The Parallel Lives

Black History Month began Sunday, February 1, and will end Sunday, March 1. At least three events occurred on February 11, 1861, that deserve our attention during Black History Month.

     On that day, the U.S. House of Representatives received a formal written notification from South Carolina’s four Representatives, that informed House members that on December 20, 1860, officials in South Carolina had voted to secede from the United States of America.

     On that same day, the House’s members passed a resolution that read, “That neither Congress, the People, nor the Governments of the Non-slaveholding States have the constitutional right to legislate upon or interfere with slavery in any of the Slaveholding States of the Union.” 

     The resolution passed 161 yea’s, and no nay’s.

     On that same day, in Illinois, President-elect Abraham Lincoln departed from Springfield, on a journey by train to Washington D.C., and to the White House.

     The three events inter-connect. South Carolina chose to secede from the Union because Lincoln, a Republican—one who stood firm against the expansion of slavery into the western territories—had won the Presidential election held on November 6, 1860.

     Members of the House passed its resolution in a frantic attempt to appease southern states, who feared Lincoln and the future of slavery under a Republican administration.

     Southerners understood that the vast amount of each of their states’ wealth originated from slave labor. They could not imagine a future without slavery.

     That House Resolution was already too late. By February 11, seven states had seceded from the Union: South Carolina, in December 1860; Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana, in January 1861; and Texas, on February 1, 1861.

     There were an additional eight slave-holding states, and the fear throughout Washington D. C. was that all eight too would secede. 

     Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington D.C. on the morning of February 23. Days later, on March 4, 1861, Lincoln took the oath of office. In his Inaugural Address, Lincoln tried to soothe the southern states. He said,

     “Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration, their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension.

     “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.         

     “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.”

     Despite Lincoln’s calming words, four more southern states seceded from the Union: Virginia, in April; Arkansas and North Carolina, in May; and Tennessee, in June, a total of eleven states.

     The United States had split into two countries, two governments, two presidents.

     One glimmer of hope: four slave-holding states, those just south of the Mason-Dixon line, remained in the Union: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.

     Historians now consider the southern states’ secession a colossal mistake. Around 300,000 Southern white men were killed during the Civil War, a war that crushed the South’s economy and abolished slavery. Plus, the Southern states lost their votes in Congress, and it was treason.  

     The war commenced April 12, 1861, when Southern troops fired on Fort Sumter, in Charleston’s harbor. February 11, 1861, a day of missed opportunity to defer a Civil War.