and conciliation attempted to be expressed in these resolves, to bend all their energies to keep Virginia to her moorings as 'the Flag Ship of the Union,' and to induce her, placed as she is between the North and the extreme South, with moderation, forbearance and wisdom worthy of her ancient renown, to exert her power and influence to preserve, on the one hand, the known and equal rights of her own people as citizens of a common country, and, on the other, the harmony of the Union and the integrity of the Constitution.
In other words, Virginia should take a leading role in preserving the Union and in mediating between the factions. At the same meeting, a resolution in favor of a State convention was defeated, although one was ultimately called in February, 1861. Alexander H. H. Stuart, John B. Baldwin and George Baylor represented the county in Richmond. Despite their Unionism, Augustans did not advocate the use of force against the seceded states, a stance that would eventually force them into war.
According to Mike Lesperance initially both the Spectator and the Vindicator hoped to keep the Union together. Gradually, however, the Democratic paper began to advocate secession, and preparation for war. This split became especially clear in January, 1861 during the elections to the Virginia convention.
Franklin County
The Democratic editors of the Valley Spirit believed that the
South had legitimate grievances against the North. After
Lincoln's election, they pointed out that the South had had no
role in electing this purely sectional president whose party was
hostile to the Southern social system. They thus believed that
the North, not the South, needed to make concessions to keep the
Union together. In particular, the Spirit advocated the repeal of
all state personal liberty laws, which prevented Southerners from
seizing their run-away slaves in Northern states. The editors
argued that such Northern attempts at blocking the Fugitive Slave
Act, which was the law of the land, were examples of the type of
sectional rule that the South feared. When Republican
legislatures refused to repeal these laws, the Spirit blamed
Republicans, not Southerners, for secession.
While reading the Valley Spirit, however, it is important to remember that Democratic candidates received 3213 votes in Franklin County in the 1860 presidential election while the Republicans attracted 4151 votes. The Republicans clearly had a great deal of support, particularly in Chambersburg itself. Because the Chambersburg Republican paper is no longer available, you need to look at the additional regional papers that we've made available in order to get a sense of Republican attitudes.