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[Illustration: 023-The War Clouds Gather]

CHAPTER II. THE WAR CLOUDS GATHER

The storm-clouds gathered with cyclonic swiftness. South Carolina
seceded Dec. 20, 1860, and sent a Commission to Washington to negotiate
for the delivery of all the forts, arsenals, magazines, lighthouses,
and other National property within her boundaries, organizing in the
meanwhile to seize them. Her Senators and Representatives formally
withdrew from Congress; the Judges and other Federal officials solemnly
resigned their places; and Maj. Robert Anderson, recognizing the
impossibility of defending the decrepit Fort Moultrie against assault,
transferred his garrison to Fort Sumter.

President Buchanan announced the fatal doctrine that while no State had
the right to secede, the Constitution gave no power to coerce a State
which had withdrawn, or was attempting to withdraw from the Union.

Mississippi seceded Jan. 9, 1861; Florida, Jan. 10; Alabama, Jan. 11;
Georgia, Jan. 19; Louisiana, Jan. 26; and Texas, Feb. 1;--all the Cotton
States precipitately following South Carolina's example.

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Each made haste--before or after Secession--to seize all the United
States forts and property within her borders.

In the midst of this political cataclysm the Legislature of Missouri met
on the last day of 1860.

The Senate consisted of 25 Democrats, seven Unionists, and one
Republican; the House of 85 Democrats, 35 Unionists, and 12 Republicans.

The retiring Governor--Robert M. Stewart--sent in his final message
Jan. 3, and the same day his successor--Claiborne F. Jackson--was
inaugurated, and delivered his address. Gov. Stewart was a typical
Northern Democrat, born in New York, but long a resident of Missouri. He
was a strong Douglas man, and believed that the Southern people had the
Constitutional right to take their slaves into the Territories and hold
them there, and that this right ought to be assured them. He had
never pretended to be in love with Slavery, but he believed that the
Constitution and laws granted full protection to the Institution. He
denied the right of Secession, particularly as to Missouri, which had
been bought with the money of the whole country. In his final message
he did not hesitate to clearly set this forth, and to denounce South
Carolina as having acted with consummate folly. He recognized the Union
as the source of innumerable blessings, and would preserve it to the
last. He said:

As matters ar