d
further, that "Other rebels of scarcely less note and notoriety than
Mr. Stephens were selected from other quarters. Professing no
repentance, glorying apparently in the crime they had committed,
avowing still, as the uncontradicted testimony of Mr. Stephens and
many others proves, an adherence to the pernicious doctrine of
secession, and declaring that they yielded only to necessity, they
insist with unanimous voice upon their rights as States, and proclaim
that they will submit to no conditions whatever as preliminary to their
resumption of power under that Constitution _which they still claim
the right to repudiate_."

Not only were the official acts of the Southern Conventions inspired
by a spirit of apparently irreconcilable hatred of the Union, but the
popular manifestations in the South were for more decided in the same
direction. A sense of official propriety, no doubt, in some degree
governed the conduct and modified the language of the members of the
conventions. It was left to the press and the stump-orators of the
South to give full expression to what they knew to be the ruling
sentiment of the people. The report of the Congressional Committee,
whose members had closely investigated all the facts, stated that
"the Southern press, with few exceptions, abounds with weekly and daily
abuse of the institutions and people of the loyal States; defends the
men who led, and the principles which incited, the Rebellion; denounces
and reviles Southern men who adhered to the Union; and strives
constantly and unscrupulously, by every means in its power, to keep
alive the fire and hate and discord between the sections; calling upon
the President to violate his oath of office, overturn the Government by
force of arms, and drive the representatives of the people from their
seats in Congress. The National banner is openly insulted and the
National airs scoffed at, not only by an ignorant populace, but at
public meetings, and once, among other notorious instances, at a dinner
given in honor of a notorious rebel, who had violated his oath and
abandoned his flag. The same individual is elected to an important
office in the leading city of his State, although an unpardoned rebel,
and so offensive that the President refused to allow him to enter upon
his official duties. In another State the leading general of the
rebel armies in openly nominated for governor by the House of
Delegates, and the nomination is hailed by the