Chapter 2: preliminary rebellious movements.
- The votes at the election, 36. -- incendiary work of politicians, 37. -- the press and the pulpit, 38. -- designs of the Oligarchy, 39. -- firing “the Southern heart” -- John C. Calhoun, 41. -- Virginia politicians, 42. -- conspirators in Buchanan's Cabinet, 43. -- rebellious movements in South Carolina, 46. -- resignation of National officers, 48. -- rejoicings in Charleston and Columbia -- excitement in Slave-labor States, 49. -- Secession in the South Carolina Legislature, 50. -- Secession movements in Georgia, 51. -- Union speech of Alexander H. Stephens, 53. -- the political advantages enjoyed by the Southern States, 57. -- proceedings of the Georgia Legislature, 58. -- Secession in Mississippi, 59. -- Secession in Alabama and Florida, 60. -- proceedings in Louisiana, 61. -- attitude of Texas and North Carolina, 62. -- disunion long contemplated, 63.
The choice of Presidential electors, by ballot, occurred on the 6th of November, 1860. They were three hundred and three in number, and, when assembled in Electoral College,1 one hundred and eighty of them voted for Mr. Lincoln, giving him fifty-seven electoral votes more than all of his opponents received.2 Of the popular votes, numbering 4,680,193, he received 1,866,452. Although he had a large majority over each candidate, he received 979,163 less than did all of his opponents.3 This fact, and the circumstance that in nine Slave-labor States there was no Republican electoral ticket, gave factitious vigor to the plausible cry, which was immediately raised by the conspirators and their friends, that the President elect would be a usurper when in office, because he had not received a majority of the aggregate vote of the people; that he would be a sectional ruler, and, of necessity, a tyrant; and that his antecedents, the principles of the Republican platform, and the fanaticism of his supporters, pledged him to wage relentless war upon the system of Slavery, and the rights of the Slave-labor States.
It was not denied that Mr. Lincoln had been elected in accordance with the letter and spirit of the National Constitution,4 and that it was the fault of the politicians in the nine States that there were no electoral tickets therein.5 Many of these politicians began at once, with intense zeal, which often amounted to ferocity, to put in motion a system of terrorism, in which the hangman's rope, the incendiary's torch, and the slave-hunter's blood-hound, formed prominent features. It was often perilous to his life and property, for a man below North Carolina and Tennessee to express a desire for Mr. Lincoln's election. The promise of a United States Senator from North Carolina (Clingman), that Union men would be hushed by “the swift attention of vigilance committees,” was speedily fulfilled.
It was not denied that the election had been fairly and legally conducted, or that the Republican platform pledged the nominee and his supporters to absolute non-interference with the rights and domestic policy of the States. That platform expressly declared, that “the maintenance, inviolate, of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control ”
