Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/360

322 it would be wise to wait long enough to secure co-operation. It was also hoped that the delay of a few months would increase sympathy on behalf of the South, and the North would have time to do justice. The South was not prepared to go to war and in the opinion of many &quot;Secession meant war and war only.&quot; Some thought that sufficient efforts for reconciliation had not been made and urged the exhaustion of every remedy prior to secession. &quot;It is our duty,&quot; said these earnest men, &quot;to preserve our government for the sake of its example to all people desiring the benefit of our free institutions. Their plan was to call State conventions with the purpose of sending authorized delegates to a general convention of Southern States, which would make the Southern demand for a fraternal settlement. If such a settlement be refused then the whole South should with draw together and form a separate government.

&quot;The time has come,&quot; said these Southern Union men, &quot;for the settlement finally of sectional questions upon an enduring and unequivocal basis, and they proposed to entrust to a general conference of Southern States the duty of declaring what that basis should be. Mr. Toombs, in a letter to citizens of Virginia early in December, recommended delay of separate State secession until after the fourth of March, the day of Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration, and also that some immediate action be taken by Northern States favoring new constitutional guarantees, and other evidences of their purpose to cease sectional hostility. Within the four months yet before the inaugural, the South could be made contented to remain in the Union, even under a sectional administration, but if no such action be taken, if this test should fail to show Northern fraternal spirit, then the time for action would be brought on. Mr. Toombs also thought at that time, early in December, that this much of delay was due the hopeful men who believed redress could be obtained without disunion.