Part 17

In 1860, the Governor of Kentucky made requisition upon the Governor of Ohio for the return to the former state of a fugitive from justice indicted for the violation of a statute imposing penalties upon persons aiding slaves to escape from their masters. The Governor of Ohio refused to honor the requisition; thereupon the State of Kentucky instituted a suit in the Supreme Court of the United States against the Governor of Ohio, to compel him to comply with the provision of the Federal Constitution above referred to and deliver up the fugitive from justice.

The Governor of Ohio interposed as a defense the same reasons advanced by Governor Seward. But the Supreme Court of the United States held that the defense was insufficient, and that it was the constitutional duty of the Governor of Ohio to deliver up the fugitive. The court declared: "The objection made to the validity of the indictment is altogether untenable."[304] The court also decided that the suit was properly instituted, in the right forum, and that the Governor of Ohio was under constitutional obligations to deliver up the fugitive to the authorities of Kentucky, but that no judgment could be entered by the court granting the relief prayed for. Chief Justice Taney, speaking for the court, after alluding to the fact that the framers of the constitution confidently believed that "A sense of justice and of mutual interest would insure a faithful execution of the provision," declared: "If the Governor of Ohio refuses to discharge this duty there is no power delegated to the General Government, either through the judicial department or any other department, to use any coercive means to compel him."[305]

EFFECTS IN VIRGINIA OF NULLIFICATION

This decision brought home to the people of Virginia the fact that the authorities of certain of the Northern States were violating their obligations under the Federal Constitution, and yet the Federal Government was unable to remedy the wrong and maintain the rights of the injured commonwealths.

These conditions and the attitude of the Northern States which thus nullified the provisions of the Federal Constitution undoubtedly moved thousands of Virginians and other citizens of the South to secession. They refused to remain members of a Union in which the rights of their states were thus violated by their sister commonwealths.

But the claim that Virginia seceded in order to avert pecuniary loss resulting from the non-return of fugitive slaves is negatived by the fact that by such action she surrendered all the benefits from the Federal Constitution and statute. In the Union, some protection was secured to the state with respect to the rights thus menaced. Outside of the Union, every such benefit was lost, and the state stood absolutely without redress.

Footnote 294:

See Decision in Case of Prigg _vs._ Pennsylvania, 16 Pet. 539.

Footnote 295:

_Fugitive Slaves_, McDougall, p. 66.

Footnote 296:

_In re Sherman M. Booth_, 3rd Wisconsin Rep., p. 13.

Footnote 297:

_Ableman_ vs. _Booth_ and _United States_ vs. _Booth_, 21st Howard, p. 506.

Footnote 298:

_Journal of the General Assembly of Wisconsin_, Session 1859, pp. 463 and 865.

Footnote 299:

_History of Massachusetts in the Civil War_, Schouler, Vol. I, p. 6.

Footnote 300:

See _Reports of Thirty-second Congress, and Twenty Years of Congress_, Blaine, pp. 258-265.

Footnote 301:

_Debates in Peace Conference Convention_, Crittenden, p. 430.

Footnote 302:

_Origin of the Late War_, Lunt, p. 217.

Footnote 303:

_Fugitive Slaves_, Boston, 1891, McDougall, p. 41.

Footnote 304:

_Kentucky against Dennison_, 24th Howard, p. 107.

Footnote 305:

_Kentucky against Dennison_, 24th Howard, p. 109.

XXX

THE ABOLITIONISTS

We come now to consider the fourth force or factor with which Virginia had to reckon, namely, the Abolitionists. These constituted a body of earnest, tireless agitators—men and women who had devoted mind and heart to the work of destroying slavery. No consideration of the maintenance of law, the national peace, nor the preservation of the Union availed to moderate their zeal or circumscribe their efforts. Slavery was a sin against God—and to the King of kings they owed their first allegiance. To counsels of moderation, to suggestions of expediency, to appeals for law, they returned the oft reiterated answer—_Delenda est Cathargo!_ The orderly processes of time—the force of public opinion exerted through law, rather than against law, were to them but the suggestions of cowardice and a means for prolonging the life of an institution, the measure of whose sin cried unto Heaven. Fight Slavery!—now and always—wherever found and by every weapon known to the wit of man, was the burden of their message. Keep it out of the territories? Yes! and for the contest depend not alone upon the laws of Congress; but send armed men to the prairies of Kansas and hold the land against the slaveholders and their slaves by fire and the sword. Opposed to a Fugitive Slave Statute? Yes!—contest its enactment by Congress and defeat its execution when it becomes a law. Let the free states nullify this Federal statute by state laws; let mobs rescue from Federal officials the fugitives in their custody; and then cover the land with the conspiracy of the "Underground Railroad" by means of which the slave might pass to the freedom which awaited him beyond the Canadian border.

But it was slavery in its citadel—the existence of the institution in the slave states—that aroused their fiercest antagonism and rallied their forces to a battle which should never end but with its complete destruction. From this body of militant agitators and reformers, the slaveholders of Virginia could expect no quarter, and the commonwealth no surcease from the agitations so destructive of her peace.

GARRISON AND PHILLIPS

William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips were the foremost leaders of this great fellowship, and in no year of grace were their demands more insistent and their assaults more aggressive than in the troublous days immediately preceding the Civil War. Amid all appeals for the maintenance of law and the preservation of peace might be heard their voices like fire-bells at night, denouncing the Union and the constitution and demanding the immediate abolition of slavery. But by none of these things was Virginia moved to secession. As declared by Henderson, the English military critic, "The wildest threats of the 'Black Republicans,' their loudly expressed determination in defiance of the constitution, to abolish slavery, if necessary, by the bullet and the sabre, shook in no degree whatever her loyalty to the Union."[306]

SECESSION NO PROTECTION

For none of Virginia's grievances nor those of her slaveholders against the Abolitionists was secession a cure. Within the Union and under the _Ægis_ of the constitution was to be found her surest defense against all their assaults. By secession she would surrender her interest in the territories and all claim of right to introduce slaves therein. By secession she would forfeit all the benefits of the Fugitive Slave Law. By secession she would lose the strong arm of the National Government to defend her against assaults, whether by lawless bands or the legislative enactments of hostile states. Even with respect to servile insurrections her withdrawal from the Union would in no way abate the danger but only lessen her power to cope with the problem. John Brown and his band were captured by United States soldiers and the flag of the Union carried protection to the inmates of every lonely manor house and cabin throughout her borders, whether menaced by the slaves themselves or the emissaries of those who plotted against her peace. Of all these facts the Abolitionists had the profoundest appreciation. Hence for years they advocated disunion as a condition precedent to the attainment of their great end—the abolition of slavery.

Footnote 306:

_Stonewall Jackson_, Henderson, Vol. I, p. 122.

XXXI

THE ABOLITIONISTS AND DISUNION

The disunion sentiments and efforts of the Abolitionists may be traced through the declarations of their leaders and the platforms of their societies, enunciated from time to time, during a long series of years antedating the Civil War. Thus in January, 1843, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society adopted the following resolution:

"That the compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with Death and an agreement with Hell—involving both parties in atrocious criminality, and should be immediately annulled."[307]

These sentiments were affirmed and reiterated by the American Anti-Slavery Society at its tenth anniversary meeting in New York City, May, 1844, where among other declarations the Federal Constitution was denounced as "a covenant with Death and an agreement with Hell," and the motto adopted "No Union with Slaveholders."[308]

In 1854, William Lloyd Garrison declared, "There is but one honest, straightforward course to pursue if we would see the slave power overthrown—the Union must be dissolved."[309] And Wendell Phillips re-echoed the sentiment in the no less explicit declaration, "As to disunion, it must and will come. Calhoun wants it at one end of the Union, Garrison wants it at the other. It is written in the counsel of God."[310]

Mr. Schouler, referring to the foregoing declaration of Mr. Garrison and the occasion, says: "And such was the general tenor of anniversary speeches and resolutions through the next six years, whenever and wherever meetings were held of our Anti-Slavery Societies."[311]

WORCESTER DISUNION CONVENTION, 1857

These disunion sentiments continued with growing insistence in the declarations of leading Abolitionists and in the platform of their societies. On the 15th of January, 1857, there assembled at Worcester, Mass., the "Disunion Convention." This body adopted, among other resolutions, one demanding the immediate dissolution of the Union, and declaring that "The sooner the separation takes place, the more peaceful it will be; but that peace or war is a secondary consideration in view of our present perils. Slavery must be conquered, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must."[312] This convention appointed a State Committee of seven, of which the Rev. Thomas Wentworth Higginson was made chairman, to direct the propaganda of the new movement and a general convention composed of delegates from all the free states was recommended. A call for the latter convention was accordingly issued in July, 1857, signed by Mr. Higginson, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, and other leading Abolitionists. Cleveland, Ohio, was selected as the place for the convention, because a majority of the signers to the call, some seven hundred in number, were citizens of that state. The 28th of October was fixed as the date for the meeting of the convention. This body, however, failed to assemble because of the terrible financial panic which began in September of that year,—the leaders deciding to postpone the "projected Northern Convention until a more auspicious period."[313]

GARRISON URGES DISUNION

In his speech before the "Disunion Convention" at Worcester, Mass., above referred to, William Lloyd Garrison said:

"Again, I am for the speedy overthrow of the Union because, while it exists, I see no end to the extension of slavery. I see everything in the hands of the Slave Power now—all the resources of the country,—every dollar in the Treasury, the Navy, the Judiciary, everything in its grasp; and I know that with all these means and facilities and the disposition to use them, nothing can successfully contend against it.

"I am sure of another thing—that when the North shall withdraw from the Union, there will be an end to Southern filibustering and schemes of annexation. Then the tables will be turned and we shall have the slaveholders at our doors crying for mercy. Rely upon it, there is not an intelligent slaveholder at the South who is for a dissolution of the Union. I do not care what the folly or insanity of the Southern Nullifiers may be; ... not one of them is willing to have the cord cut and the South permitted to try the experiment. If it be otherwise, God grant that she may soon take this step and see whether she will be able to hold a single slave one hour after the deed is done."[314]

No opportunity was neglected to inculcate sentiments of disloyalty to the Union, hatred of the constitution, and disregard of the statutes enacted by the Federal Government bearing upon slavery. Sometimes the Abolitionists would emphasize their position and lend a touch of realism to their sentiments by burning before the multitudes copies of the constitution and obnoxious laws passed by Congress.

ABOLITIONISTS' ASSAULTS ON EMINENT MEN

Thus at Framingham, Mass., on the fourth of July, 1854, at the open-air celebration of the day by the Abolitionists, William Lloyd Garrison burned copies of the constitution, the Fugitive Slave Law, and the opinions of several Judges of the Federal Courts in Massachusetts. _The Liberator_ records that Mr. Garrison, "holding up the United States constitution branded it as the source and parent of all the other atrocities—a covenant with Death and an agreement with Hell—and consumed it to ashes on the spot, exclaiming, 'So perish all compromises with Tyranny,' and 'Let all the people say Amen,' and a tremendous shout of 'Amen' went up to Heaven in ratification of the deed."[315]

No eminence of public station nor personal worth availed to shield from the assaults of these Abolition leaders. William Lloyd Garrison alluding to Webster's eulogies upon the constitution declared, "Let Daniel Webster, the greatest and meanest of his countrymen, exhaust his powers of eulogy upon it if he will; the effort will but render his character base and contemptible with posterity."[316]

Wendell Phillips, referring to the "Defender of the Constitution," said: "God gives us great scoundrels for texts to anti-slavery sermons. See to it, when nature has provided you a monster like Webster, that you exhibit him—himself a whole menagerie—throughout the country."[317] Subsequently in an article in _The Liberator_ on Mr. Lincoln—then but recently nominated for the Presidency, headed "Abraham Lincoln, the Slave Hound of Illinois," Wendell Phillips wrote: "We gibbet a Northern hound to-day side by side with the infamous Mason of Virginia."[318]

ABOLITIONISTS AND SLAVE INSURRECTIONS

Theodore Parker alluding to the Federal judges and officials in Boston who bore a part in the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, addressing the "Spirits of Tyrants" and apostrophising Cain, Herod, Nero, and Torquemada, proceeds as follows: "Come up, thou heap of wickedness, George Jeffreys! Thy hands deep purple with the blood of thy murdered fellow men!... What! Dost thou shudder? Thou turn back? These not thy kindred? It is true, George Jeffreys. And these are not thy kin.... Thou wouldst not send a man into bondage for two pounds. I will not rank thee with men who in Boston for ten dollars would enslave a negro now."[319]

Even the patriotic enthusiasm of Longfellow in his "Ode to the Union," aroused Garrison's ire, who denounced it as "a eulogy dripping with the blood of imbruted humanity," and for the poet's conception of the "Ship of State" he substituted:

... "'Perfidious bark! Built i' th' eclipse and rigged with curses dark.'...

Destined to go down full many a fathom deep, to the joy and exultation of all who are yearning for the deliverance of a groaning world."[320](_a_)

(_a_): Note: The author has not cited any examples of the terms employed by the leaders of the Abolitionists in referring to the Southern people. If Webster were denounced as a "monster" and Lincoln as a "slave-hound" because, in their devotion to the Union and their respect for law, they would protect the constitutional rights of slaveholders, the reader may readily imagine the denunciations poured upon the citizens of the slaveholding states. For twenty-five years the people of the South, their civilization and morality were arraigned by orators and editors, preachers and poets, dramatists and novelists, in terms without parallel in polemic literature.

ABOLITIONISTS APPLAUDED JOHN BROWN

But the Abolitionists did not confine their efforts to denunciations of the constitution and its defenders, or in devising schemes for the overthrow of the Union. They actually secured the enactment by many Northern Legislatures of so-called Personal Liberty Laws, designed to nullify the Fugitive Slave Law passed by Congress. In like manner many of them were the apologists, if not the instigators, of servile insurrections, of which John Brown's venture was at once the fell offspring, and the dread sign of more to follow. William Lloyd Garrison declared that Brown deserved "to be held in grateful and honorable remembrance, to the latest posterity, by all those who glory in the deeds of a Wallace or a Tell, a Washington or a Warren."[321] Theodore Parker said: "No American has died in this century whose chance of earthly immortality is worth half so much as John Brown's."[322] Wendell Phillips speaking in Plymouth Church declared: "John Brown violated the law. Yes. On yonder desk lie the inspired words of men who died violent deaths for breaking the laws of Rome. Why do you listen to them so reverently? Huss and Wycliffe violated laws. Why honor them? George Washington, had he been caught before 1783, would have died on the gibbet for breaking the laws of his sovereign."[323]

William Lloyd Garrison, while insisting that he himself was a "peace man" and opposed to the use of "carnal weapons," proclaimed: "I am prepared to say, success to every slave insurrection at the South and in every slave country,"[324] and Theodore Parker re-affirmed the sentiment in the declaration: "I should like, of all things, to see an insurrection of slaves. It must be tried many times before it succeeds, as at last it must."[325]

ABOLITIONISTS AIDED JOHN BROWN

Wendell Phillips speaking at the grave of John Brown said: "Insurrection was a harsh, horrid word to millions a month ago. John Brown went a whole generation beyond it, claiming the right for white men to help the slave to freedom by arms. And now men run up and down not disputing his principles."[326]

Admiral Chadwick in his recent work, _The Causes of the Civil War_, thus presents the position of prominent Abolitionists with respect to servile insurrections and especially the efforts to precipitate one at Harper's Ferry:

"Parker was also one who could say, 'I should like of all things to see an insurrection of slaves. It must be tried many times before it succeeds, as at last it must,' an expression which was the outcome of his own full knowledge of what was brewing. Of this the others of the Boston Secret Committee, Stearns, Higginson, Howe, and Sanborn, as already shown on the authority of the last, also had full information, as had Gerrit Smith, with the exception, perhaps, of the exact place at which Brown was to strike. Brown's funds were supplied by these men, who were accessories before the fact in the fullest meaning of the phrase. It is impossible to justify such actions.

"Stearns and his fellows were not martyrs; they did not risk their lives; they were not in open warfare; they were simply in secret conspiracy to carry by bolder instruments throughout the South the horrors of Hayti, still vivid in the recollection of many then yet living."[327]

THE UNION PROTECTS SLAVEHOLDERS

But the Abolitionists appreciated that it was the Union and its power that stood as the strongest barrier against the success of their instigations to servile insurrection, and held in leash the giant form, Slavery, with its pike and brand. Long ago Mr. Garrison had said:

"What protects the South from instant destruction? Our physical force. Break the chain which binds her to the Union and the scenes of St. Domingo would be witnessed throughout her borders. She may affect to laugh at this prophecy but she knows her security lies in Northern bayonets. Nay, she has repeatedly taunted the free states with being pledged to protect her."[328]

Footnote 307:

_William Lloyd Garrison_, by his children, Vol. III, p. 88.

Footnote 308:

_Idem_, p. 100.

Footnote 309:

_Idem_, p. 414.

Footnote 310:

_Wendell Phillips_, Martin, p. 207.

Footnote 311:

_History of United States_, Schouler, Vol. V, p. 319.

Footnote 312:

_William Lloyd Garrison_, by his children, Vol. III, p. 457.

Footnote 313:

_Idem_, p. 463.

Footnote 314:

_Idem_, pp. 456-7.

Footnote 315:

_Idem_, p. 412.

Footnote 316:

_Idem_, p. 184.

Footnote 317:

_Speeches, Lectures and Letters_, Wendell Phillips, Lee & Shepard, 1892, p. 48.

Footnote 318:

_William Lloyd Garrison_, by his children, Vol. III, p. 503.

Footnote 319:

_Theodore Parker, A Biography_, Frothingham, p. 431.

Footnote 320:

_William Lloyd Garrison_, by his children, Vol. III, p. 280.

Footnote 321:

_Idem_, Vol. III, pp. 489-491.

Footnote 322:

_Theodore Parker, A Biography_, Frothingham, p. 463.

Footnote 323:

_Speeches, Lectures and Letters_, Wendell Phillips, Lee & Shepard, 1892, p. 279.

Footnote 324:

_William Lloyd Garrison_, by his children, Vol. III, p. 489-491.

Footnote 325:

_Theodore Parker, A Biography_, Frothingham, p. 475.

Footnote 326:

_Speeches, Lectures and Letters_, Wendell Phillips, Lee & Shepard, 1892, p. 291.

Footnote 327:

_Causes of the Civil War_, Chadwick, p. 84.

Footnote 328:

_William Lloyd Garrison_, by his children, Vol. I, p. 309.

XXXII

THE ABOLITIONISTS AND DISUNION (Concluded)

These citations from the deliverances of the great leaders of the Abolitionists will give some idea of the motives and methods which pervaded that fellowship. With tireless insistence they went forward with their labors for the abolition of slavery and the dissolution of the Union, the latter being deemed a condition precedent to the complete accomplishment of the former. Only the action of South Carolina, which brought the nation face to face with a practical attempt at disunion, served to suspend the efforts of the Abolitionists to effect a like result. This momentous step on the part of South Carolina was received with exultant satisfaction—William Lloyd Garrison declaring, "All Union-saving efforts are simply idiotic. At last 'the covenant with Death' is annulled, and the 'agreement with Hell' broken, at least by the action of South Carolina, and ere long by all the slaveholding states, for their doom is one."[329] And Wendell Phillips re-echoed the sentiment: "Let the South march off with flags and trumpets, and we will speed the parting guest. Let her not stand upon the order of her going, but go at once: Give her jewels of silver and gold, and rejoice that she has departed. All hail, Disunion!"[330]

THE UNION THWARTS EFFORTS OF ABOLITIONISTS