Movements in the South looking to Secession.-South Carolina takes the Lead in the Execution of her long-cherished Scheme.-Adoption of the Ordinance of Secession by that State.-Georgia and the other Cotton States follow the Lead of South Carolina.-Commendable Ef- forts in several of the States of the North to moderate Southern Excite- ment and secure the yielding of reasonable Concessions to the slave- holding Interests of the South.-Tennessee and the Border States still remain firm.-Extraordinary Message of Mr. Buchanan to Congress in the Month of December, 1860, and its unhappy Effect upon public Sen- timent.-Furious Debate in both Houses of Congress upon the Ques- tions pending at this Crisis.-All Efforts at Compromise prove abor- tive.-Unwise and unpatriotic Conduct on the Part of Southern Sena- tors and Representatives in vacating their Seats in Congress. Page 295 Speculative Views as to the self-defensive Powers of all Governments, and of the Government of the United States in particular.-View of the Circumstances existing, so far as the State of Tennessee is con- cerned, in the Outset of the War, and Vindication of the Conduct of that State. View of the Condition of Things existing in Washington in particular, and of the non-action Policy of Mr. Buchanan.-Notice of this Gentleman's late Defense of himself.-View of Mr. Lincoln's moderate and patriotic Conduct after his Election, and Notice of Speeches made by him at Indianapolis, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia.— Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural Speech, and commendatory Remarks there- upon.-Admirably patriotic Speech of Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, demonstrating the gross Impolicy of Secession.-Some Allu- sions to the early Movements of the War, and a short Discussion of the Monroe Doctrine.-Enforcement of that Doctrine the true Means of re- Beginning of the War.-Its gross Impolicy.-Mr. Davis and his official Associates did not comprehend its true Dimensions.-Mr. Davis's sev- eral exultant Speeches after having been made President.-Striking Declaration made by the Confederate Secretary of War, Leroy Pope Walker, at Montgomery, Alabama. - Mr. Lincoln's View of the phys- ical Impracticability of Secession.-Philosophic Views of the Effects of War in general, and of Civil War in particular.—View of the existing Condition of Things as the Result of the late War.-Responsible Atti- tude of President Johnson, and Duty of all good Citizens to sustain him. Short Explanation of Author's own Attitude in the beginning of the War.-The Confederate Provisional Congress.-Its extraordi- nary Harmony and Unanimity, and the Causes thereof.-View of the permanent Confederate Congress.-Rapid Review of Mr. Davis's Con- duct as Executive Chief.-Peace Efforts in the Confederate Congress. -Their signal Failure, and the Causes thereof.-Informal Efforts of Author, in Connection with many influential Persons of the South, to make Peace in Spite of Mr. Davis, and, if need be, by a Counter-revo- lution.-Failure of those Efforts, and probable Causes therefor.-Au- thor asks Passport across the Ocean, which is granted him.—Close of SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS. CHAPTER I. Introductory Remarks.-Allusion to the "Irrepressible Conflict" Theory. -Direct Issue made therewith.-Sectionalism.-Its dangerous Tendencies.-Geographical Parties.-Washington's Warning against them. -Mr. Webster's Remarks upon Sectionalism.-Author's first Acquaintance with Mr. Webster in 1825.-Renewal of that Acquaintance twenty Years thereafter.-Allusions to Mr. Webster's Life and Character.Remarks upon his great Ability as a Statesman and Orator.-His amiable Qualities in private Life.-Mr. Webster's funeral Notice of his great Rival, Mr. Calhoun. IN no community of Christendom can the public mind be reasonably supposed, at the present moment, to be prepared to receive with a fitting respect an honest and impartial account of all the exciting and lamentable occurrences which have had their progress on this continent, and in the bosom of our own country, during the last four years. Various and conflicting interests, existing to some extent wheresoever commerce is known or free intercourse by mail has been provided for, diverse^ and repugnant statements, embodied in massy and imposing volumes, in pointed and glittering editorials, in gusty and delusive partisan harangues (the wordy wonders of an hour), in solemn, didactic discourses, in labored official documents, and in innumerable reports of sanguinary battles, of obstinate and long-continued sieges, of the fearful and heartrending devastation of large and populous districts, or brilliant and sudden assaults and captures upon land or water, and fierce marauding incursions a necessary concomitant of war, and yet how shocking and deplorable-have awakened and diffused such clashing and intensely-cherished prejudices and predilections as naught would be of power to remove, save, perchance, the toilsome diligence of such discriminating writers as some future age may supply, and the ever softening and effacing influence of Time. If this be true in regard even to distant nations, how much more forcibly must the statement just made be found applicable to the different parts of our own country, within whose territorial limits all these momentous events have been taking place, and where all the multiplied sources of error referred to have had their original location. But, even were those who are now upon the stage of action, in our own and in other lands, ever so ready to receive the truth in relation to occurrences so irritating and so recent, there would seem to be but little reason to expect that a suitable writer would be found to record, in language worthy of general credence and respect, scenes which the powers of a Livy or a Tacitus would have been scarcely able to depicture, and of a nature well calculated to discompose even the philosophic serenity of a Gibbon or a Hume. With such views as these, and with no exorbitant conception of my own ability as a writer, it will not be held surprising that I have chosen to indicate in advance, by the title which I have thought proper to prefix to this work, that I do not at all aspire to be recognized as the Historian of the most momentous conflict of arms, viewed AUTHOR NO SECTIONALIST. 15 in its various aspects and bearings, that the world has yet known. In truth, I shall aim only to present, in as simple and perspicuous language as possible, a series of remarkable occurrences, running through a period of some twenty years or more, accompanied by sober and impartial delineations of character, and personal anecdotes, more or less illustrative of public events, with some account of the rival movements of parties, and the characteristic acts and utterances of acknowledged party leaders. Having, at a period in my past life not yet remote, been thrown into contact, in the councils of the nation, with a large number of our public men of great distinction and influence, and having held relations more or less familiar with a few of the most eminent among them, I am not without a hope of being able to revive some gratifying and instructive reminiscences of illustrious personages now no longer living, as well as of others yet fortunately surviving, which will not prove altogether uninteresting to such as may glance over these pages. It having been my fortune, though born in a Southern. state, to have resided for considerable periods in both the great sections of our now reconciled country, and having contracted the most delicate and endearing ties, both social and domestic, in each of them, I dare to presume that, in the execution of the task which I have assumed, I shall be able, in a great degree, if not altogether, to avoid the exhibition of any thing like a decided local bias. I shall at once give notice that I do not by any means agree in opinion with those who assert that the gigantic military struggle from which we have but just emerged was, to any considerable extent, the result of what has been so |