The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1879-11-06
POLITICAL HISTORY.
SECESSION TRACED FROM
WASHINGTON'S ADMIN
ISTKATION TO THE
LATE WAR.
BY COL. G. b. FLOOD.

breadth OF our ocean bound ltepuOl(
has secession been taught an(
preached with more of pertinacity
or for longer time, than by the New
England Federalists, and by their de.
scendants, who, now in every contest
wave the 'bloody shirt as the battle
flag of their party. In Boston, where
the Constitution of the Unit C
States was publicly burned, because
it was a covenant with death and q
league with HE'LL secession was open
ly proclaimed as the panacea for all
the ills that the body polite was heir
to.
The first time this Federal plan OF
secession was fairly broached dates
back TO 1876, during the Administra.
tion of Washington. The Hartford
(Conn.) 'Couraut,' then the leading
Federal journal of New England, pub
lished series of articles over the sig
nature of Pelham said at the time to
have been written by an association of
Federal leaders of the highest posi-
ton and influence, in which the writ
ers argue that the Northern States
can subsist as Republic without any
connection with the Southern. 1t can
not be contested that if the Southern
States were possessed of the same po-
litical ideas the Union would be still
more desirable than separation. But
when it becomes a serious question
whether we give up our Government
or part with the States south Of the
Potamac, no man north of that river,
whose heart is not thoroughly Demo-
cratic, can hesitate what decision to
make
In future paper the writer prom
ises to prove the impossibility of an
Union for longer period in future,
both from the moral and political hab
its of the citizens of the Southern
States, and finally examine carefully
to see whether we have not already
approached the era when they must
be divided
The South at that time gave cyl
dence of soon being solid against the
doctrines OF the Federal party, and
hence the anxiety to get rid of it.
The election of the elder Adams as
President gave the Federal leaders
hopes of swaying the political ideas,'
which, when opposed to them, was
sufficient to cause a disruption of the
Union, and for a time secession was
named. But the defeat of the elder
Adams by Mr.. Jefferson, and with it
the purchase of Louisiana, again
brought secessionism to the front. In
power, the Federal leaders were al
ways Union men; ont of power and
out of office, they were disunionists.
John Quincy Adams is authority for
the fact that the design of secession
'had been formed in the winter of 1908
and 1904. Immediately after, and as
consequence of the acquisition of
louisiana The plan, Mr.. Adams
said, was so far maturcd that the pro-
posal had been made TO an individual
to permit himself, at the proper time,
to be placed at the head of the mill
tary movements which it was foreseen
would be necessary for carrying it in.
to execution
In after years, when John Quincy
Adams made these designs of the Fed.
eral leaders known to Mr.. Jefferson
and other leaders of the Democratic |
party, and had become common talk,
Timothy Pickering, and twelve other
of the Federal leaders of Massachu-
setts, united in letter to Mr.. Adams,
in which they denied tho allegations,
for themselves and their colleagues,
and asked Mr.. Adams, then Presi-
dent, to furnish a full and precise
statement of the facts and evidence re.
lating to this accusation, 'solemnly
declaring that they had never known
or suspected that the Federal party,
to which they had been attached, 'ev.
er entertained the design to produce
of the Union or the es-
tablishment of a separate Confedera.
tion.'
TO this, while Presiden j ohm Quin-
cy Adams replied, charging, as above
given, the fact that secession had SO
far progressed that the leader who
was to command the secession army
had already been selected. He said,
in addition, that this design North
ern Confederacy-had been formed in
the winter of 1903 and 1904, imme-
diately after, and as consequence Of
the admission of louisiana THAT
project, again repeat, had gone to
the length OF fixing upon military
leader for its execution; aud although
the circumstances of the times never
admitted of its full development, l
had yet no doubt at this time QS2S),
that it is the key to the great move
ments of these leaders of the Federal
party in New England, from that time
till its final catastrophe in the
Convention
Mr.. Adams, in letter to Governor
Plummer, OF New Hampshire, dated
December 30, 1926, on the authority
Of a Senator Trs"y, of Connecticut
gives the proposed boundaries of the
Nation the conspirators sought TO
make out of the secession movement.
There were three alternatives, of
First, the Potomac, if 1
possible; second, the Susquehanna
third, the Hudson. The Northern
was to cxtend,if it should
be found practicable, so as to include
This was the maximum.
The Hudson, that is New England
and a part of New York, was the