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Authors: Emory M. Thomas
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William L. Barney,
The Secessionist Impulse: Alabama and Mississippi in I860
(Princeton, N.J., 1974), pp. 3–26, and
The Road to Secession: A New Perspective on the Old South
(New York, 1972), pp. 3–21.
37 For a reasoned statement on Southern “unity” see Barney,
Road to Secession,
pp. 85–102.
38 The most concise statement of the “internal” (intra-Southern) apprehensions of the secessionists is William W. Freehling, “The Editorial Revolution, Virginia, and the Coming of the Civil War: A Review Essay,”
Civil War History,
XVI (1970), 64–72. More extended analyses of the problem are Steven A. Channing,
Crisis of Fear: Secession in South
Carolina (New York, 1970), and Michael P. Johnson,
Toward a Patriarchal Republic: The Secession of Georgia
(Baton Rouge, La., 1977).
39 Taylor,
Cavalier and Yankee,
p. 24.
40 Quoted in
The American Annual Cyclopedia … 1861
(New York, 1865), p. 648.
41 Mary Boykin Chesnut,
A Diary from Dixie,
ed. by Ben Ames Williams (Boston, 1949), p. 38.
CHAPTER 5
Southern Nationality Confirmed
R OBERT Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, Virginian, went to Montgomery to take the Confederate government back with him to Virginia. And when Hunter set his mind to a thing, he usually succeeded.
During his youth Hunter’s classmates at the University of Virginia had dubbed him “Run Mad Tom,” after his initials, but since that time his name had inspired little or no frivolity. A native of the tidewater, Hunter had been congressman and senator: from Virginia, and by the time of the secession crisis, he was one of the most influential men in American politics. Hunter followed John C. Calhoun politically from Whig to Democratic Party and intellectually even after the South Carolinian’s death. In 1843, Hunter was chief among those who sought Calhoun’s election to the presidency; in 1860 Hunter himself was a candidate. Although he had no outstanding mental or physical gifts, Hunter was “sound,” and he was an expert political mechanic.
Hunter resigned his seat in the United States Senate in March of 1861 and accepted the secession convention’s appointment to represent Virginia in the Confederate Congress. From the beginning his ruling passion was moving the capital from Montgomery to Richmond. The idea was not original with him, but he was the man most likely to carry it through. 1
On May 1, in the Confederate Congress, Walter Brooks of Mississippi introduced a bill to move the capital, and a few days earlier Vice-President Stephens, in Richmond to contract an alliance with Virginia, had broached the same topic. The Virginia state secession convention had already voted to leave the Union but had made secession contingent upon voter ratification in a referendum to be held May 17. Davis had no intention of winning Virginia and then watching helplessly as Federal troops overran his prize; the Confederacy wanted Virginia before May 17. Thus Davis dispatched Stephens on April 19 and three days later sent thirteen regiments to Virginia from among those mustering in the deep South. Stephens proposed to the secession convention a “temporary military alliance” between Virginia and the Confederacy. Of course such an arrangement would make the referendum meaningless, but on this occasion Stephens was willing to rise above legalism. As he concluded his appeal to the convention for early action, the Vice-President pointed out the advantage of centralized military command at Montgomery or, he added, “it [the command] may be at Richmond. For, while I have no authority to speak on that subject, I feel at perfect liberty to say that it is quite within the range of probability that, if such an alliance is made, the seat of our government will within a few weeks, be moved to this place.” Stephens and commissioners from the Virginia convention drew up an alliance the next day, and on April 27 the convention issued a formal invitation to the Confederate government to move to Richmond. 2
On the strength
The Secessionist Impulse: Alabama and Mississippi in I860
(Princeton, N.J., 1974), pp. 3–26, and
The Road to Secession: A New Perspective on the Old South
(New York, 1972), pp. 3–21.
37 For a reasoned statement on Southern “unity” see Barney,
Road to Secession,
pp. 85–102.
38 The most concise statement of the “internal” (intra-Southern) apprehensions of the secessionists is William W. Freehling, “The Editorial Revolution, Virginia, and the Coming of the Civil War: A Review Essay,”
Civil War History,
XVI (1970), 64–72. More extended analyses of the problem are Steven A. Channing,
Crisis of Fear: Secession in South
Carolina (New York, 1970), and Michael P. Johnson,
Toward a Patriarchal Republic: The Secession of Georgia
(Baton Rouge, La., 1977).
39 Taylor,
Cavalier and Yankee,
p. 24.
40 Quoted in
The American Annual Cyclopedia … 1861
(New York, 1865), p. 648.
41 Mary Boykin Chesnut,
A Diary from Dixie,
ed. by Ben Ames Williams (Boston, 1949), p. 38.
CHAPTER 5
Southern Nationality Confirmed
R OBERT Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, Virginian, went to Montgomery to take the Confederate government back with him to Virginia. And when Hunter set his mind to a thing, he usually succeeded.
During his youth Hunter’s classmates at the University of Virginia had dubbed him “Run Mad Tom,” after his initials, but since that time his name had inspired little or no frivolity. A native of the tidewater, Hunter had been congressman and senator: from Virginia, and by the time of the secession crisis, he was one of the most influential men in American politics. Hunter followed John C. Calhoun politically from Whig to Democratic Party and intellectually even after the South Carolinian’s death. In 1843, Hunter was chief among those who sought Calhoun’s election to the presidency; in 1860 Hunter himself was a candidate. Although he had no outstanding mental or physical gifts, Hunter was “sound,” and he was an expert political mechanic.
Hunter resigned his seat in the United States Senate in March of 1861 and accepted the secession convention’s appointment to represent Virginia in the Confederate Congress. From the beginning his ruling passion was moving the capital from Montgomery to Richmond. The idea was not original with him, but he was the man most likely to carry it through. 1
On May 1, in the Confederate Congress, Walter Brooks of Mississippi introduced a bill to move the capital, and a few days earlier Vice-President Stephens, in Richmond to contract an alliance with Virginia, had broached the same topic. The Virginia state secession convention had already voted to leave the Union but had made secession contingent upon voter ratification in a referendum to be held May 17. Davis had no intention of winning Virginia and then watching helplessly as Federal troops overran his prize; the Confederacy wanted Virginia before May 17. Thus Davis dispatched Stephens on April 19 and three days later sent thirteen regiments to Virginia from among those mustering in the deep South. Stephens proposed to the secession convention a “temporary military alliance” between Virginia and the Confederacy. Of course such an arrangement would make the referendum meaningless, but on this occasion Stephens was willing to rise above legalism. As he concluded his appeal to the convention for early action, the Vice-President pointed out the advantage of centralized military command at Montgomery or, he added, “it [the command] may be at Richmond. For, while I have no authority to speak on that subject, I feel at perfect liberty to say that it is quite within the range of probability that, if such an alliance is made, the seat of our government will within a few weeks, be moved to this place.” Stephens and commissioners from the Virginia convention drew up an alliance the next day, and on April 27 the convention issued a formal invitation to the Confederate government to move to Richmond. 2
On the strength
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