February 7, 1861 (Thursday)

An Apple of Discord:
Complaining of everything and
satisfied with nothing

(The New York Times wrote an article of a speech by Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee excoriating the South.  Here are excerpts from the article:)

In response to Louisiana:  "It was not any good will of the French, but the Untied States bought this property and sovereignty for so many million dollars...The United States bought her, paid for her sixty millions francs, and then admitted her to the Union.  Was any oppression and wrong there?  Was there any wrong, when, at the battle of New Orleans...they went to the help [of Louisiana] and saved that city from Packenham?  How much protection has she had for sugar?  Is this another wrong?  Then where are the wrongs which justify Louisiana today in leaving the Government?  Without consulting even Kentucky and Tennessee, who defended her, she has taken the forts, arsenals and mint of the United States."

In response to state coercion:    "The Senator from Virginia was forced to the conclusion, after careful thought, that secession was not a right given by the Constitution.  There is a great difference between the enforcement of the laws and what was called coercion of States...the Hartford Convention (1814) said that no State had a right to withdraw from the Union and that resistance against the law was treason.  Treason ought to be punished, North and South; and if there are traitors, they should be entitled to traitors reward! [Applause.]"

Then, in response to South Carolina:  "South Carolina early had a prejudice against a Government by the people, and that secession was no new thing in that State.  He referred to the early history of South Carolina, who proclaimed at one time that they were ready to go back under the dominion of King George.  He read an address of the people of Charleston to King George, in 1780, saying that they never intended to dissolve that union; lamenting the struggle for Independence, professing affection for the Government, the King...He then referred to the attempt to break up the Government in 1833.  When they were restrained and their pride humiliated...men now say that they have had an intention to dissolve the Union for forty years. The question now is are the other States going to allow themselves to be precipitated into ruin by South Carolina?  What does South Carolina purpose to give to Kentucky and Tennessee?  All South Carolina wants of Kentucky and Tennessee, and other States of the northern portion of the South, is to furnish men and money.  What protection can South Carolina give Tennessee and Kentucky, if her negro property needs protection?  We have got the men, and we will have to pay for it, and not South Carolina, which has been an apple of discord in this Confederacy from my earliest recollection to this time, complaining of everything and satisfied with nothing.  I think sometimes it would almost be a godsend if Massachusetts and South Carolina could be joined together, like the Siamese twins, and separated from the Government, and taken off into some remote part of the ocean and fastened there, to be washed by the waves, and cooled by the winds, and after they had been there a sufficient length of time, the remainder of the people of the United States might entertain a proposition for taking them back. [Laughter.]"

Finally, in response to Alabama:  "An act to enable the people of Alabama to form a Constitution and a State Government, and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, was approved on March 2, 1816.  It stated, 'the ordinance is hereby declared unrevocable without the consent of the United States.'  There is the compact.  Yet it is claimed that Alabama has a right to go out of her own will, because she cannot get her equal rights. "