Confederate Union

by Alan Sewell

  “Some of your old Kansas hands should be about ready for another adventure,” agreed Yancey. “You won’t need more than a couple dozen. Here’s a list of the runaway Niggers up there that I purchased titles for:”

  Yancey handed Buford copies of titles to the Negroes. Buford read the list. “Let’s see, now, there’s an Eddie Bates on Section 11 of Calvin Township just outside Cassopolis. He lives with a woman named Emma Brown. Both runaways --- Emma from 1850 and Eddie from 1833. How did you ever come up with the titles on those two?”

  Yancey laughed. “I hired clerks to search the court records of runaways in Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. Bought the title to Eddie Bates from his master’s family in Maryland. Located the title to Emma Brown from the Delaware probate court and purchased it from the heirs of her deceased owner’s estate.”

  “Well, you are nothing if not thorough, Bill. What else we got here…says there’s a ‘Shad Lee,’ a ‘Lucy Lee,’ and two pickaninnies on Section 29 of Calvin Township.”

  “They’re a family of runaways from Kentucky. Ran off from Shelby County, just last year.”

  Buford went on, “Looks like we got a couple other buck Niggers on the loose up there. They’re on section 29 too. They look to be a little long in the tooth. Adam Jones, born in 1811 and Zed Jones born in 1807. Are you sure you want those old Darkies? I’d think they’d be more trouble to you than they’re worth, for all the work you’ll be able to get out of them.”

  “I especially want those,” Yancey answered with a grin. “I want ever Nigger on the lam up there to know that they’ll never rest. I want ‘em to know that they’ll be hunted until the day they die. And I want ‘em to know that all that Abolitionist fire-and-brimstone coming out of Cleveland and Boston can’t help them. Once a Nigger’s born into slavery he’s got to know there’s no escaping it. The Abolitionists who want to steal our Niggers need to know it too.”

  Something troubled Buford. He couldn’t quite put it into words, but it didn’t feel right. He clasped his hands together, elbows on the table.

  “It wouldn’t be an easy operation, Bill, even with Lucas up there to lead us straight to ‘em. Those Niggers are going to squeal like pigs at a slaughterhouse when they find out we’re taking ‘em back into slavery. We’ll have to catch ‘em, bind ‘em and gag ‘em, and then get ‘em back across the Ohio before the Abolitionists know they’re gone. It’s about three hundred miles from the Michigan state line to the Ohio, isn’t it? A lot of the way is backwoods, but we’d still have to pass through towns full of Abolitionists. Some of them are right on the Ohio River. I don’t know if it’s even possible to get past them.”

  “It’s your show, Jeff. Do it any way you think best. But here’s the way Lucas recommends going about it.” Yancey brought over his County, Township, and Rail Road Map of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan and spread it out on the table.

  “Niggertown’s here,” Yancey said, pointing to Calvin Township southeast of Cassopolis. “It’s a Nigger settlement called ‘Ramptown.’ These eight Niggers I want live a little bit out in the country around there, so you can take ‘em without riling up their Quaker neighbors. They live in three shacks less’n a mile apart. Lucas says best thing to do is take ‘em at sunrise. Chain ‘em and gag ‘em and throw ‘em in the back of a covered wagon. Might want to confine ‘em in coffins to keep ‘em still.”

  Buford laughed. “Putting ‘em in coffins would be one way to keep ‘em quiet.”

  Yancey smiled and gestured, as if letting Buford in on cherished secret. “Now comes the good part. Soon as the Niggers are discovered missing, the Abolitionists will barricade the roads. They’ll be thinking you’re going to try slipping around to the east of South Bend and Fort Wayne and then go down the Indiana/Ohio line, like those old Kentucky slave catchers used to do in the ‘40s. Instead of doing that, Lucas says the best thing is to take the Niggers twelve miles due west to the vicinity of Niles.” Yancey traced the route on the map with his finger.

  “Niles is the head of navigation on the St. Joseph River. Hire a steamer and have it waiting there. Of course you’ll want to make sure the captain isn’t too curious about the cargo he’ll be carrying. Spend what you have to to hire one who’ll keep his mouth shut.”

  Buford nodded.

  “Run the wagons on to the boat and take ‘em down the river and across Lake Michigan to Michigan City, Indiana,” Yancey explained. He pointed again at the map. “After you unload at Michigan City, Lucas will stay on the boat and see to it that the captain takes it to Milwaukee. Keeping the captain and the crew on the water will make sure they don’t talk to anybody until your men and the Niggers are across the Ohio.

  “From Michigan City drive the wagons down the road to Winamac. That’s the Pulaski County Seat on the Tippecanoe River. It’s about fifty miles. The Tippecanoe’s not navigable for steamboats, but you can buy a flatboat and ride it to the Wabash and Ohio. Break down your wagons and stow ‘em on board. When you get across the Ohio and back to Kentucky try to keep the Niggers under wraps as long as you can.”

  Yancey waved his arms expansively. “We want an air of mystery to surround this operation. The Niggers disappear out of Michigan. Nobody sees who took ‘em. They show up here. Nobody knows how they got here. That’ll make the runaway Niggers and their Abolitionist friends nervous as cats on a porch full of rockers.”

  “It looks like you’ve got this thing all figured out to a tee,” Buford acknowledged. “If I agree to lead the operation it’ll be best to wait for the weather to clear up in spring. I’ll go up in March and talk to Lucas. If it looks like we can take the Niggers, I’ll come back down and see who I can round up to go back with me in May.”

  “That’s what I had in mind,” said Yancey, raising his glass as if making a toast. “You see, great minds do think alike.”

  Something still bothered Buford. “I’ve got to be honest with you. I don’t especially like the idea of catching Niggers that have been running free all these years. You know what happens with Niggers that have been free for a while. When they’re brought back to the plantation they’re so insolent you have to beat the work out of them. It’s not worth it, and it sets a bad example for the other Niggers. I understand you want to recapture those Niggers to prove your point about Yankees having to obey the Fugitive Slave Law, but I don’t know if that’s the right way to go about it.”

  Yancey smiled. “I am trying to prove a point, exactly as you say. I don’t care a whit about keeping those goldbricking Niggers as slaves. The Yankee Abolitionists can buy them back from me if they want to and then set them free legally. That’s all I’m asking. If the Yankees want these Negroes free, buy them and emancipate them legally. If the Yankees won’t put up any of their money, then they’ll show themselves to be the hypocritical old busybodies they are --- people who talk a good game about wanting our Niggers to be free, but who won’t spend a dime of their own money buying their freedom.”

  “I see what you’re trying to do,” said Buford. “Teach the Niggers that the Abolitionists can’t protect them. You’re not really worried so much about recovering these particular slaves as you are about teaching the rest of ‘em that it’s senseless for them to try running away.”

  “That’s exactly it!” exclaimed Yancey. “Put an end to the Abolitionists thinking that they can talk our Niggers into running away by promising to protect them.”

  “Makes perfect sense,” agreed Buford. “It might just put an end to the trouble.”

  Yancey relaxed as Buford became agreeable to the plan. “Tell you something else, Jeff. You bring these Niggers back and I’ll send you up next time to bring back old Fred Douglass. Wouldn’t he be a prize! Let’s see how much the Yankee Abolitionists will pay to get him back!”

  Buford laughed and finished his bourbon. “Wouldn’t that be something, to bring Fred Douglass down here and put him to work as a house servant? That might be the first worthwhile thing the old goat’s ever done!”

  12

/>   Washington City, March 4th, 1861

  Outgoing President James Buchanan and President-elect Stephen Arnold Douglas rode in an open carriage in the inaugural procession down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. “Old Buck” Buchanan felt the weight of the nation’s troubles lifting off his shoulders. Sectional strife during his term had often made him wonder if he would be the last President of the United States. Now Douglas was coming into the office, having outsmarted those crazy Southern Fire Eaters in Charleston. As President he could be expected to brook no defiance from the crazy Abolitionists either.

  “The nation is most fortuitous to have chosen you as President,” said Buchanan, feeling carefree for the first since becoming President. “I’ll go home in peace, knowing that the ship of state is being steered by a firm hand.”

  Douglas, who had been waving to the crowd, patted Old Buck on the shoulder. “You steered the ship safely into harbor during a heavy storm,” he said absent-mindedly. “I hope and expect that our beloved ‘Ship of state’ shall find fairer weather on our next journey.” Then he looked Old Buck in the eye and said sincerely, “Thank you, Sir, for doing all that was humanly possible in keeping our country united during a difficult time. Let me assure you most earnestly that henceforth our nation will be governed on a firm footing.”

  With that exchange Buchanan sensed that the nation’s future had shifted as if on a pivot. The nation would be placed on a firmer footing with Douglas at the helm. Buchanan sensed that the “firmer footing” involved much more than settling the controversy over slavery. In Douglas he could sense a renewal of the old familiar America he had grown up with, not so much a turning back of the clock to a simpler time, but more as a commitment to maintaining a familiar course into the future. There would be no lurching off into the newfangled and untried directions the younger and more energetic Republicans wanted to foist upon the nation.

  Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, was thinking along those very same lines as he followed behind in the newspaper owners’ carriage, busily taking notes on the proceedings. Greeley supported the Republicans, but he was moderate in his views and not especially opposed to Union-minded Democrats like Stephen Douglas and Jefferson Davis. He had taken a liking to Davis, having met him in New York during his recent speaking tour urging Northerners to have patience with the Confederate Union and to give the Douglas Administration a fair hearing.

  But Greeley was discomfited by the election of Douglas and Davis for the same reasons that Democrats like Buchanan were relieved. He fretted that the cause of Emancipation would be set back, though he had never expected it to happen in his lifetime under any administration. But there was more to it than that. He searched his mind diligently. What was the real, essential difference between the Republicans and Democrats?

  Part of it, he supposed, was the youthful energy the Republicans had campaigned with. In the North they had won the allegiance of the young, better educated, and more prosperous voters. There was a sense that they were oriented towards the future. They spoke plenty about containing slavery but many Republicans, perhaps even most of them, weren’t fanatical about it. They had a one-sentence summary of the issue: “Let slavery alone where it already is, so long as it expands no further.” They seemed to regard it as a secondary issue; block it from expanding, prevent it from dominating the nation, then move on to other issues.

  Those “other issues” had something to do with progressive social movements like granting women the right to vote and to own property in their own names. Part of it was a more open minded view of sexuality. The younger Republicans, at least the more sophisticated ones, might be caught whispering about “open marriages, free love” and other scandalous topics. They talked a lot about religion and philosophy. Some were intellectual theologians while others were militant atheists. They also liked to discuss scientific discoveries in all fields of human knowledge.

  The business-oriented among them talked about their expansive dreams of building great new commercial empires, of flooding the world with American made products so as to create prosperity at home and abroad. They had their eyes especially on the “golden lands of the East” beyond the California coastline.

  They were keen to develop new markets for American products among Asia’s uncounted millions. They were indifferent to territorial expansion, saying, “We desire no more territory from Mexico. We would rather prosper by investing our surplus capital in building its railroads and seaports.” They seemed to want the United States to become a sort of Greater British Empire, making the country powerful and prosperous through global commerce. They wanted to be accepted into the European-dominated club of Great Powers rather than to provoke European hostility.

  The Democrats, in contrast, seemed much more tradition-bound. Democrats were plain folks like farmers, mechanics, and small town merchants. Greeley didn’t think they were less intelligent than Republicans, but their horizons seemed less broad. They were traditional in their family values. They considered divorce, let alone free love, to be scandalous. They went to church, or didn’t go, without trying to intellectualize the reasons. Their concept of “creating a commercial empire” was about becoming the biggest dry goods merchant in town.

  Greeley began to understand that there was more than just a moral difference between Republicans and Democrats on the question of slavery. He perceived that Democrats endorsed slavery because it was what they were familiar with. Their fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers had owned slaves, so why shouldn’t they and their sons and grandsons? Slavery had always been part of the Southern way of life and it always would be. That was never going to change.

  Republicans knew that things would change, that they were going to change rapidly in new and unexpected directions. Greeley had heard and read Lincoln’s many speeches about industrial and engineering topics. He knew Lincoln to be an inventor who owned a patent for steamboat propulsion. He knew of Lincoln’s enthusiasm for the invention of machinery that would multiply the productivity of labor by a thousand-fold and thereby create fantastic wealth for the masses.

  Lincoln, like other Republicans, seemed to have an eye open to the future when America would become a land of great cities and industries, bound to every part of the world by commerce and by instantaneous telegraph communications. Could plantation slavery continue to exist in the mechanized world that was coming? Could millions of Negroes be held down in ignorance and poverty when the ability of Man to disseminate knowledge and wealth was accelerating? Greeley gained a sudden insight into Lincoln’s mind: that the Abolitionists didn’t have to eliminate slavery all by themselves. Progress would kill it for them, if the Republicans kept the nation true to its founding principles that all men were created equal.

  Greeley gleaned an insight into the minds of the Southern Fire Eaters as well. They saw the future too, even if less clearly than the Republicans. They understood that the increase of communications and the spreading of wealth would one day make it impossible for them to control their Negroes, unless they subverted the founding principles of the country. They must make the people believe that the country was established on the principle of racial hierarchy sanctifying the “right” of peoples of European ancestry to enslave the dark-skinned races.

  Greeley began to understand the workings of Stephen Douglas’ mind. He surmised that Douglas did not hate Negroes, or really even believe that they were inferior beings. Douglas was simply indifferent to them. He was just as indifferent to the State of Massachusetts granting full civil rights to Negroes, including their right to vote, as he was indifferent to the State of Virginia enslaving them, or of Illinois constraining their freedom with vagrancy laws. He saw nothing unusual about living in a country where the laws of some states were based on equality and the laws of others were based on slavery. Douglas didn’t care, so long as the country remained united under one flag and continued to expand.

  Douglas seemed rather like a real estate speculator bent on parceling out North America
into subdivisions of Free States and Slave States. His talk of “Confederate Union” implied a looser, but also more extended Confederation that would grow to encompass Mexico and Central America, the Canadas, and much of the Caribbean. Douglas didn’t seem to care much what went on inside all these “houses” as long as they hung the American flag from their porches.

  Douglas’ vision of this Confederate Union unsettled Greeley. He didn’t especially covet Canada with its French population and allegiance to the Queen. He thought of Mexico as an arid desert. Cuba was productive of sugar, but the United States already had sources of sugar inside its current borders. He felt that Douglas would run the risk of involving the United States in costly wars to obtain these marginal territories. Perhaps Douglas would cause the United States to antagonize the rest of the world by appearing to be an uncivilized nation bent on spreading slavery by military conquest.

  Beyond that, as a practical matter, Greeley wondered whether Douglas’ concept of national government would be adequate to administer a nation looking forward to a new century of progress. Could the United States really continue to be governed as a Confederation of Sovereign States with each state master of its own domestic laws? Could each state continue to be sovereign over the governing of interstate commerce and railroads? Greeley sensed that the national government would soon be compelled to assert its supremacy over the hodgepodge of conflicting state laws that already impeded the nation’s commerce. Douglas’ idea of a sprawling continent-wide Confederation of States, each state sovereign in citizenship and law, did not seem to be compatible with the nation’s future development.

  Greeley decided that he would try to influence Douglas rather than antagonize him with partisan complaints. He would orient his paper’s coverage of the Douglas inauguration around the theme that Douglas should be receptive to the Republican ideas on economic progress while getting on with the main business of fairly dividing the United States into Slave States and Free States.