Page:Disunion and restoration in Tennessee (IA disunionrestorat00neal).pdf/23

 Tennessee should have been taken out of the Union, while Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were prevented from going, no man is wise enough to say. At least, none but general reasons can be given. Exactly why the conspirators were foiled in one case and not in the other, exactly by whom the current of treason was checked and turned in the one and not in the other, the wisest can only conjecture."

The answer to the problem which Mr. Wilson found so difficult to solve lies in the fact that conditions in Tennessee were in no wise similar to those in Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. These border States were not distinctly slave States. In all of them the institution of slavery existed, but their industrial system was not based upon it. This arose largely from the fact that cotton was not their chief staple. Tennessee, on the other hand, was a great cotton-producing State. According to the census of 1860, her annual product was 296,465 bales of 400 lbs. each. Her interest was therefore identical with the extreme Southern States. If there were to be two republics side by side, one free and the other slave, both sentiment and interest apparently demanded that Tennessee should cast her lot with the latter.

When the vote of February was taken she was confronted by no such dilemma. At that time, the Confederacy had not yet been organized, and it was by no means clear that war would occur. In June, conditions had entirely changed. The Confederacy was an established fact, and actual hostilities had commenced. Neither side would permit Tennessee to occupy a neutral position. She must fight either for or against the South.

This change in the issues is clearly shown in the two messages of Governor Harris. In his message of January 7th, he had sought to establish the right of secession, and justify its present or immediate assertion. But these principles had found no support in the Whig party. Their opposition defeated the proposal for a convention. The