The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-03-03
FIFTY YEARS
AGO
INSIDE HISTORY OF CONDITIONS
LEADING UP TO THE OUT
BREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR OF
'61-'65 - ABRAHAM LINCOLN
INAUGURATED PR T. SIDE Mt
HALF A CENTURY AGO-THE
CAUSE OF SECESSION.

CAUSE OF SECESSlON.
To-morrow-Mar 4-will be the
fiftieth anniversary of the first inau-
guration of Abraham Lincoln as
President of the United States
The conditions that confronted
him were never before or since par
alleled in our history. Upon his
election in November, 1860, the
South began measures to carry into
effect it's repeated threats of dis
union. The initiative was taken by
South Carolina. On December 20
it's State Convention, called to act in
the premises, adopted a Secession
Ordinance" repeating the Ordinance
by which in 1888 the federal con-
stitution was ratified, together with
all legislation ratifying later amend
ments, and declaring the Union be-
tween South Carolina and the other
States dissolved. Georgia and the
Gulf States soon followed with SINH
lar action. On February 4, 1861,
delegates from the seven seeding
States met at Montgomery, Alabama,
and within a month organized a new
confederacy, to which they gave the
name of THE Confederate States of
America" with a constitution and
administrative departments of gov
ernment similar, in the main, to
those of the United States; and
elected Jefferson Davis, of Mississip-
pi, President, and Alexander H. Ste
phens, of Georgia, e-President.
Meantime, from a well founded
apprehension that Lincoln would
be assassinated in Baltimore, his
friends insisted that he should pass
through that city with secrecy. Ac-
cordingly, on the evening of Feb.
90, with the knowledge only of Gov.
Curtin and few others, he left Har-
risburg, and at six o'clock the next
morning reached Washington in
safety
Thus, when the new President
took the oath of office he was face to
face with an armed and organized
opposition to the national govern
ment which already involved seven
States and a few months later was
strengthened by the addition of Vir-
ginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and
Arkansas. At the same time, the
secessonists made the most vigor-
Gus efforts to accomplish the seces-
During the four years of war that
followed, both these States were
represented in the Confederate Con-
gress, and contributed largely to
both the Union and the Confederate
armies.
The Cause of Secession.
The war arose from controversies
in relation to the extension of slav-
;,,fN
prehension of the South-either real
or affected-that the existence OF
slavery was threatened by the elec-
ton of Lincoln, and that this "pecu-
liar institution" would no longer be
safe within the Union. Alexander
H. Stephens, Vice-President of the
Southern Confederacy, in a speech
at Savannah, Ga, March 22, 1861,
thus stated the position of the South
in the premises:
I'VE are passing through one OF
the greatest revolutions in the an
nails of the world. Seven States
have, within the past three months
thrown off an old government and
formed a new one. The new consti-
tuition has put at rest, forever all
agitating questions relating to our
peculiar institution-African slavery
as it exists among us-the proper
status of the negro in our form OF
civilization. This was the immediate
cause of the late rupture and pres
ent revolution. Jefferson, in his fore
cast, had anticipated this, as the
rock upon which the old Union
would split. The prevailing ideas
entertained by him, and most of the
leading statesmen, at the time of the
q ~ hn n1
were that the enslavement of the
African was in violation of the laws
of nature; that it was wrong in prin-
ciple, socially, morally, and politi-
cally. 1t was an evil they knew not
well how to deal with; but the gen.
eral opinion. of the men of that day
was that somehow or other, in the
order of Providence, the institution
would be eVanescent and pass away
"These ideas, however, were fun
damentally wrong. They rested on
the assumption of the equality OF
races. This was an error. 1t was a
sandy foundation for the idea of a
government built upon it; when the
storm came and the winds blew, il
fell
"Our new government is founded
upon exactly the opposite idea; its
foundations are laid, It's cornerstone
rests, upon the great truth that the
negro is not equal to the white man
that slavery-subordina to the
superior race-is his natural and
normal condition.
This, our new government, is the
first in the history of the world bas,
ed upon this great physical, philoso.
phical and moral truth 1t is the
first government ever instituted up
on principles in strict conformity tC
nature, and the ordination of Provi.
dence, in furnishing the materials oi
human society. Many governments
have been founded upon the princi.
pie of the enslavement of certain
classes; but the classes thus enslav.
ed were of the same race, and it was
in violation of the laws of nature
Our system commits no such viola