DOUGLAS THE PULTENEY OF AMERICA. 291

tain and preserve the Union, and reform and purify the government. Democrats, convinced that reformation is imperiously necessary even to the continued existence of our present form of government, are anxious that the spirit of redemption should spring up in the bosom of their own loved and honored party; that whatever of reformation shall take place shall be carried forward and regulated by Democratic principles. They recognize Mr. Douglas as the Pulteney of America; and what the great British statesman just mentioned achieved for England a little more than a century ago, when, without abandoning his party, or calling in question its time-honored principles, he attacked the corrupt leader of that very party, even while holding the reins of executive power and ostentatiously asserting that every man in England had his price, drove him from the post of prime minister in disgrace, vindicated effectually the principles which he had so vilely abased, restored the ancient dignity of the Whig cause in England, and paved the way for the introduction of those grand measures of national policy which afterward encircled the names of Chatham, and Burke, and Fox, and Erskine with a halo of imperishable glory."

Before closing this chapter, I shall avail myself of the opportunity of doing justice to an eminent individual, now, alas! in the tomb, who is alluded to in the above extracts in language of most harsh and criminating reprehension. With the views which I entertained of William L. Yancey, his political schemes and movements in 1860 (which I now continue to entertain in 1865 in relation to those schemes and movements), I could not have done otherwise, as one anxious to preserve the Federal

Union, than exert myself to the utmost of my limited intellectual powers, and still more limited influence, in warding off the perils which I conscientiously thought he and others in alliance with him were bringing upon the country. I feel bound in frankness to declare, though, that I do not at all doubt that his conduct, however grossly erroneous and pregnant with great and lasting mischief, as I certainly deem it to have been, was in all respects regulated by a high but perverted sense of duty to that section of the Union where he chanced to be born and reared, and with the safety and permanent prosperity of which his feelings were intensely affiliated. I was a close observer of his conduct while a member of the Confederate Congress, and I take pleasure in bearing testimony to the fact that his course, while laboring to provide for the exigencies of a civil war, in the bringing on of which he had so prominently participated, was, with very slight exceptions scarcely worthy of mention, in happy unison with his antecedent professions of devotion to state-rights and popular freedom. He resisted with manly and persistent firmness the insidious and untiring efforts of others to concentrate in the hands of Mr. Davis powers, the possession of which even for a year or two would infallibly have resulted in the establishment of a most appalling despotism; and just at the moment of Mr. Yancey's lamented decease, he was preparing, at the next ensuing session of the Confederate Congress, to institute grave and searching investigations, which would have enforced a terrible responsibility in the high places of governmental rule, and have caused thousands of petty of fenders all over the land to shudder with affright at the

WM. L. YANCEY-HIS OPPOSITION TO DAVIS. 293

prospect of being at last held to something like a just of ficial responsibility. He had long since ceased to entertain respect for Mr. Davis's abilities, either as the manager of difficult civic concerns, or as the chief controller and director of military movements; and he began, with a multitude of others, to fear that, if even the Southern. struggle for independence should be eventually successful, a second, and perchance a far bloodier struggle would become necessary, in order to drag from the hands of Mr. Davis and those associated with him the injudiciously vested powers which they were every day so shamefully and so unpardonably abusing. It is with a melancholy gratification that I now call to mind the last interview I had with Mr. Yancey. It was in the hall of the Confederate House of Representatives, a month or two before his demise. He had come in for the purpose of witnessing the last successful struggle made in that body to defeat the re-enactment of the law for the universal suspension of the great writ of Liberty, the habeas corpus. The contest had just terminated, and the champions of despotic power had been prostrated on the field of controversy. Mr. Yancey approached me with extended hand, congratulated me cordially upon the triumph just achieved, and said, “Mr. Davis has at last cuffed the two houses of Congress into independence;" and intimated that he should hereafter have more hope for the Confederate cause than he had entertained for some months previous.

William L. Yancey was undoubtedly no ordinary man. He possessed an intellect of great native activity and vigand he had cultivated his rare natural gifts both with assiduity and success. He had but little of imagination,

or,

.

and still less of humor; but he was clear, methodical, and cogent in argument; always expressed himself in chaste and polished language; his readiness and dexterity in controversy were astonishing, and his powers of sarcasm such as few men besides have possessed. He lacked nothing save a happier equipoise of his faculties, a little more quietude and sobriety of temper, a little less of tenacity in his own opinions, and a little more of deference for the views of others, to have become one of the most ef fective and useful public men that the republic has at any time produced.

Requiescat in pace!

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 Efforts in several of the States of the North to moderate Southern Excitement and secure the yielding of reasonable Concessions to the slaveholding 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 Sentiment.-Furious Debate in both Houses of Congress upon the Questions pending at this Crisis.-All Efforts at Compromise prove abortive.-Unwise and unpatriotic Conduct on the Part of Southern Senators and Representatives in vacating their Seats in Congress.

THE long-hoped-for opportunity of trying the experiment of secession was now at last presented. Abraham Lincoln had been elevated to the presidency by a strictly sectional vote; and though the fact could not be denied that he had been elected in a perfectly constitutional manner, though he had not received any thing like a majority of the whole popular vote, and though he was admitted on all hands to be a man of excellent practical intellect, of many amiable qualities in domestic and social life, who had never manifested the smallest portion of that rancorous sectional malignity which so many were now displaying so deplorably on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line, yet, no sooner was it ascertained that it was almost certain that he would receive a majority of the