Okay,

From my favorite eye-witnessed report on the war and all that "Life In the Confederate Army...by William Watson"

Observations from Louisiana.

A conspiracy...

The answer would have to be it did exist and was led by 'some' high ranking Democrats and newspapers but with a deep following in the lower levels of democratic office holders in almost every state. Extremist, radicals to the max these were, and given support (money, always necessary) from indebted merchants and plantation owners. These men were a minority but could always be seen wearing their tricolor rosettes in their hats, right after South Carolina seceded.

"When the secession of South Carolina became a certainty, some of the politicians began to appear about the cafes with tricolor rosettes in their hats. This was at first pretended to be a kind of frolic, but a day had now been fixed for taking the vote of the State on the question, and parties for or against secession had now taken the field, the political party going for secession, but the greater part of the people holding aloof.

Meetings were now held with audiences drummed up from every available source. Irish labourers, proud of their citizenship, fond of politics, easily led, and always ready to take part in any political agitation, were now in great demand, and were flattered, coaxed, and prevailed upon to attend the meetings and give their decision on the great question of the day.

The regular political gang, with tricolors in their hats, headed by the office-holders, occupied the front seats, the whole audience garnished with a few rabid slaveholding planters and merchants, many of them no doubt sincere in their belief in the justice and excellency of Southern institutions and the expediency of Southern independence; others, in the hands of and pressed by their Northern creditors, were willing to have their liabilities wiped off in a general smash-up.

These meetings were harranged by political orators with all the soul-stirring eloquence that political education and practice could produce. Blatant demagogues who supported the movement were magnified into men of the greatest genius and patriotism, while the name of William L. Yancy resounded form every platform, every cafe and street-corner crowd as the greatest living man of the day....

....On our way home we passed where several gentlemen of our acquaintance were seated in a verandah, and knowing them to be of the more peacefully disposed Union party, and that they had not been at the meeting, we began in a jocular way to rally them on their want of zeal and partriotism, and related what we had heard spoken at the meeting. They laughed in derision at what they termed balderdash, observing that there were plenty of sensible men in the country to overrule the ravings of a few unprincipled demagogues who, before six months had passed, would deny they had ever uttered such words or appeared with a tricolor in their hats.

To show what dependence may be placed in the integrity or patriotism of professional agitators, contrasted with what may spring from the more quiet and unassuming in time of necessity, I may mention that about two years after this, I happened to visit Baton Rouge; New Orleans had then been captured and Baton Rouge was occupied by the Northern troops. I made inquiries after many of my old friends, amoungest whom were some of the peacefully inclined men of Union proclivities with whom we had been talking in the verandah on the night of the meeting referred to. I found that every one of them capable of bearing arms had taken the field and were now in the Confederate army, their houses were deserted and their families had retired within the Confederate lines, preferring to abandon their homes and endure the privations within the Confederate lines to remaining in their homes under the Union flag, although food and all the necessities of life were there in abundance.

...I chance to step into a cafe, within a hundred yards of where I had heard that exciting speech delivered two years previously. There the first thing that met my eye was [one of the men at the pro-secession meeting, a judge], who I might have supposed to have long before this been lying dead on the frontier, surrounded by the dead bodies of the Northern hordes whom he had slain; but here he was, playing billards and hobnobbing with some officiers of the Northern army. I wondered whether he might not be on the secret service and acting as a spy. I was told, however, that he had never taken up arms, or joined the Southern army at all, but kept shuffling until the Federal troops entered the town, when he was one of the first to meet them---not armed and in a hostile way, but to make his peace with them and take the oath of allegiance, and was now trying to get under the Federal Government some safe and easy civil appointment. I do not think that ever in my life I felt such an inclination to go up to a man and kick him." William Watson, Company K, 3rd Louisiana.

The Fire-eaters led this movement and some of the most famous are...

William L. Yancy- South Carolina
Robert Barnwell Rhett, Sr.- South Carolina
John Quitman- Mississippi
Louis T. Wigfall- Texas
James Dunwoody Brownson DeBow- Louisiana
Nathaniel Beverley Tucker- Virginia

These radicals would put into motion a conspiracy for secession across the South. They were quickly overwhelmed by events and overshadowed by more powerful moderates who would eventually run the Confederacy and the war.

_____________________
David Upton