THE BELL EVERETT PARTY IN 1860. But the salient feature of the canvass was the hearty accord of the coalesced parties North of the Potomac, in attributing to the Republican platform and to Mr. Lincoln apprehended consequences that were, by the South, attributed to Douglas and "Squatter Sovereignty." The Democratic National Convention and party had been broken up, not because of any suspicion of Republicanism affecting either faction, but because the South would not abide the doctrine of Mr. Douglas, with regard to Slavery in the Territories. Yet here were his supporters appealing to the people from every stump to vote the coalition ticket, in order to conciliate the South, and save the country from the pangs of dissolution! It was not easy to realize that the Pughs, Paynes, Richardsons, Churches, etc., who had so determinedly bearded the South at Charleston and at Baltimore, defying threats of disruption and disunion, were the very men who now exhorted the People to vote the coalition Electoral tickets, in order to dispel the very dangers which they had persistently invoked, by supporting the Payne-Samuels platform, and nominating Douglas for President. It is more difficult to treat calmly the conduct of the "American," "Conservative," "Union," or BellEverett party of the South; or, more accurately, to reconcile its chosen attitude and professions in the canvass with the course taken by thousands of its members immediately on the announcement of the result, with the ultimate concurrence of many more, including even the eminent and hitherto moderate and loyal Tennessean whom it had deliberately presented as an embodiment of its prin 325 ciples by nominating him for the Presidency. That party was mainly composed of admiring disciples of Clay and Webster, who had sternly resisted Nullification on grounds of principle, and had united in the enthusiastic acclaim which had hailed Webster as the triumphant shampion of our Nationality, the "great expounder of the Constitution," in his forensic struggle with Hayne. It had proudly pointed to such men as William Gaston, of North Carolina, Sergeant S. Prentiss, of Mississippi, Edward Bates, of Missouri, George W. Summers, of Virginia, John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, and James L. Petigru, of South Carolina, as the exponents of its principles, the jewels of its crown. It had nominated and supported Bell and Everett on a platform which meaningly proclaimed fidelity to "The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement of the Laws," as its distinctive ground. To say that it meant by this to stand by the Union until some other party should, in its judgment, violate the Constitution, is to set the human understanding at defiance. It either meant to cling to the Constitution and Union at all hazards and under all circumstances, and to insist that the laws should be enforced throughout the country, or it was guilty of seeking votes under false pretenses. Unlike the Douglas Democracy, it was a distinct, wellestablished party, which had a definitive existence, and at least a semblance of organization in every Slave State but South Carolina. It had polled a majority of the Southern vote for Harrison in 1840, for Taylor in 1848, had just polled nearly forty per cent. of that vote for Bell, and licans. They had begun by carrying New Hampshire by 4,443—a satisfactory majority; but were next beaten in Rhode Island-an independent ticket, headed by William Sprague for Governor, carrying the State over theirs, by 1,460 majority. In Connecticut, Gov. Buckingham had been re might boast its full share of the property, and more than its share of the intelligence and respectability, of the South. This party had but to be courageously faithful to its cardinal principle and to its abiding convictions to avert the storm of civil war. Had its leaders, its orators, its presses, spoken out promptly, decidedly, un-elected by barely 541 majority, in nearconditionally, for the Union at all hazards, and for settling our differences in Congress, in the Courts, and at the ballot-box, it would have prevented the effusion of rivers of precious blood. It was perfectly aware that the Republicans and their President elect were powerless, even if disposed, to do the South any wrong; that the result of the elections already held had secured" an anti-Republican majority in either branch of the ensuing Congress; that the Supreme Court was decidedly and, for a considerable period, unchangeably on the same side. In the worst conceivable event of the elections yet to come, no bill could pass respecting the Territories, or anything else, which the "Conservatives" should see fit unitedly to oppose. And yet, South Carolina had scarcely indicated unmistakably her purpose, when many Bell-Unionists of Georgia, Ala--it was manifest that only a miracle bama, and other Southern States, began to clamor and shout for Secession. They seemed so absorbingly intent on getting, for once, on the stronger side, that they forgot the controlling fact that the side on which God is has always at last the majority. The early State Elections of 1860 had not been favorable to the Repub "New York had chosen 10; Pennsylvania 7; New Jersey 3; Ohio 8; Indiana 4; Illinois 5; and Missouri 6 anti-Republicans to the House; ly 80,000 votes-the heaviest poll ever had there at a State Election. It was evident that harmony at Charleston would have rendered the election of a Democratic President morally certain. But, after the disruption there, things were bravely altered. Maine, early in September, elected a Republican Governor by 18,091 majority; Vermont directly followed, with a Republican majority of 22,370; but when Pennsylvania and Indiana, early in October, declared unmistakably for Lincoln-the former choosing Andrew G. Curtin her Governor by 32,164 majority over Henry D. Foster, who had the hearty support of all three opposing parties; while Indiana chose Gen. Henry S. Lane by 9,757 over T. A. Hendricks, his only competitor, with seven out of eleven Representatives in Congress, and a Republican Legislature could prevent the success of Lincoln and Hamlin the next month. Yet the mercantile fears of convulsion and civil war, as results of Mr. Lincoln's election, were so vivid and earnest that the contest at the North was still prosecuted by his combined adversaries with the energy of desperation. New York, especially, was the arena of a struggle as intense, as rendering it morally certain that, but for Secession, Mr. Lincoln would have had to face an Opposition Congress from the start. GOV. SEWARD CLOSING THE CANVASS OF 1860. 327 low the music of the clanging bells; and, strange to say, they will all bring you into one common chamber. When you get there, you will hear only this emotion of the human heart appealed to, Fear,-fear that, if you elect a President of the United States according to the Constitution and the laws to-morrow, you will wake up next day, and find that you have no country for him to preside over! Is not that a strange motive for an American patriot to appeal to? And, in that same hall, amid the jargon of three discordant members of the 'Fusion' party, you will hear one argument; and that argument is, that, so sure as you are so perverse as to cast your vote singly, lawfully, honestly, as you ought to do, for one candidate vehement, and energetic, as had ever been known. Her drawn battle of the year before, and the perfect accord in this contest of the anti-Republican parties, gave grounds for hope, if not confidence, that she might now be carried against Lincoln, especially as the City was expected to give a far larger majority for "Fusion" than she had ever yet given for any man or party. Abundance of money for every purpose doubtless contributed to the ani- for the Presidency, instead of scattering it mation of the struggle on this side, among three candidates, so that no Presiwhile painful apprehensions of South-dent may be elected, this Union shall come down over your heads, involving you and us in a common ruin! ern revolt, in case Lincoln should be Gov. Seward-who had made a political tour through the North-West during the Autumn, wherein his speeches in behalf of the Republican cause and candidates were of a remarkably high order, alike in originality, dignity, and perspicuity-closed the canvass, the night before Election, in an address to his townsmen at Auburn, which concluded with these truthful and memorable words: "Now here is the trinity in unity and unity in trinity of the political church, just now come to us by the light of a new revelation, and christened 'Fusion.' And this 'Fusion' party, what is the motive to which it appeals? You may go with me into the streets to-night, and follow the 'Little Giants,' who go with their torchlights, and their flaunting banners of 'Popular Sovereignty;' or you may go with the smaller and more select and modest band, who go for Breckinridge and Slavery; or you may fol "Fellow-citizens, it is time, high time, that we know whether this is a Constitu tional government under which we live. It is high time that we know, since the Union is threatened, who are its friends, and who are its enemies. The Republican party, who propose, in the old, appointed, constitutional way, to choose a President, are every man ists, wherever they may be, are those who of them loyal to the Union. The disloyalare opposed to the Republican party, and dent. I know that our good and esteemed attempt to prevent the election of a Presineighbors (Heaven knows I have cause to respect, and esteem, and honor, and love them, as I do; for such neighbors as even my Democratic neighbors, no other man ever had)-I know that they do not avow, nor do they mean to support, or think they are supporting, disunionists. But I tell them, that he who proposes to lay hold of the pillars of the Union, and bring it down into ruin, is a disunionist; and that every man who quotes him, and uses his threats and his menaces as an argument against our exercise of our duty, is an abettor, unconscious though he may be, of disunion; and that, when to-morrow's sun shall have set, and the next morning's sun shall have risen on the American people, rejoicing in the elec tion of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, those men who to-day sympathize with, uphold, support, and excuse the disunionists, will have to make a sudden choice, and choose whether, in the language of the Senator from Georgia, they will go for treason, and so make it respectable, or whether they will go with us for Freedom, for the Constitution, and for eternal Union." XXII. SECESSION. said, from New Jersey. But, though nowhere in the Electoral, Mr. Douglas was second in the Popular, vote, as will be seen by the following table, wherein the "Fusion" vote is divided between the parties which contributed to it, according to the best estimate that can now be made of their strength respectively: STATES, Maine............. New Hampshire.. Connecticut.. Vermont.. Ohio FREE STATES. LINCOLN. Douglas. Breckinridge. Bell. 26,693 6,368 2,046 25,881 2,112 6,849 *208,329 *50,000 $50,000 62,811 87,519 441 106,353 84,372 5,939 22,831 12,244 *4,000 *1,000 2,707 43,972 15,522 14,641 8,291 83,808 218 1,969 853,804 58,324 *80,000 $80,000 *2,801 THE choice of Presidential Elec- | those of Missouri (9) and 3, as aforetors, which formerly took place at the discretion of the several States within a limited range, is now required, by act of Congress, to be made on the same day throughoutnamely, on the Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday in November. This fell, in 1860, on the 6th of the month; and it was known, before that day had fully expired, that ABRAHAM LINCOLN had been clearly designated by the People for their next President, through the choice by his supporters of a majority of the whole number of Electors. Every Pennsylvania. Free State but New Jersey had chosen the entire Lincoln Electoral ticket; and in New Jersey the refusal of part of the Douglas men to support the "Fusion" ticket (composed Oregon. of three Douglas, two Bell, and two Breckinridge men), had allowed four of the Lincoln Electors to slip in over the two Bell and the two Breckinridge Electors on the regular Dem- Maryland........ ocratic ticket. The three Lincoln Electors who had to confront the full vote of the coalesced anti-Republican parties were defeated by about 4,500 majority. And, although this was not ascertained that night, nor yet Florida.... the fact that California and Oregon had gone with the other free States, yet there were 169 Lincoln Electors chosen (out of 303) outside of these three States; with these, Mr. Lincoln had 180, to 123 for all others. Of these, Breckinridge had 72; Bell 39 (from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee); and Douglas barely 12 Total Free States..1,831,180 1,128,049 279,211 "Fusion" vote apportioned according to the estimated strength of the several contributing parties. SLAVE STATES. LINCOLN. STATEL Virginia.. Douglas. Breckinridge, Bell, 1,028 7,837 8,815 3,864 North Carolina... (no ticket) Alabama.. Mississippi. Kentucky. Missouri.. Texas.... (no ticket) 1,864 17,028 (no ticket) (no ticket) (no ticket) 11,590 51,889 42,886 18,651 48,681 27,875 8,283 40,797 25,040 25,651 58,143 66,058 11,350 64,209 69,274 (no ticket) (no ticket) 47,548 +15,433 Total Slave States.. 26,430 163,525 570,871 515,973 This anti-Breckinridge vote was cast for a "Fusion" Electoral ticket, but almost entirely by old 'Whigs' or Bell men. Lincoln over Douglas, 566,036; Do. over Bell, 1,211,486; do, over Breckinridge, 1,007,528, Lincoln has less than all his opponents combined, by 980,170. Breckinridge had in the Slave States over Bell, 54,898; do. over Douglas, 407,346; do. over Douglas and Lincoln, 380,916. Breckinridge lacks of a majority in the Slave States, 135,057. THE SOUTH ON LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 329 In next to the all but impossible success of their own candidate-preferred that of the Republicans.' the Senate throughout the preceding Session, at Charleston, at Baltimore, and ever since, they had acted precisely as they would have done, had they preeminently desired Mr. Lincoln's success, and determined to do their best to secure it. And now, a large majority of Lincoln Electors had been carried, rendering morally certain his choice by the Electoral Colleges next month, and his inauguration on the 4th of March ensuing. So the result contemplated and labored for by at least two of the four contending parties in the canvass had been secured. What next? From an early stage of the can- | events, throughout the Slave States vass, the Republicans could not help seeing that they had the potent aid, in their efforts, of the good wishes for their success of at least a large proportion of the advocates of Breckinridge and Lane. The toasts drunk with most enthusiasm at the Fourthof-July celebrations throughout South Carolina pointed to the probable election of Mr. Lincoln as the necessary prelude to movements whereon the hearts of all Carolinians were intent. Southern "Fire-Eaters" canvassed the Northern States in behalf of Breckinridge and Lane, but very much to the satisfaction of the friends of Lincoln and Hamlin. The "Fusion" arrangements, whereby it was hoped, at all events, to defeat Lincoln, were not generally favored by the "Fire-Eaters" who visited the North, whether intent on politics, business, or pleasure; and, in some instances, those who sought to commend themselves to the favor of their Southern patrons or customers, by an exhibition of zeal in the "Fusion" cause, were quietly told: "What you are doing looks not to the end we desire we want Lincoln elected." In no Slave State did the supporters of Breckinridge unite in any "Fusion" movement whatever; and it was a very open secret that the friends of Breckinridge generally-at all 1 The Washington Star, then a Breckinridge organ, noticing, in September, 1860, the conversion of Senator Clingman, of North Carolina, from the support of Douglas to that of Breckinridge, said: "While we congratulate him on the fact that his eyes are at length open to the (to the South) dangerous tendency of the labors of Douglas, we hail his conversion as an evidence of the truth of our oft-repeated declaration, that, ere the first Monday in November, every honest and unselfish Democrat throughout the South will be found arrayed against Douglas-Freesoil In October, 1856, a Convention of Southern Governors was held at Raleigh, N. C., at the invitation of Gov. Wise, of Virginia. This gathering was kept secret at the time; but it was afterward proclaimed by Gov. Wise that, had Fremont been elected, he would have marched at the head of twenty thousand men to Washington, and taken possession of the Capitol, preventing by force Fremont's inauguration at that place. In the same spirit, a meeting of the prominent politicians of South ism, as being far more dangerous to the South than the election of Lincoln; because it seeks to create a Free-Soil party there; while, if Lincoln triumphs, the result cannot fail to be a South united in her own defense-the only key to a full and-we sincerely believe-a peaceful and happy solution of the political problem of the Slavery question." Columns like the above might be quoted from the Breckinridge journals of the South, showing that they regarded the success of Douglas as the great peril, to be defeated at all hazards. |