uri Compromise (p. 222);(2) to provide that states should be
free or slave as their people should determine; and (3) to pay the slave
owners the value of runaway slaves. This plan was carefully considered
by Congress, and was finally rejected only two days before Lincoln's
inauguration.

[Sidenote: South Carolina secedes, 1860. _Eggleston_, 304-305.]

[Sidenote: Six other states secede.]

376. Secession of Seven States, 1860-61.--The South Carolina
convention met in Secession Hall, Charleston, on December 17, 1860.
Three days later it adopted a declaration "that the union now subsisting
between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United
States of America, is hereby dissolved." Six other states soon joined
South Carolina. These were Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Texas.

[Sidenote: Confederate states constitution]

[Sidenote: Views of Jefferson Davis.]

377. The "Confederate States of America."--The next step was for
these states to join together to form a confederation. This work was
done by a convention of delegates chosen by the conventions of the seven
seceding states. These delegates met at Montgomery, Alabama. Their new
constitution closely resembled the Constitution of the United States.
But great care was taken to make it perfectly clear that each member of
the Confederacy was a sovereign state. Exceeding care was also taken
that slavery should be protected in every way. Jefferson Davis of
Mississippi was chosen provisional president, and Alexander H. Stephens
provisional vice-president.

[Illustration: CHARLESTON MERCURY EXTRA: The UNION is DISSOLVED!]

[Sidenote: Views of Jefferson Davis.]

[Sidenote: Views of Alexander H. Stephens. _Source-Book_, 296-299.]

378. Views of Davis and Stephens.--Davis declared that Lincoln had
"made a distinct declaration of war upon our (Southern) institutions."
His election was "upon the basis of sectional hostility." If "war must
come, it must be on Northern and not on Southern soil.... We will carry
war ... where food for the sword and torch awaits our armies in the
densely populated cities" of the North. For his part, Stephens said the
new government's "foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the
great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man."

[Sidenote: "Let the erring sisters" go in peace.]

[Sidenote: Greeley's opinions.]

[Sidenote: Buchanan's opinions.]

379. Hesitation in the North.--At fi