The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-10-11
lecoNTRIBuTloN TO HISTORY.


c. -. :.
,Fx l'cCoSTRIBUTloN TO HISTORY.
III Statement of Hon. Jacob Thompson
Why and How He Went to North
L. Carolina as a Commissioner.
Il. ., ,.t.-- ID. - ''..s., j
Hon. Thomas L. Clingman, of North
Carolina, has recently published book
from which the following incident is ex7
tracted:' i 80,
= "About the middle of December, 1860,
/ had occasion to see the Secretary of the
!, Interior (Hon. Jacob Thompson) on some
official business. On my entering the
room Mr.. Thompson said Ito me yling.
man, am glad you" have called for l
intended presently to go up to the Senate
:. to see you. Ihave been appointed COM
missioner by the State of Mississippi to
4 20 down to North Carolina to get your
Estate to secede, isnd Iwished to talk with.
you about your Legislature before start.
down in the morning to Raleigh, and to-
Elearn what you think of my chance of
success.h said to him, L did not know
that you had resigned He answered,
'OH,, no, I have not resigned Then /
replied, Il suppose you resign in the
morning. mo, he answered, I do not
intend to resign; for Mr. Buchanan wishes
us all to hold out and go out with him
on the fourth of March, But said l..
! does Mr.. Buchanan know for what pur-
pose you are going to North CarolinaP
Certainly he knows my object Being
surprised by this statement / told Mr..
Thompson that Mr.. Buchanan was prob.
ably so much, perplexed by, his situation
that he had not fully considered the mat
ter, and that as he was already involved
in difficulty, we ought not to add 10 his
burdens and then Gsuggested, TO. Mr..
Thompson that he had better see Mr..
Buchanan again, and by way of inducing
what I had been saying to him. Mr..
Thompson said, ,'Well, / can do so, but I
think he fully understands it. In the
evening met Mr.. Thompson at small
Social party, and as soon as approached
him he said, Il knew I could not be mis-
taken 1 told. Mr.. Buchanan all you
said, and he told me he wished me, to goS
and hoped. I might succeed could not
help exelaiming, 'Was there ever before
any potentate who sent out his own Cab
met minister to excite an Instruction
against his governmeitp1n v. - ~ :; . -
q The attention Of Mr.. Thompson having
been called to this extract, by Hon. Jere-
miah' s. Black, of Pennsylvania, who was
alsb a member of Mr.. Buchanan's cabi-
net, Mr.. Thompson responds in let.
ter to Mr.. Black, dated Memphis,
Tenn, September 81, 1877, in which ne
says: ;.o.
verbatim a private casual conversation
which occurred between US near seven.
l-teeni years ago. I remember we'll, just
before my. departure for North Carolina,
n had q COMPENSATION. with Mr.. Clingman,
and T remember also the information I
wished him to give me. 1t was to learn
from himah9 political stafq c6fId different
members 6f the Legislature, but the con-
| yersation. made no impression on my
Emiud; and,l should. have forever forgot
| ten it but for this reminder. It is i'm
possible now to recall particulars
Whetherhe asked if / had resigned or
not d0ihot remember; but what is its
sequbhceoIi, could not, have forgotten,
| When toldgIh not, he assumed that
he advised me To see the President again
on the Subject, and that in obedience to
his suggestion I did SO and came to him
andi told him, the result, This is an inn.
possibility. To have suggested such a
ching to me by Mr.. Clingman would have
been an impertinence that could not
have overlooked, and had such thing
l'been suggested know I would have
scorned to report back, and; above all, /
would have scorned to report falsehood
of the basest. kind. He Mr.. Clingman)
l.sayss, r (Mr. Thompson) told Mr.. Buch.
anan all you (Mr. Clingman, wonderful
hman) said, end he told me he wished me
ITO 20, and hoped I might succeed in in
ducing North Carolina to secede.' Now,
if I,told him all this, ! repeated, to him
what I knew then and know now to be
false and uhfounded. Therefore, / know
II never said any such thing, and all Of
this is from invention, simple fiction Of
Mr.. Clingman. Then, follows his excla-
nation: 'Was there ever before any po-
tentate who sent out his own cabinet
ministers to excite an insurrection against
his government which / must have
heard, and yet made no reply to it and
took no exceptions to it. This carries an
absurdity on its face. Having said this
much about this most remarkable revela-
ton, 1 feel Robld, in yildication Of the
truth of history. and-in justice to the
memory Of q chief magistrate who held
the reins of government in the most try
ing crisis in the history of the govern
ment, to explain some of the facts con-
nected with my mission to North Caro-
lima.
| h.Some time in the month of. Decem-
ber, 1860. while was Secretary of the
Interior, the Governor of: Mississippi sent
I me 8 letter requesting me to act as a
commissioner Of that State to the State
| Of North Carolina, and urge to cooperate
with Mississippi in measures for the pro-
lection and maintenance of Southern
rights. This appointment was unex-
pected, and took me by surprise. L was
known as a co.operationist, and was op-
/ posed: to separate State action. / be-
! iieved all. the Southern States should
have a perfect understanding with each
other, and when the time came for move
ment-if movement must be made-they
should all act together and simultaneous
". At that time Mr.. Buchanan had sent
to Congress his very able message, in
which he denounced secession as here
sy, unconstitutional and unauthorized.-
/ l differed from that message in this:
That while admitted the constitution
did not provide this remedy for the
States, yet each had retained the right,
from which. they had never parted, to
withdraw for cause the powers they had
conferred upon the general government
and resume the full exercise of them.
But as L held, no man would justify Sc
cession which was not sufficient to justify