Lincoln drew a line in the sand...no extension of slavery to the territories. He wanted to limit the spread of slavery...he was willing to "hold firm, as with a chain of steel." Lincoln draws a line in the sand:
The third letter in a series of letters to W. L. Yancey (father of the disunion movement in the South) from Mr. Raymond (editor of the New York Times)
Letter from Raymond to Yancey This is a well written letter. Lengthy...but it is damning. It would appear that Lincoln's stand of not letting slavery extend to other territories would have the effect of eventually ending slavery in the south. No wonder Yancey wanted to get the "slave-trade" going again so the South could keep growing on the backs of "cheap labor."
Excerpts from the letter:
"What you and your associate conspirators seek is the restoration of the African Slave-Trade..."Cheap Negroes" is the grand consummation at which you aim...."
"Can you suppose for a moment that you would be permitted by the civilized nations of the world to reopen the African Slave-trade?...You must be strangely insensible to the moral sentiment of the age, --to the ideas which are steadily advancing to supremacy over the Christian world, --if you expect to gain the assent of any civilized nation on the face of the earth to such a scheme."
"You cannot expect the People of the United States to consent to abolish the Union and repeal the Constitution for such reasons as these...a very little reflection will show the futility of such expectations. The thing is impossible. The only condition of our remaining at peace is that we remain one. Disunion means War...."
"If you enter upon this matter of secession, you must enter upon it alone...you will have no help from any foreign Power....relying upon your own resources, without a word or thought of sympathy from any nation on earth, --under the frown of all Christendom....."
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