James Buchanan...

The following historical narrative of the events preceding the late rebellion was prepared soon after its outbreak, substantially in the present form. It may be asked, Why, then, was it not published at an earlier period? The answer is, that the publication was delayed to avoid the possible imputation, unjust as this would have been, that any portion of it was intended to embarrass M.Lincoln's administration in the vigorous prosecution of pending hostilities. The author deemed it far better to s

That the Constitution does not confer upon Congress power to interfere with slavery in the States, has been admitted by all parties and confirmed by all judicial decisions ever since the origin of the Federal Government. This doctrine was emphatically recognized by the House of Representatives in the days of Washington, during the First session of the First Congress, Annals of Congress, Vol. II,P. 1474,Sept1,1789-90. and has never since been seriously called in question. Hence, it became necessa

The Thirty-first Congress assembled on the First Monday of December,1849, and they happily succeeded in averting the present danger by the adoption of One of those wise compromises which had previously proved so beneficent to the country. The First ray of light to penetrate the gloom emanated from the great and powerful State of Pennsylvania. Her House of Representatives refused to consider instructing resolutions in favor of the Wilmot Proviso. Soon thereafter, on the 4th of February,1850, the

SenatorSeward, of New York, was at this period the acknowledged head and leader of the Republican party. Indeed, his utterances had become its oracles. He was much more of a politician than a statesman. Without strong convictions, he understood the art of preparing in his closet, and uttering before the public, antithetical sentences well calculated both to inflame the ardor of his anti-slavery friends and to exasperate his pro-slavery opponents. If he was not the author of the Irrepressible con

The alleged right of secession, or the right of One or more States to withdraw from the Union, is not a plant of Southern origin. On the contrary, it First sprung up in the North. At an early period after the formation of the Constitution, many influential individuals of New England became dissatisfied with the union between the Northern and Southern States, and were anxious to dissolve it. This design, according to Mr.JohnQuincyAdams,Had been formed in the winter of 1803-4, immediately after an

Such, since the period of Mr.Lincoln's election, having been the condition of the Southern States, the Views of GeneralScott, addressed before that event to the Secretary of War, on the 29th and 30thOctober,1860, were calculated to do much injury in misleading the South. From the strange inconsistencies they involve, it would be difficult to estimate whether they did most harm in encouraging or in provoking secession. So far as they recommended a military movement, this, in order to secure succe

On the 6thNovember,1860,AbrahamLincoln was elected President of the United States, and immediately thereafter the Legislature of South Carolina passed an Act for the call of a Convention to carry the State out of the Union, calculating that by this precipitate violence she might force the other cotton States to follow in her lead. Every discerning citizen must now have foreseen serious danger to the Union from Mr.Lincoln's election. After a struggle of many years, this had accomplished the trium

In this perilous condition of the country it would scarcely be believed, were it not demonstrated by the record, that Congress deliberately refused, throughout the entire session, to pass any act or resolution either to preserve the Union by peaceful measures, or to furnish the President or his successor with a military force to repel any attack which might be made by the cotton States. It neither did the One thing nor the other. It neither presented the olive branch nor the sword. All history p

We have already seen that Congress, throughout the entire session, refused to adopt any measures of compromise to prevent civil war, or to retain First the cotton or afterwards the border States within the Union. Failing to do this, and whilst witnessing the secession of One after another of the cotton States, the withdrawal of their Senators and Representatives, and the formation of their Confederacy, it was the imperative duty of Congress to furnish the President or his successor the means of

It is now necessary to recur to the condition of the forts and other public property of the United States within South Carolina, at the date of the President's annual message, on the 3dDecember,1860. In regard to that property the message says: This has been purchased for a fair equivalent, by the consent of the Legislature of the State, for the “Erection of forts, magazines, arsenal” and over these the authority “To exercise exclusive legislation” hasbeen expressly granted by the Constitution t

On the 20thDecember,1860, the South Carolina Convention adopted an ordinance of secession, and on the 22d appointed Three of their most distinguished citizens to proceed forthwith to Washington to treat with the Government of the United States concerning the relations between the parties. These were RobertW.Barnwell,JamesH.Adams, and JamesL.Orr. They arrived in Washington on Wednesday, the 26thDecember. On the next morning they received intelligence by telegraph that MajorAnderson had, on Christ

It is now necessary to return to Fort Sumter. This was the point on which the anxious attention of the American people was then fixed. It was not known until some days after the termination of the truce, on the 6thFebruary, that GovernorPickens had determined to respect the appeal from the General Assembly of Virginia, and refrain From attacking the fort during the session of the Peace Convention. It, therefore, became the duty of the administration in the mean time to be prepared, to the extent

The rancorous and persistent opposition to Mr.Buchanan's administration throughout its whole term, did not divert it from devoting its efforts to promote the various and important interests intrusted to its charge. Both its domestic and foreign policy proved eminently successful. This appears from the records of the country. We deem it necessary to refer only to a few of the most important particulars The administration succeeded by rigid economy in greatly reducing the expenditures of the Gover

The administration of Mr.Buchanan, in conducting our foreign affairs, met with great and uncommon success. Our relations with Spain were in a very unsatisfactory condition on his accession to power. Our flag had been insulted, and numerous injuries had been inflicted on the persons and property of American citizens by Spanish officials acting under the direct control of the Captain General of Cuba. These gave rise to many but unavailing reclamations for redress and indemnity against the Spanish

Views suggested by the imminent danger (October29,1860) of a disruption of the Union by the Secession of One or more of the Southern States. To save time the right of secession may be conceded, and instantly balanced by the correlative right, on the part of the Federal Government, against an Interior State or States, to reestablish by force, if necessary, its former continuity of territory— Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy, last chapter. But break this Glorious Union by whatever line or li

Read and referred, with instructions, to a Select Committee of Five, and ordered to be printed At the opening of your present session I called your attention to the dangers which threatened the existence of the Union. I expressed my opinion freely concerning the original causes of those dangers, and recommended such measures as I believed would have the effect of tranquillizing the country and saving it from the peril in which it had been needlessly and most unfortunately involved. Those opinion