Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-17
BLAINES BIG BOOK.
A STIRRING CHAPTER FROM
THE ADVANCE SHEETS.

| The Maine Historians Views of Blu
| chanan's AdmlnistratiOn-A Severe
Arrangement of the south and its
Leaders-Is This BIaine's Bid for the
Republican Nomination for President .
/ "A Very Ingenious Republican Cam
/ paign Document.
! Washington Correspondence Ne,o York World
| Mr.. Blaine has at last completed the
| writing Of the first volume Of his twenty
/ years of Congress. He is to receive 50
cents royalty upon each sale, and it is
estimated that this will net him from
100000 to $25O,OO0 upon the general sale.
Inc following are extracts from an in
| terestlng chapter from the advance sheets
of the proof describing the period at the
outbreak of the war:
The winter following the election Of
Mr.. Lincoln vas filed with deplorable
events. In the whole history OF the
American people there is no epoch which
recalls so much that is worthy of regret
and so little that gratifies pride. The re-
suit of the election was unfortunate IN
the wide divergence between the vote
| which Mr.. Lincoln received in the cleo
toral colleges and the vote which he re-
ceiyed at the polls. In the electoral col
/ leges he had an aggregate of $50. His Op-
pOnents. united, had but 1913. OF the
popular vote Lincoln received 1866, 452:
| Douglas, 1921, ga; Breckenridge, S50,0S2:
Bell, GAG, l24. Mr.. LincOln's vote was
wholly from the free States, except some
/ $4,000 cast for him in the five border slave
States. In the other slave States his
name was not presented as a candidate,
Mr.. Douglas received in the South about
10000 votes. In the North the votes cast
distinctiyely for the Breckenridge cleo
tOral ticket were less than 1901 900. and
dIstlnctiYely for the Bell electoral ticket
about $4,000.
1t was thus manifest that the two North
ern Presidential candidates, Lincoln and
Douglas, had absorbed almost the entire
vote in the free States and the two South
ern Presidential candidates, Breckin-
ridge and Bell, had absorbed almost the
entire vote in the slave States. The North
ern candidates received popular support
in the South in about the same degree
that the Southern candidates received pop
ular support in the North. In truth as
well as in appearance it was a sectional
contest in which the North supported
Northern candidates, and the South sup
ported Southern candidates. 1t was the
first time in the history of the govern
ment in which the President was chosen
without electoral votes from both the
free and the slave States. This result
was undoubtedly source of weakness to
Mr.. LincOln-weakness made more ap-
parent by his signal failure to obtain a
popular majority. He had a large plural
ity, but the combined votes of his Oppo-
nents was nearly 100000 greater than
the vote which he received.
The time had now come when the
southern DisuniOnists were to be put to
the test. The event had happened which
they had declared in advance to be cause
of separation. 1t was, perhaps, the be-
lief that their courage and determination
were challenged which forced them to
action. Having so often pledged them
selves not to endure the election of an
anti-SlaVery President, they We're now
persuaded that, if they quietly submitted,
they would thereby accept an inferior
position III the government. This as
sumed obligation of consistency stimu-
lated them to rash action; for. upon
every cons liberation of prudence and wise
forecast, they would have quietly ac-
cepted a result which they ACKNOWLEDGED
to be in strict accordance with the cOnsti-
tuition. The South was enjoying eXcep-
tiOnal prosperity. The advance of the
slave States in wealth was more rapid
than at any other period of their
history. Their staple products COM
manded high prices and were con-
thu ally growing in amount to meet the
demands OF market which represented
the wants of the civilized world. In the
decade between 1850 and 1860 the wealth
of the South had increased three thousand
millions of dollars, and this not for an
generalization OF slaves, but from in
creased cultivation of land, the extension
of railways, and all the aids and aDpli-
ances OF vast agricultural enterprises.
Georgia alone had increased in wealth
over three hundred millions of dollars. no
small proportion of which was from COM
mercial and manufacturing ventures that
ODD ~f,1 ,Tv
never was a community on the face of the
globe whose condition so little Justified
revolution as that of the slave States in
the year 1860. Indeed, it was a sense of
strength born of exceptional prosperity
which led them to their rash adventure Of
war.
1t would, however, be an injustice to
the people of the South to say that in No
vember, 1860, they desired, unanimously,
or by majority, or on the part of any
considerable minority, to engage in
scheme of violent resistance to the ma
tlOnal authority. The Shareholders were
in the main peacefully disposed, and con-
tented with the situation. But slavery
as an economical institution and slavery
as political force were quite distinct.
Those who viewed it and used it merely
as a system Of labor, naturally desired
peace and dreaded cOmmotiOn. Those
who used 1t as political engine for the
consolidation of political power had views
and ambitions inconsistent with the plans
and hopes of IaW-abiding citizens. 1t was
only by strenuous effort on the part of the
latter class that an apparent majority of
the Southern people committed themselves
to the desperate design Of destroying the
National Government.
The first effort at secession was made.
as might have been expected, by South
Carolina. She did not wait for the actual
result of the election, but early in OctO-
Der, on the assumption of Lincoln's sue
cess, began correspondence with the
other cotton States. The general tenor of
the responses did not indicate decided
wish or purpose to separate from the
Union. North Carolina was positively
unwilling to take any hasty step. LOuisi-
ana, evidently remembering the impOr-
lance and value of the Mississippi river
and of its numerous tributaries to her
commercial prosperity, expressed an
utter Discrimination to separate from the
Northwest. Georgia was not ready to
make resistance, and at most advocated
some form of retaliatOry legislation. 1t
was evident that even in the cotton belt
and the Gulf States there was in the
minds OF sober people the gravest objec-
ton to revolutionary measures.
1t happened, most unfortunately, that
Tue DOulu OdTOlIild Legislature assembled
early in November for the purpose of
choosing Presidential electors, who in
that State were never submitted to the
popular vote. While it might seem eX-
travagant to ascribe the revolution which
cOnYulsed the country to an event so dis
connected and apparently so inadequate,
it is nevertheless true that the sudden
furOF which seized large number of the
Southern people came directly from that
event. Indeed, it is scarcely an eXaggera-
ton to say that the great civil war, which
shook a continent, was precipitated by
the fact that the South Carolina Legisla-
ture assembled at that unpropitious
moment. Without taking time for
reflection, without a review of the
situation, without stopping to
count the cost, with a bOldness born
of passionate resentment against the
North, the rash men of South Carolina
fired the train. In n single hour they ere
ated in their own State a public sentiment
which would not brook delay. or CONTRA
dictiOn or argument. The leaders of it
knew that the sober second thought.
even in South Carolina, would be danger
Gus to the scheme of SOuthernlConfeder-
acy. They knew that the feeling of re-
sentiment among the Southern people
must be kept at white heat, and that who
ever wished to speak word of caution or
moderation must be held as public enc
my and subjected to the scOEn and the
vengeance Of the people.
In this temper convention was order
ed by the Legislature. The delegates
were to be chosen directly by the people,
red VIII oSSaunTIpd xVara 10 determine