17. Secession Autumn
“Congress adjourned at the beginning of August with tempers flaring, nerves shot, and patience frayed. Despite nearly the entire south voting as a bloc in opposition, Kansas had been admitted as a free state. The outrage in the south was so intense that, for the first time, there were serious calls for statewide conventions to discuss secession.
On August 19th, South Carolina was the first state to authorize a convention on secession. The rest of the deep south followed suit in the following days. A sense of shock gripped the north as the perpetuity of the perpetual union was called into doubt. President Seward sent letters to prominent southern politicians, urging them to carefully consider the wisdom of secession. Of the few who bothered to respond, even fewer showed any sign of considering Seward’s counsel.
Elections to the secession conventions were held throughout the last week of August. “A frenzy has gripped the south,” declared the secessionist Charleston Mercury. “A frenzy that will lead to the fair south forging her own destiny, separate from the Yankee tyrants.” Preston Brooks and William Yancey campaigned for secessionist convention delegates across the south, drawing crowds wherever they went. Brooks warned that, should the south remain in the Union, “we will be crushed under the domination of this infamous, low, vulgar Black Whiggism.”
…The concept of a southern identity had developed throughout the 1850s, primarily in the deep south. Growing resentment towards the north and abolitionists fueled the spread in southernism’s popularity, and the free-soil pivot of the Whigs lent the ideology further momentum. Even self-professed moderates like John C. Breckinridge and Jefferson Davis spoke of an overarching southern identity that united the southern states in common cause.
The key things that united the south and drove southernism were a shared economic system and a shared culture. Much of the south was dominated by an aristocratic planter class, and the economy depended on cash crops like cotton, cultivated by slaves. Indeed, the practice of slavery served to unite the south against the free-soil north, though proponents of southernism shrouded this in terms of ‘agrarianism’ vs. ‘industrialism.’ Overwhelmingly, though, the proponents of secession believed that it was the only way to preserve slavery, the south’s ‘peculiar institution.’
…President Seward made several appeals for unity during the elections to the conventions. “I do not have the ability under the constitution to abolish slavery, even if I had the desire to,” he declared during a visit to Richmond. That visit had to be cut short, however, as a plot to assassinate the President was uncovered and he was rushed back to the White House [1]. His entreaties were either mocked or ignored by southerners. The conventions were slated to open during the second week of September, and the fate of the Union hung in the balance.”
-UNEASY SILENCE: AMERICA IN THE ANTEBELLUM by John Erwin, published 2021
“Even the lower south was divided on secession. Some doubted whether the proposed southern confederacy could defend itself against the north, and others questioned whether secession should wait until more popular support had been built up. And throughout the south, delegates looked to South Carolina as a guide. The month of September saw a slew of resignations as secessionist Senators and Congressmen left their seats in Washington to aid in the push for secession.
South Carolina was a hotbed of southern sectionalism. Its nullification of Jackson’s Tariff in the 1830s nearly caused a small civil war, and it was home to some of the loudest advocates of southern sectional interests. Yet the state’s political class was not monolithically behind secession. Congressman James L. Orr led the ‘National Democrats,’ who urged moderation. However, the 1858 elections had seen many ‘Fire-Eaters’ elected to office in South Carolina, weakening Orr’s faction. The secession convention would be the ultimate test of which faction was the strongest.
Outside of the convention hall, secessionists held a large rally. Inside, it became apparent that a majority of the delegates sympathized with the crowds outside. Preston Brooks quickly monopolized the debate and made vicious attacks on Orr and his allies. “The iron of discontent is hot,” he declared to the convention. “We cannot wait, we must act now or the whole of the south will suffer under the Yankee bootheel.” The Fire-Eaters swayed the delegates, and the convention voted overwhelmingly to secede on September 19th, which is still celebrated across parts of the south as ‘Ordinance Day [2].’ Brooks gambled that goading South Carolina into unilateral secession would spur the rest of the south to follow suit, and he was about to find out whether it had paid off…
…The next state to secede was Mississippi, on October 11th. Inspired by South Carolina’s example, two thirds of the convention delegates voted in favor. Four days later, Georgia narrowly adopted an ordinance of secession. In both states, pro-secession Governors rushed the formation of the conventions to prevent organized unionist movements [3] from halting the sprint towards secession. Alabama followed suit on October 15th, the apocalyptic speeches of William Yancey undoubtedly pushing delegates towards secession. Florida’s Governor had promised Brooks and the secessionists that he would urge his state’s convention to secede should South Carolina go first. With four states out of the union, he made good on his promise when, on October 18th, Florida seceded from the Union. The tide of secession next swept up Louisiana, which voted very narrowly and after weeks of debate to join South Carolina in leaving the Union. Texas took the longest to approve secession, as Senator Sam Houston made an impassioned argument for loyalty to the Union. Despite his protests, on October 25th, the convention voted to secede as well.
Conventions were also held in the rest of the south. Delaware immediately and emphatically rejected secession. Missouri and Kentucky also voted down ordinances of secession by wide margins, though not after lengthy debates. The Virginia secession convention debated throughout October. As the largest southern state, and one of the most developed, Virginia was courted extensively by secessionists. However, it had been carried by the National Unionists in the 1860 election. At the convention, unionists Waitman Willey and John Carlile sparred with secessionists Henry Wise and Jeremiah Morton. John Barbour [4] made the case for loyalty on the grounds that remaining in the Union would be better for Virginia’s economy than secession. On November 4th, Virginia rejected secession by a vote of 92-53, with the mountainous western part of the state providing the bulk of the votes against. The convention then adjourned [5].
Following Virginia’s decision to remain loyal, Maryland’s Governor denounced secession and refused to hold a convention. Tennessee’s convention [6] was nearly three-quarters Unionist, but news that Virginia had rejected secession swayed a number of secessionist delegates, and the Tennessee convention voted almost unanimously against secession (just three delegates voted in favor). Senator Andrew Johnson led the unionist faction, denouncing in harsh terms the secessionists as traitors and pledged to support the “indissoluble Union” against threats to it. North Carolina had feared being encircled if Virginia and Tennessee both voted to secede, and so news of the two states’ loyalty to the Union was received by unionists with relief. North Carolina had a large population of white yeoman farmers who were generally opposed to secession. Without the threat of encirclement to goad fence-sitters into supporting secession, the eastern planters were outvoted by the rest of the state – North Carolina would remain in the Union.
Only Arkansas remained on the fence…”
-From THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES by Elissa Marconi, published 1998
“The seven seceded states each sent delegates to Montgomery, Alabama. Their purpose was to unite the southern states into a single Confederacy. Despite the failure of the secessionists to drag the upper south into their rebellion, they remained committed to establishing their new Confederacy.
The Confederate States of America would be the name of the rebellious alliance of states, and it was designed to protect slavery and the plantation system, both from the Union and from progress. Though inspired by the United States constitution, the Confederate constitution was overt in its support for slavery and the increasingly obsolete plantation economy. The Confederate Congress was constitutionally barred from levying tariffs or funding internal improvements. While the United States constitution made no mention of race or slavery specifically, the Confederate constitution declared: “the importation of Negroes of the African race…”and “no bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed [7].” Slavery was also legally protected in any Confederate state or territory. Confederate states were given broad autonomy, including the right to print bills of credit, negotiate use of waterways with each other, and tax ships registered in other states.
The convention also selected the provisional President of the Confederacy. There were two main camps: the Doves and the Nationalists. The Doves sought to negotiate a settlement with the Union – permanent independence was just one of several outcomes acceptable to them. The Nationalists, on the other hand, wanted full and permanent independence for the Confederacy. Even among secessionists, many held out hope that a compromise could be reached, and the Union reunited peacefully. This sentiment was dominant during the provisional Congress, and the leader of the Doves, Alexander Stephens, was elected as the first President of the Confederate States of America. In his inaugural address, Stephens declared that the “cornerstone of this Confederacy rests, our foundation lies, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.” This is categorical proof that the Confederacy was founded to preserve the cruel practice of slavery.”
-From THE REAL HISTORY OF AMERICA by Thaddeus Flagg, published 2020
“Shortly after South Carolina’s secession, Robert Anderson, the commander of Charleston’s harbor fortifications, evacuated to the offshore and better-defensible Fort Sumter. Possession of Fort Sumter determined control of Charleston harbor and was one of the strongest fortresses in the world. South Carolina’s government objected to the relocation of the US command to Sumter, and in retaliation attacked Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney, bloodlessly seizing the two fortifications.
In the meantime, the Confederate government dispatched a delegation to Washington, where they offered to purchase Sumter and the other Union-held fortifications within Charleston harbor, as well as negotiate a peace treaty between the Confederacy and the Union. Members of Seward’s cabinet urged Seward to refuse the demands, but the President had a different plan. In a move characteristic of his leadership style, he bypassed his cabinet entirely and negotiated directly with the Confederate emissaries. Seward refused to negotiate a peace treaty, telling the Confederates that no support for such an agreement existed in the Senate. He did, however, promise to evacuate Sumter and leave it to the South Carolina state militia.
Anderson reluctantly withdrew with his garrison from the fort, while Seward was faced with a hailstorm of criticism. Charles Sumner insinuated he was a coward, while Henry Winter Davis of Maryland accused him of conspiring with the south to destroy the Union. It soon became apparent, however, that Seward had a more cunning plan than simply reinforcing Fort Sumter.
The USS Merrimack was a brand-new steam frigate, commissioned just five years prior in 1856. President Seward dispatched the Merrimack, along with the sail frigates Congress and Cumberland and five smaller gunboats, to patrol outside Charleston harbor and collect “all import excises, duties, and tariffs owed to the Federal government.” Seward explained that, because “certain rebel groups have rendered the landed Customs House in Charleston inoperable at present, import duties must be collected at the harbor’s entrance.”
The eight ships arrived off Charleston harbor on December 2nd, 1861, arranged so as to control all shipping routes into the harbor. The fleet immediately began halting merchant vessels to collect tariffs. The civilian captains were told that a domestic disturbance on shore mandated the collection of tariffs offshore. Within two days of the navy’s arrival, the Confederate government protested to Seward. The Confederacy was an independent nation, Alexander Stephens declared in his missive. The Union had “no right or justification” to stop and tax merchant ships destined for Confederate harbors. President Seward refused to recall the fleet, writing “the Federal government has the sole authority to levy and collect tariffs and duties on foreign imports at any harbor within the inviolable Union.” In effect, Seward did not recognize the Confederacy, and would act as if it didn’t exist.
This was unacceptable to Stephens, and he loudly decried it as Yankee tyranny “of the highest order.” After the Union withdrawal from the Charleston fortifications, the cannon of Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckney were manned by Confederate soldiers under the command of Stephen D. Lee. President Stephens authorized Lt. General Lee to fire on the Union ships. On December 7th, at 4:30am, a warning shot was fired from Fort Sumter at the Merrimack. John Marston, the Union commander, refused a Confederate demand to withdraw and an hour later, Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckney began full-scale bombardments of the Merrimack and her escorts. The aft mast of the Cumberland was felled by a well-placed shot, and 27 men aboard the Merrimack were killed during the barrage. Rather than risk his ships and men, Commodore Marston gave the order to withdraw and return to the Norfolk navy yard.
The Confederate bombardment of the Union fleet enraged the north. 49 men were killed in total, marking the first time that blood was shed during the Civil War. The upper south, which Stephens had hoped to coax into secession, where shocked at the aggressiveness displayed by the Confederacy and refused to reconsider their loyalty to the Union. Of course, that did not mean that Confederate sympathizers in the upper south wouldn’t join the Confederacy. The Confederate attack served to drive the upper south further into the arms of the Union, with Arkansas once again being the sole neutral state, its convention still deliberating.
In response to the Battle of Charleston Harbor, President Seward issued a proclamation calling for 60,000 volunteers to join the army and assert Federal authority over the rebellious south. He appealed to “all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union.” Having seen the Confederacy open fire on Union vessels, even the southern Governors agreed to furnish troops for Seward’s volunteer army. “The people of this Commonwealth cannot in good conscience give aid nor comfort to forces who would fire upon their fellow-countrymen,” wrote Governor John Letcher of Virginia. The Governors of Tennessee, North Carolina, Missouri, and Kentucky echoed similar sentiments [8]. Arkansas, on the other hand, finally decided on which side to take, and formally seceded on December 24th to join the Confederacy.
The tension had boiled over, the first shots had been fired. The American Civil War had begun.”
-From BROTHER KILLING BROTHER: THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR by Michael Yates, published 2019
[1] There haven’t been as many plots to assassinate Seward as there were for Lincoln, though that’s a high bar.
[2] Basically Robert E. Lee Day.
[3] Similar to OTL, where secessionists hurried the process along.
[4] OTL, Barbour made a similar argument in favor of secession. Initially, though, he was a Unionist. TTL, he stays one.
[5] OTL, the convention remained in session and seceded after Fort Sumter.
[6] OTL, Tennessee voters rejected a convention in a referendum. This convention would have been significantly more unionist than the one that convened after Fort Sumter.
[7] From the OTL Confederate constitution.
[8] OTL, many southern governors refused to send troops to Lincoln after Fort Sumter. TTL, with lessened sectional tensions in the upper south and a more aggressive Confederate response after Seward’s conciliatory cession of Fort Sumter, the upper south is more inclined to support the Union war effort.
