January 31, 1861 (Thursday)

Threads from South Carolina

The New York Times Correspondent in South Carolina writes this article published on January 30, 1861.

"I wonder at it, and perhaps we of the North cannot understand or appreciate it, but it is none the less true, that the solid men of Charleston -- the merchants, bankers, lawyers, doctors, and all the clergy -- have but one opinion now, and will pursue to the (if needs be) bitter end, but one course of action.  They have differed, they still have dispassionate arguments and hope for some other course, and many, very many, are yet willing to worship the flag under which they have so long prospered, but they think that the Rubicon has been crossed, and it is now too late.

An old planter, who was strongly opposed to the nullification fever of 1832, has started a subscription book, which is receiving many signatures, each one pledging himself to devote one-sixth of his income this year to the State, payable in three installments.  It is calculated that the Republic will gain $1,000,000 by this voluntary movement on the part of the moneyed classes.

A Cotton Convention is to be held at Atlanta, Ga., on the 13th of February.  The object is to enable the South to export spun Cotton to the leading powers of Europe.  This fearful agitation has some good points.  It is certainly teaching the South their vast natural resources and forcing them to develop them.

At the time so many of the free blacks left here, a great deal was said about the 'badges,' which were alleged to be so odious.  I have thought that a copy of the oath which each person takes when he receives and pays for them for a year, might interest some of your readers.  The tariff on them varies from $2 to $7.  A house servant pays $2 for his or her 'badge,' a 'handicraft tradesman' pays $7.  Here is the oath:  'I, A.B., do solemnly swear that the negro mentioned is my property, and that the employment of every such slave when working on hire, is to be no other than such as now mentioned by me, so help me God.'  No 'badge' is granted unless this oath is taken. 

Are you aware that the hand-grenades which hang thick as leaves within every desirable nook are invented by Major Anderson?  They are fearful in their death-dealing power.  A child can manage them, throwing them with as much ease as he would putty-balls from a mimic gun, yet when they burst, a death by torture is the fate of anyone who may happen to receive their contents.

I have been conversing, today, with one of the volunteers who was on Morris Island, near the gun which fired the first shot at the Star of the West.  He, of course, is fiery hot, and said he prayed at the time that the damned Stars and Stripes might be knocked out of her and the ship sent to the bottom!  --  These soldiers, taken of their own free will from luxurious homes, serve the 'Republic' for twelve months.  They are allowed $120 and rations, but they consider it a point of honor not to ask for anything.  Their diet consists of salt pork, hominy, bacon, rice and coffee, served from tin cups and trenchers.  The reveille beats at 6 o'clock, and they are kept hard at work all day, building sand forts, rolling balls, etc.  -- no child's play for delicate youths.  Many of them, I understand, are suffering from diseases incident to exposure, although the ladies of Charleston are profuse in their donations to husbands, brothers, and lovers.

January 30, 1861 (Wednesday)

"She encountered a small motherless boy
and helped him to become Abraham Lincoln."
----Ted Widmer

Sarah Bush Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's (Mama)

Today, Abraham Lincoln began a trip to visit his other mother, Sarah Lincoln, near Charleston, Illinois.  There is a delightful, moving, and fascinating story of this trip and Lincoln's relationship with his "other" mother written by Ted Widmer of the New York Times, January 29, 2011 entitled, Lincoln's Other Mother.  I highly recommend you go to the link and read the narrative...it is full of anecdotes about Lincoln and his relationship with Sarah Lincoln.  I have included a couple of excerpts to whet your appetite. 

"Lincoln spent the night of the 30th in Charleston, and the next morning began the final phase of his journey, to reach the secluded farmhouse where he found a 72-year-old woman, his father's widow, Sarah Bush Lincoln.

It was quite a reunion.  Local folk remembered it for decades.  Word got out quickly to neighboring farms, and families came over to celebrate, bringing turkey, chicken, and pie.  The local school released the children for the day, and Lincoln laughed with them (he told them he'd rather be in their place than his.)  Some of them walked on his shoes, to feel what it must be like to be president. 

There are several versions of their final goodbye, which each probably knew would be their last.  Like him, she was haunted by visions of the future.  A letter written by one of her kinsmen recorded the scene, complete with grammatical inexactitudes:  'She embraced him when they parted and said she would never be permitted to see him again that she felt his enemies would assassinate him.  He replied no no Mama (he always called her Mama) they will not do that.  Trust in the Lord and all will be well.  We will see each other again.'  They did not. 

Measured by the usual yardsticks of wealth and distinction, her own life may not have made much of a dent in the historical record.  But at just the right moment, she encountered a small motherless boy, and helped him to become Abraham Lincoln"   ----much more at the link above.

(Read at the link above about Sarah's influence

on Abraham Lincoln as a growing boy.)

**************************

Another link from inside the narrative above leads us to the artist, Maira Kalman's depiction of Abraham Lincoln, written in the New York Times, February 26, 2009 entitled In Love With A. Lincoln.     I recommend this narrative of prose, poetry, and art on the life of Abraham Lincoln.  Enjoy....

January 29, 1861 (Tuesday)

The Sunflower State, Kansas, admitted
as the 34th State of the Union

The Statehood of Kansas:  Today, January 29, 1861

"The admission of Kansas into the Union creates considerable enthusiasm among all political parties.  One hundred guns were fired today by order of the Republican Central Committee, to celebrate the event in Leavenworth."  (News from Kansas, New York Times, January 30, 1861)

"It seldom happens in real life that poetic justice has such a striking manifestation as in the wonderful drama which has been in continuous progress on the prairies of our westernmost frontier for the past six years, and which has now at length closed finally and gloriously in the admission of Kansas as a Free State. 

The five acts of this historic drama may be epitomised thus:  The foundation and organization of the Territory amid the wildest national and Congressional storms -- then the rush of pioneers from all sections and States -- next, the struggles of the ballot, ending in a warfare of bullets --  then the contest of the four Constitutions -- and lastly, the triumph of the State over all factions and her entry as a co-equal into the great North American family of States.  We know indeed that, in the end, the triumph of Truth and Justice is the inevitable solution of all historic problems; but it is fortifying, when events, in which we may almost be said to be actors, add assurance to our faith in the living reality of these principles.

No State in the Confederacy has a more glorious destiny in prospect than our youngest sister of the West.  Located in the geographical centre of the continent -- with a population made up of elements the most varied and vigorous, combining in and admirable mosaic...with institutions as free and elastic as the air of her prairies; with a soil which, in ordinary seasons, is fertile beyond even the possibility of harvesting; a healthful climate, a noble central river navigable almost to her western boundary, and the great Missouri on her eastern frontier -- the young State starts on the career of empire after having had a training in the school of adversity which has given strength to its character and consistency to its courage.  With the Pacific Railroad binding her to the East and the West, the Galveston Railroad connecting her with the Gulf, she will be in union with every section, and the maintenance of the Union will be for her a vital necessity.  As a central pillar of the States, she will, in case of necessity, do her full share in upholding it. 

It is devoutly to be hoped that all those internal struggles which have heretofore wrought the Territory such glory and shame, will now and finally cease.  She is now safe forever from black Slavery, and Missouri raids, and the enmity of Administrations.  Let the dead bury the dead.  Let the bygone contentions and acrimony be forever sunk into oblivion.  Let the bold pioneers...now direct their powers to the building up of the State. 

Though an unparalleled drought has visited her this year, and brought famine among her people, yet let them take courage.  The vine will again blossom on the warm southern slopes and the joyous prairies bear their perennial burdens of sorghum, and corn, and wheat.  The Winter weather has been favorable; the soil is in fine condition to receive the seed the coming Spring, and the hearts of her farmers are reviving."  (The New State of Kansas, New York Times article, January 30, 1861)

January 28, 1861 (Monday)

"We will rise again and again."

A Senatorial Farewell Speech:

"The South will rise again."

In an article written by the Disunion -- New York Times, Adam Goodheart writes a narrative on several of the farewell speeches that were given by various Southern Senators as they left the U. S. Senate.  One in particular was Senator Alfred Iverson of Georgia.  One of the famous American rally cries comes from this speech:  "The South will rise again."  Here are a few excerpts from his speech. 

"You may acquiesce in the revolution, and acknowledge the independence of the new confederacy, or you may make war on the seceding States, and attempt to force them back into the Union with you.  If you acknowledge our independence, and treat us as one of the nations of the earth, you can have friendly intercourse with us; you can have an equitable division of the public property and of the existing debt of the United States.  If you make war upon us, we will seize and hold all the public property within our borders or within our reach.

You boast of your superior numbers and strength.  Remember that 'the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.'  You have your hundreds of thousands of fighting men.  So have we; and, fighting upon our own soil, to preserve our rights, vindicate our honor and defend our homes and firesides, our wives and children from the invader, we shall not be easily conquered. 

You may possibly overrun us, desolate our fields, burn our dwellings, lay our cities in ruins, murder our people and reduce us to beggary, but you cannot subdue or subjugate us to your government or your will.  Your conquest, if you gain one, will cost you a hundred thousand lives, and more than a hundred million dollars.  Nay more, it will take a standing army of 100,000 men, and millions of money annually, to keep us in subjection.

You may whip us, but we will not stay whipped.  We will rise again and again to vindicate our right to liberty, and throw off your oppressive and accursed yoke, and never cease the mortal strife until our whole white race is extinguished and our fair land given over to desolation.

The Rubicon is passed,"  Iverson concluded, "and it shall never, with my consent, be recrossed." [There was still a chance, he conceded, that other Southerners might agree to a compromise.]  "I may safely say, however, that nothing will satisfy them, or bring them back, short of a full and explicit recognition of the guarantee of the safety of their institution of domestic slavery and the protection of the constitutional rights for which in the Union they have so long been contending, and a denial of which, by their Northern confederates, has forced them into their present attitude of separate independence."

As the last Southern senators left, "the balance of power had shifted for good that week, in the nation and in Congress.  Throughout the Civil War and Reconstruction years, a Congress dominated by Northern Republicans would pass legislation that, collectively, would change America forever.  And the South might 'rise again and again' over the following century, but it would never regain the political leverage that it had just willingly abdicated."  (Adam Goodheart, The South Rises Again and Again, and Again, Disunion -- New York Times narrative, January 27, 2011)

New York Times, January 29, 1861 article commented on the speech with the following: 

"Senator Iverson's valedictory, today, was quite as full of brimstone and cayenne pepper, in matter and manner, as would be expected from him."

January 27, 1861 (Sunday--a)

Louisiana Secedes on January 26th

"The State of Louisiana is now added to the list of seceding States.  The ordinance of secession was passed in the State Convention yesterday by a vote of 113 to 17.  A deathlike silence prevailed during the calling of the roll, and many members were in tears.  When the vote was announced the President of the Convention declared Louisiana a free and sovereign republic. 

The chronological order of the secession movement is as follows:

1.  December 20:  South Carolina
2.  January 9:  Mississippi
3.  January 11:  Florida
4.  January 11:  Alabama
5.  January 19:  Georgia
6.  January 26:  Louisiana

(The News, New York Herald, January 26, 1861,

Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War.)

States that have Seceded

From the Civil War Daily Gazette:   A Map of Secessionist States as of today.

Here is another picture showing more information about states planning a secession convention and states that have a secession convention in process:  From The Long Recall:  The American Interest



January 27, 1861 (Sunday--b)

American Citizenship brings moral responsibility

Sermon given by Rev. William Rudder at his church in Albany, New York, Sunday evening January 13, 1861.  Excerpts follow....  'hat tip to The Long Recall'

"Who does not feel and know that today we are hanging on the brink of a thousand perils, dark and unfathomable indeed?  Are civil war, and anarchy, and ruin...to be our inevitable lot?  What has brought us to this condition?  What are the causes of decay and death that have been so secretly, but so terribly at work?

First of all, the American people, as a general thing, do not think -- think, that is, carefully and conscientiously, by and for, themselves...The great masses of the Nation have, done more honest and serious and conscientious political thinking within the last sixty days than in as many years before.  And this is the first step always toward the discovery of Truth and agreement.  We have the Divine authority in regard to Israel of old, that the secret cause of their sin was that they did not consider:  'My people doth not consider.'  Honest, serious thought is the first step necessary to the perception of responsibility and duty. 

The second truth is that there are other laws than those of Profit and Loss.  There is an inordinate arrogance and reliance upon ourselves.  We say 'my power, and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.'  The idea of God as the necessary sustainer and preserver of Nations, has been well-nigh blotted from our minds.  We have grown up into a temper arrogant and overbearing which distinguishes us alike both at home and abroad.  Now God, as it seems to us, is endeavoring, through the present troubles, to press home upon our minds and hearts this Truth:  that material resources alone can afford no surety of the permanence of a nation's strength and prosperity, but that only 'blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord.'  Surely it behooves us to learn God's lesson, and lay it to our hearts.  Let us, in sincere penitence for our sins, confess them at His feet; and let us beseech Him, in mercy, even now, to deliver us from shame.

The third lesson...touches on what we may call, the moral obligations inherent in American citizenship.  There are three Divine Institutions established in the world -- the Family, the Church, and the State.  As people of the government we give character to its acts and it rests upon us, in the exercise of this privilege, a great moral responsibility.  We cannot neglect it.  It is to be feared that no small portion of our people have been habitually forgetful of this fact and often, perhaps, knowingly indifferent to it.  We are greatly guilty in this matter.  The purification of the State must begin in the purification of the consciences of the individuals composing the State.  Here, therefore, must begin the cure of our evils.

The fourth lesson is the peril of separating Religion and Politics...God has been thrust out from the government of the Nation.  His Law has been treated with neglect, if not with contempt.  The fact that 'the Glory of God is the ultimate purpose of the State,' has been entirely disregarded.  No more pressing necessity than has always existed, exists now for the dissolution of this Union, but it holds true now, as always, that the decay of Nations begins in the hearts of the People. 

We are unwilling to believe there is no Future for this People.  We cannot bring ourselves to believe that this great Government -- to which so many tear-filled eyes have been turned, with fond hope, from the down-trodden millions of the Earth;...that this Government is even now at an end, and that already the finger of Judgment hath written upon its walls -- 'Ichabod, the glory is departed.'  There may indeed be division for a time; but let us hope, -- certainly let us pray, that God is only leading this People through these present trials, in order to fit them for a yet larger usefulness, and a higher glory.  But let us remember that this cannot be unless we so repent us of our sins and turn to Him, that He may indeed be our God, and we His People.  He only can bless, and preserve us."

January 26, 1861 (Saturday)

Impact of Outside Influences

How will England and France Respond to the

Southern Confederacy?

"...It has been several times announced that Great Britain had intimated that she would not recognize a Confederacy of the Southern States.  The statement was evidently false. 

In the Toronto Leader, of January 24:  'The English Government intends to acknowledge the independence of the Southern Confederacy as soon as formed.'    The sensible Washington correspondent of the Examiner on January 23rd:  'I hear from reliable authority that the Powers of Great Britain, France, and Russia will recognize promptly the independence of the new Southern Confederacy.  Assurances of this have been given in a way which leaves no doubt as to the result.  It may be counted on with certainty that any attempt to block up Southern trade will be put down by England and France.  They must have the cotton."  (Will England Recognize the Southern Confederacy, Richmond Daily Dispatch, January 26, 1861)

"We do not believe a word of what the Toronto Leader has said.  We do not believe the Leader has any such authority, or that the English Government has any such intention.  The whole story is a canard.  It is a humble attempt of our Canadian contemporary to imitate the Herald who has been busy for weeks in making the same announcement.  Nobody gives heed to the solemn assertions from the Herald. 

It can scarcely be supposed that the British Government will feel any special sympathy with the leading aim and object of Southern secession -- the fortification and perpetuation of Slavery.  Until the Government of the United States recognizes the independence of the South, Great Britain cannot, with justice or safety, do so.  Those persons, South or North, who look for the speedy recognition of the independence of the Southern Confederacy by the Government of the United States, would do well to dismiss that delusion as speedily as possible.  That recognition will come when the South compel it, and not before.  If those of you who expect the people of this country to sit down quietly and see this free Republic prostrated in the dust, -- its liberties overthrown with its Constitution...have much to learn of the temper of our people and of the spirit of the age in which we live.  If the Southern States have more power, more wealth, more courage to do and to endure, and a better cause to fight for, than the North, they may, after five or six years of war, establish their independence and compel us to recognize it.  If not -- not."  (England and a Southern Confederacy, New York Times, January 26, 1861)

"In no one thing are our friends in the Cotton States more completely deceived than in supposing England and France will make a war with the United States, if need be, to open the ports of seceding States, in order that they may obtain raw cotton.  England and France have long been struggling for some means of freeing itself from dependence upon the United States.  One great difficulty encountered by them in their own experiments to raise cotton has been their inability to compete with our unrequited slave labor.  Abolish American Slavery, and it will aid them materially in establishing the culture of cotton within their own dominions.  England and France will continue to push their efforts to develop cotton-fields of their own in India, Algeria, and China. [More in the article on development of cotton on other parts of the world.] "  (The Secession Question:  Probably Course of England and France Towards the South, New York Times article, January 26, 1861)

January 25, 1861 (Friday)

Bandages and Lint

Charleston News

"Captain Doubleday (later the founder of Major League Baseball) writing from Fort Sumter on the 20th denies the report put in circulation by Charleston papers that disaffection exists among the garrison.  He presents the troop as in cheerful spirits, and prepared to defend the fort to the last.  He also states that mortars have been placed by the South Carolinians on the land nearest the fort, and that two steamers watched the fort all night on the 19th."  (The News, Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War, New York Herald, January 25, 1861)

"The Fall River News publishes a letter dated Charleston, Jan. 16, and written by the Captain of a vessel now in Charleston harbor.  He says:  'It is currently reported around the city that if Fort Sumter is not given up by tomorrow, they will storm it; and they can probably take it in a short time, for they have got five thousand men for the purpose, and they say they will sacrifice three thousand of them, but that they will have it.  ...We left the city about sunrise and crossed the bar and there were three schooners and two or three brigs placed in the channel to sink, so as to prevent the Brooklyn from coming in.  If she comes in she will have a warm time of it, for they are to blow her to hell.  They have stopped up the ship channel with old wrecks but we can pick our way out as yet.  They will sacrifice everything rather than submit, and I think they are right, for there is no gleam of hope from the North."  (Reports from Charleston, The American Civil War, January 25, 2011)

"Surgeon General Gibbes respectfully thanks a lady of Charleston for two dozen under shirts, and another lady of Charleston for twenty more.  They have been sent as requested.  He also acknowledges the patriotic present of bandages and lint from Mollie's of Talladega, Alabama.  He also thanks many ladies of Charleston for continued contributions of bandages and lint."  (Acknowledgement, The Charleston Mercury--January 25, 1861, Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War)

The Richmond Daily Dispatch reports this from Charleston:  "The offer of military services extended to the Governor of South Carolina by the Catawba Indians of the State, have been accepted.  ----  The Hon. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi has arrived here.  ----  The Legislature has appropriated $50,000 for carrying on the present postal arrangement, if the Federal Government stops the present system." 

As an aside:
"Lincoln is delighted by return of Mrs. Lincoln and Robert from East; he has been expecting them for three days."  (The Lincoln Log, Villard, Eve of '61)

(From the Charleston Post and Courier, Video of Firing a Cannon, January 25, 2011)  "National Park Service Historian Richard W. Hatcher III explains what the soldiers had to do in firing a cannon."  Watch the Video linked on the page.

January 24, 1861 (Thursday)

Types of Resistance

The Unionists in Georgia:

" 'Revolutions of public sentiment are sometimes exceedlingly rapid in the Towns and along railroad lines where the people are in the habit of reading the daily papers, or thinking quick where one leading spirit gives tone and direction to the whole place.  But the great mass of people who live in the country...come to conclusions more slowly and dispassionately.  They think, every man for himself, and do not act to any considerable extent upon the prejudices of each other,' wrote the Rome Weekly Courier.

Alexander Stephens from Georgia rose to defend the Union:  'This step, once taken can never be recalled; and all the baleful and withering consequences that must follow will rest on the Convention for all coming time.  When we and our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon of war which this act of yours will inevitable invite and call forth; when our green fields of waving harvests shall be trodden down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war sweeping over our land; our temples of justice laid in ashes; all the horrors and desolation of war upon us -- who but this Convention will be held responsible for it?' " (Showdown in Georgia, by Jamie Malanowski, Disunion--New York Times narrative, January 23, 2011.) 

A Conspiracy to stop the Inauguration of

Abraham Lincoln:

"I have yet another conspiracy to mention, which, though by no means a new rumor, I have not, until today, had any good reason to believe was well-founded or reliable.  I am, however, certain that negotiations are pending with Secessionists in the States of Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, to seize the Capitol, and prevent the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, by force.  This part of the rebellion has been entrusted to those three States.  The matter is kept exceedingly secret, and, were I not myself a member of a Vigilance Committee, I should have been in the dark upon the subject....:"   (Interesting from Charleston, New YorkTimes article, January 24, 1861)

(Letter to Lincoln from Leonard Sweet on January 24, 1861:)  "Gen'l Scott sent word to me the evening before I left through T. Corwin and Col. Stone that he wanted you to send a messenger to W before you went informing him all about your route, time of departure etc etc.  He don't want this by letter for fear the mail will be robbed.  He wants quietly to station such force about Baltimore, and I suppose as well protect you, in any event..."


"Again, Lincoln waits in vain at station for arrival of Mrs. Lincoln and Robert." (Villard, Eve of '61, 54-55:  Lincoln Log, January 24, 1861)

Paying for our Revolutions

"Revolutions are always more or less expensive, and the first thing to do done whenever one is to be started is to prepare to meet the cost.  A bill has accordingly been introduced into the South Carolina Legislature to raise money for the expenses for the current year:"  [Click on the link below to see all the areas taxes are going to be raised on the people.]  (South Carolina preparing to Foot the Bill, New York Times article, January 24, 1861)

January 23, 1861 (Wednesday)

"Let them go!"  Wendell Phillips

An Address by Wendell Phillips at Music Hall in Boston last Sunday--excerpts

"The office of the pulpit is to teach men their duty.  Wherever men's thoughts have any influence on their laws, it is the duty of the pulpit to preach politics. 


'The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice.'  'The Covenant with Death is annulled----the Agreement with Hell is broken to pieces.'  The chain which has held the slave system since 1787 is parted.  Thirty years ago Southern leaders, sixteen years ago Northern Abolitionists, announced their purposes to seek the dissolution of the American Union.  Who dreamed that success would come so soon?


The foundation of our government divides only into two parts:  those who like Slavery and mean it shall last, and those who hate it and mean it shall die.  After drifting, a dreary night of thirty years, before the hurricane, our Ship of State is going to pieces on the lee shore of Slavery.  Everyone confesses that the poison of our body politic is Slavery...The toil of a whole generation, thirty years, has been spent in examining this question of the right and place of the negro----the whole earnest thought of the nation given to it.  It stifles all other questions...it struggles up through all compromises, asserting its right to be heard...nothing can succeed in binding this Samson...the business community begs it to be settled...the whole South is determined to meet it. 


A Union is made up of willing States, not of conquered provinces.  If a husband or wife who can only keep the other partner within the bond by locking the doors and standing armed before them, had better submit to peaceable separation. [Applause.] 


Last month Senator Johnson of Tennessee, said, 'If I were an Abolitionist and wanted to accomplish the abolition of Slavery in the Southern States, the first step I would take would be to break the bonds of this Union.  I believe the continuance of Slavery depends on the preservation of this Union, and a compliance with all the guarantees of the Constitution.' 


Sacrifice anything to keep the Slave-holding States in the Union!  God forbid!  We will rather build a bridge of gold and pay their toll over it -- accompany them out with glad noise of trumpets.  Let them not 'stand on the order of their going, but go at once.'  Take the forts, empty our arsenals and sub-treasuries, and we will lend them...jewels of gold and jewels of silver, and be glad when they are departed. [Laughter and applause.]  But let the world distinctly understand why they go -- to save Slavery. 


Today is the inevitable fruit of our father's faithless compromise in 1787.  What a sad comment on free institutions, that they have produced a South of tyrants and a North of cowards; a South ready to face any peril to save Slavery, and a North unwilling to risk a dollar to serve freedom!  Before the Union existed, Washington and Jefferson uttered the boldest Anti-Slavery opinions. Today they would be lynched in their own homes.  No man who hopes for office dares to insist that it is unconstitutional.  Slavery has turned our churches of Christ into churches of commerce.


[The practice of government] is conciliate, compromise, postpone, practice finesse, make promises, or break them, do anything to gain time and concentrate the North against Slavery.  Our fathers tried that policy in 1787.  They miserably failed.  It was tried in 1821, and failed.  It was tried in 1850, and failed.  What harm and good can come from disunion?  (A discussion follows at page 7 at the link below on the positives and negatives of disunion.)


In my soul,  I believe that a dissolution of the Union, sure to result speedily in the abolition of Slavery, would be a lesser evil than the slow, faltering, diseased 'gradually dying out' of Slavery, constantly poisoning us with the festering remains of this corrupt political, social and literary State.  I believe a sudden, conclusive, definite disunion, resulting in the abolition of Slavery...immediately, would be better, healthier and a more wholesome cure...This is what I mean by coercion! All hail, then, Disunion!"  (The Unholy Alliance:  The Abolitionists Giving the Right Hand of Fellowship to the Disunionists--Wendell Phillips' Address, New York Times article, January 22, 1861.)

January 22, 1861 (Tuesday)

Life in Richmond, Virginia--January, 1861

Richmond Daily Dispatch

Temperance:

Reduction of wages:

Theatre:

Horse Thieves About:

For Rent:  Two convenient Rooms

Lost:  Cameo Breastpin

Wanted:  a Teacher with six years experience

A Servant Woman for sale, privately

For sale, privately

Boarding

Refined Sugars for sale

Fire and loss of life:

The Markets

Tabacco Factory for Rent

E. B. Cook, Auctioneer

Chas. T. Wortham and Co., Auctioneers

Laurel Spring Academy

Coal for Engines and Blacksmiths

Apples

Butter

Sheriff's sale of Horses and Mules

Home-manufactured Iron

Blankets

A Fashion long needed:

A Thunder Storm in January

Business Coats

Reasons to buy home-made stoves:

Mules, Horses for sale

Runaway:  $20 reward

Main St. Hospital for Slaves

Bellevue Hospital

Medicine:  The great Virginia remedy

Dr. Jackson's Cough Syrup

For chapped hands and lips

Druggist

Improve your eyesight

China, glassware:

Boots, Shoes

Artificial Teeth

Paraffine Candles

January 21, 1861 (Monday)

Sharp discussions and apologies

Jefferson Davis's Farewell to the U. S. Senate: 
January 21, 1861

"The galleries of the Senate, which held, it is estimated, a thousand people, were packed, principally with women, who, trembling with excitement, awaited the announcements of the day....  As each Senator [five senators resigned today], speaking for his State, concluded his solemn renunciation of allegiance to the United States, women grew hysterical and waved their handkerchiefs, encouraging them with cries of sympathy and admiration....  Scarely a member of that senatorial body but was pale with the terrible significance of the hour.  There was everywhere a feeling of suspense, as if visibly the pillars of the temple were being withdrawn and the great governmental structure was tottering; nor was there a patriot on either side who did not deplore and whiten before the evil that brooded so low over the nation."  (A Belle of the Fifties by Virginia Clay-Clopton, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1905, Five Southern Senators Resign!, Civil War Daily Gazette)


"I rise, Mr. President, for the purpose of announcing to the Senate that I have satisfactory evidence that the State of Mississippi, by a solemn ordinance of her people, in convention assembled, has declared her separation from the United States.  Under these circumstances, of course, my functions are terminated here.

...I find in myself perhaps a type of the general feeling of my constituents towards yours.  I am sure I feel no hostility toward you, Senators from the North.  I am sure there is not one of you, whatever sharp discussion there may have been between us, to whom I cannot now say, in the presence of my God, I wish you well; and such, I feel, is the feeling of the people whom I represent toward those whom you represent.  I, therefore, feel that I but express their desire when I say I hope, and they hope, for peaceable relations with you, though we must part.  They may be mutually beneficial to us in the future, as they have been in the past, if you so will it.  The reverse may bring disaster on every portion of the country, and, if you will have it thus, we will invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered them from the power of the lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear; and thus, putting our trust in God and in our firm hearts and strong arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may.

In the course of my service here, associated at different times with a variety of Senators, I see now around me some with whom I have served long; there have been points of collision, but, whatever of offense there has been to me, I leave here.  I carry with me no hostile remembrance.  Whatever offense I have given which has not been redressed, or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, Senators, in this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any pain which, in the heat of discussion, I have inflicted.  I go hence unencumbered by the remembrance of any injury received, and having discharged the duty of making the only reparation in my power for any injury offered.

Mr. President and Senators, having made the announcement which the occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains for me to bid you a final adieu."  (Jefferson Davis's Farewell to the U. S. Senate, January 21, 1861, The American Civil War List of Resources, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, vol 1.)

"After his speech, he left the crowded chamber and head lowered, went out into the street.  That night Mrs. Davis heard him pacing the floor.  'May God have us in His holy keeping,' she heard him say over and over as he paced, 'and grant that before it is too late, peaceful councils may prevail.'"  (The Civil War Narrative:  Fort Sumter to Perryville, Vol. 1  by Shelby Foote)

January 20, 1861 (Sunday)

Caring for Words

Letters and Diaries

(Diary of George Templeton Strong:  January 19. 1861 , New York Times, January 19, 2011)

"Even under the present epidemic of treason and reign of terror, there is a strong minority in Southern states that has thus far been silent; that has not voted or has voted against what they call secession.  Reaction, and the pressure of calamity, may strengthen this inert and suppressed anti-secession party, wake up the whole people to the true state of the case, and bring the conspirators, who have raised this storm for their own selfish ends, to a stern reckoning."

(Letter to Franklin Pierce from Jefferson Davis:  Laments his departure from the Union, Papers of Jefferson Davis, January 20, 1861)

"I have often and sadly turned my thoughts to you during the troublous times through which we have been passing and now I come to the hard task of announcing to you that the hour is at hand which closes my connection with the United States, for the independence and Union of which my Father bled and in the service of which I have sought to emulate the example he set for my guidance.  I leave immediately for Mississippi and know not what may devolve upon me after my return.  Civil war has only horror for me, but whatever circumstances demand shall be met as a duty and I trust be so discharged that you will not be ashamed of our former connection or cease to be my friend....May God bless you is ever the prayer of your friend."

(Letter to Abraham Lincoln from Marvin Huntington, The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress)

"Not haveing the honor of your acquaintance I perhaps may be intrudeing to address you -- but I cant feal easey to have you go to the White House without a word of caution.  Sire, if you will onley reflect a moment up on the Death of Harison and Taylor you nor no other man can come to any other conclusion then that they both came to there Death by poisen...Now I would advise you to take from your neighbourhood and Friends evry person that you will neade around you at Washington and discharge evry one that is there at this time.  I may be foolish perhaps I am, but I cant help the fealings above discribed...."

(Letter to Abraham Lincoln from an Anonymous "Jackson Democrat" January 20. 1861, The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress.)

"Beware of the Ides of March...As an honest man I tell you the Suthron people will not Stand your administration unless the Personal Liberty Bills are Repealed and the Fugitive Slave Law is carried out you may think this is written to Intimidate you.  But it is for no such purpose what I have stated are facts and you will find it so in less than six months.  The Suthron States will not be Coerced--mark that in your Book.  you are in a hard place.  But come up to the constitution like a man and the country will move on in prosperity.  We will not stand Abolitionism in any Shape whatever.  Let Northern men stay at home and attend to their own Buisness and let Slavery Alone and they will Live longer and be more prosperous.  Charity begins at Home and they had better take care of the poor and unfortunate at Home than to be meddling with other peoples property.  We want nothing but our Rights in the Union and will protect them out of it."

(Diary of Fanny Seward, only daughter of William Seward, Secretary of State for Abraham Lincoln, University of Rochester, Rare Books and Special Collections, Lincoln and His Circle)

"Sunday, January 20th:  Mother was sick.  I did not go to church.  She was much better in afternoon tho' she did not come downstairs.  Aunty and I dined alone.  Will and Jenny were out.  I wrote to Father, to Eliza and Laura Stratton.  Hada a nice talk with mother.  Began Life of Marie Antoinette.  Another nice talk after we went to bed."

January 19, 1861 (Saturday)

State's Rights:  The Other Side of Coercion

An Address by the Former Secretary of War Floyd given to Virginians:

"Now, this fissure which commenced in the iceberg has gone on, splitting in its progress whatever came in contact.  It split the church in two, and the next disaster which it threatens is the breaking up of our political system.  What is the issue?  It is the issue of Coercion on the one side, and peace on the other.  That is the issue.  Shall the pretext of holding the property of the United States be made the grounds upon which the arms and the armaments of the United States are to be introduced into the forts of the South for the purpose of coercing them and making them to submit to an unwilling tyranny?

You are unwilling to do that, I think, and a power greater than your power comes up and seizes that point which you are unwilling to seize.  You must do it, as coercion is the policy announced; I tell you tonight that that is the plan on foot.  You have got to meet it.  It is in vain, altogether in vain, that a timid man, that a coward, may hug the delusion to his bosom that no coercive policy will be enforced, and that the times will be better.  There are no better times; that is what you have got to meet now.

Let you men of Virginia and of the South prepare.  The North will demand...and coerce you into obedience.  Gentlemen, the principle of coercion is no new one, and in God's blessed name are we standing here in Virginia at this hour and this day considering not the right but the possibility of submitting to coercion?  Look a little back to the history of the past, I pray you, and then answer me the question, who have we been taught to look upon as the arch enemy of popular rights in the United States?  Alexander Hamilton, John Quincy Adams...have declared that the right of coercion was monstrous and untenable, and now we are told the doctrine of coercion is a doctrine that you shall have to submit to.  John Quincy Adams was President of the United States...and in a conflict with the State of Georgia and Federal authorities...was urged to exercise coercion; but he refused, saying, "I cannot undertake to crush a State." 

Are you the sons of the men who put themselves in battle array against King George, upon the mere assumption of a power on his part to overtax tea?  Virginians sprang to arms in those days to resist the imposition of this trilling tax...how much more readily should the descendants of those men resist the accumulated grievances heaped upon them.  Patrick Henry stood within the very echoes of this spot proclaiming, "Give me liberty, or give me death."  [Applause.]  If you hesitate, I can say, he who dallies is a dastard, and he who doubts is damned. [Immense applause.]"  (The Disunion Movement:  Secession in the Cabinet.  Revelations of Cabinet Councils by the Late Secretary Floyd, New York Times editorial, January 18, 1861).

January 18, 1861 (Friday)

Call to Intelligent Christian Patriotism

"We would salute you, brethren in the spirit of the apostolic formula, 'Grace, Mercy, and Peace.'  As fellow-heirs of a kingdom that 'endureth forever,' we have common interests and relations superior to all political bonds, furnishing the basis of fraternal internal intercourse even in seasons of greatest civil commotion.  Faith in God would seem to be the only alternative in a crisis which reveals the impotence and short-sightedness of man.  It is with a profound conviction of the imminence of national perils, and with a deep sense of the solemnity and delicacy of this humble attempt to avert them, that we venture a few suggestions to our dear brethren, touching some of the immediate causes of our danger, and the probable consequences to great moral and religious interests of the threatened disruption of our civil ties. 

A dispassionate view of public affairs...a system of gross and persistent misrepresentation has had much to do with leading the nation to the verge of revolution.  The South has been slandered at the North, and the North has been grossly misrepresented at the South.  The extreme sentiments...and passionate utterance of inconsiderable bodies, political or ecclesiastical, have been heralded through the land as the deliberate expression of opinion of great parties, denominations or sections of the country; whereas they merely represented the extravagance of their authors, and should have been consigned to the oblivion they merited.

In our judgment, dear brethren, the time has come for a more calm, discriminating investigation of the causes of impending perils, and for many, Christian effort, under God, to avert them.  Intelligent Christian patriotism...lives and glows in millions of hearts all over the land, and in them all--it is loyal to the Constitution, the Union, and the Bible.

Besides the interests common to all citizens, we have a vital stake in the perpetuation of our Federal Union on other and higher grounds.  The honor and prosperity of Protestant Christianity are involved in the issue.  A failure in our great experiment of self-government, besides affording sad proof of recreancy [abject cowardness] on the part of American Christians, would be interpreted in all lands as evidence of the powerlessness of the only system of religion that claims to furnish an adequate basis for self-governing institutions. 

Unswerving fealty to the Constitution, justly-interpreted, and a prompt return to its spirit and requirements, wherever there may have been divergence from either, would seem to be the first duty of citizens and legislators.

Thus will the more immediate causes of alienated feeling be suppressed, and the healing touch of time, the seasonable exertions of patriotic men, the peace-inspiring influence of religion, the spirit of fervent prayer, and the favoring providence and grace of the Triune God, will cement anew the bonds that untie the North and the South, the East and the West, in one thrice blessed American brotherhood.

To this end, dear brethren, and for the sake of those spiritual gifts so inspiratively needed by our American Zion, let us unceasingly implore the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the rulers and people of these United States."  (An Appeal for Peace:  A Circular Letter to the Clergy and Laity of Christian Churches in the Southern States of the Union, New York Times article, January 18, 1861)

January 17, 1861 (Thursday)

Coercion

"The Southern feeling is explanable...the present generation have been educated in the Pro-Slavery school.  Every means has been freely used to thoroughly imbue the Southern mind with the belief that Slavery is just, right and useful; and every conteracting influence has been sedulously banished.  The superior moral condition of slave-society has been carefully pointed out as opposed to the evils of the Northern states of society with their crime and internal disorder.  The Southern community is really convinced that Slavery is a great blessing.  They have been educated to believe in Slavery.  They bitterly resent its condemnation as wrong.  The system of education has done it work.  Confirmatory declarations of Church and State added to their convictions. 


Plans and plots have reached further back than innocent people imagine.  They used their balance of power in the Democratic Party to extend their territory until it was checkmated; they used the last Administration of this party to disarm and bankrupt the Federal Government, to put all they could in the hands of the South, and to arrange everything in the best possible shape for disunion.  But in spite of all this planning, they needed a 'crisis.'  The election of Lincoln was the signal for action.  It was almost amusing to witness their hot haste, their impatience of 'delay,' their anxiety 'to go out immediately if not sooner,' for fear that the 'crisis would pass and nothing be done,' that 'the ardor of their young men would cool,' and that 'these old men, these holders of stocks, these business men, who want so much time for consideration, because they think from the head and not from the heart,' would, upon consideration of the consequences of disunion, revolt from the desperate leap. 


Secession is sought to be actualized upon the bare assumption of a State's right to secede at pleasure, without provocation by the General Government.  What sort of sense is there in such States as these claiming to have the right to ignore at pleasure these national claims; to strip the Federal Government of all the benefits sought in their purchase and protection, without having ever suffered any injury at the hands of that Government to cancel its claims?  In giving them a State organization, the Federal Government has given them a right to secede!  On this principle the Federal Union is but a suckling mother of States; a nominal Queen, pregnant with kings, but entirely destitute of authority herself.  In a word, we have no longer a National Government; we are no longer a nation.  Pull down the banner of the united stars and stripes, and tear it into its component parts and let this ragged but fit emblem of our national existence be hoisted for the dirision of a world which now envies and respects us. 


Again, this principle is eminently a principle of disorganization for the South herself.  Let her attempt a Union, and what will be the result?  Any difference, however slight, will justify secession.  And the differences sure to arise in a Southern Confederacy will not be slight.  Disunion again, and continued division and re-division must be the result.  Foreseeing this, Southern men of forecast assert that a monarchy is the ultimate desting of the South.  No other form of Government will hold together the jostling and uneasy memebers.


In fact, disastrous effects are already experienced by the Southern people which seem past their comprehension.  Banks are suspended, stores and manufactories closed, lower wages of whites and prices of blacks, cotton depreciated as well as all Southern products, increases in the price of food and other commodities, threating numbers with starvation, both from want of food and want of work -- depressing the vitality of the community.  The poorer classes of the South will become enlightened and lead them to consider the blessings of the former time. 


'Coercion' is an offensive word.  It is aptly used, in order to excite the pride and passion of the people.  But when 'coercion' is seen to be stictly defensive in character, it is rather calculated to win the admiration and respect of a spirited people.  'Coercion' on the part of the National Government is nothing but self-defense; and self-defense is the first law of nature.  Lift up the banner of the Stars, then, from the dust where traitors would trail it, and let the nation keep step to the music of Union and Liberty --  one and inseparable, now and forever."  (The Secession Movement, Correspondent--New York Times from Charleston, January 17, 1861)

January 16, 1861 (Wednesday)

Undercurrents

"We may, therefore, assume that of the million and a half of adult white males in the South who own no slaves, not more than a million are capable of reading understandingly, or writing their names.  This million of intelligent non-slaveholders is made up from all classes.  It comprises a large body of respectable farmers, located for the most part in the Border States...together with mechanics and small shop-keepers in the cities and towns, overseers, briefless lawyers, patientless doctors, patriotic politicians, and broken-down gentlemen with their sons.

This great class, which may be said to constitute the mass of the Southern people, since it is larger than all others combined, has been thoroughly indoctrinated with the Pro-Slavery creed...thoroughly inoculated with the rabid and reckless spirit of Slavery propagandism. 

Letters and other private informaton inform us that the large slaveholders are already sick of their rebellion against the General Government.  They are beginning to understand that they have everything to lose, and nothing to gain by success.  For the greatest good promised by the politicians to the people -- the reopening of the African Slave-trade -- would be the ruin of those whose wealth consists in Negroes.  The effect of that traffic would be to reduce the price of slaves to a merely nominal figure.  It is obvious that the large proprietors can have no sympathy with a policy which contemplates the destruction of their property; and we are not surprised to learn that they not only oppose it, but at length begin to see that their safety depends upon the preservation of the Union.

It will be remembered that there were only two men in the South who owned so many as one thousand slaves; only nine who owned so many as 500-1000, fifty-six who owned 300-500; 187 who owned 200-300; and and 1, 479 who owned 100-200 -- in all 1,733 who owned one hunderd slaves or more.  This insignificant number of men constitute the real "South" of which we hear so much, with its large planatations. 

What remain are 339, 596 slaveholders who own less than 100 and of those, 255, 268 slaveholders own between 1-10 slaves.  This group is less apprehensive of insurrections; they have more to hope than to fear, more to gain than to lose from the reckless reopening of the Slave-trade or the dissolution of the Union.  They carry much passionate devotion to what is regarded as the cause of the South, with patriotism fully up to the standard set by the Southern politicians."  (Who Rule the South?  Where Lies the Strength of the Disunion Movement, New York Times editorial, January 15, 1861)

January 15, 1861 (Tuesday)

Another symbol of secession:
Pacific Republic

Here is an account from California....

"Historical accounts are strangely silent who raised it.  But at some point during that day ---- January 16, 1861 ---- citizens looked up to see it waving from the masthead...according to the next morning's edition of the Stockton Argus, the silk banner depicted a 'huge grizzly bear' standing amid a 'wild mountain scene.'  In one corner was a single white star on a blue background -- similar to many of the secession flags back east.  Across the top were the words, 'PACIFIC REPUBLIC.'  The symbol of the bear was not new to California politics, it had been used before in its struggle for independence with Mexico. 

When California declared her independence, Jefferson Davis, who argued in the Senate that slavery was part of California's natural destiny, said: 'It was to work the gold mines on this continent that the Spaniards first brought Africans to the country.  The European races now engaged in working the mines of California sink under the burning heat and sudden changes of climate, to which the African race are altogether better adapted.'

California's political leadership on the eve of the Civil War was still dominated by Southern sympathizers -- voters called them the Chivalry faction, or the Chivs.  No Northern state had more draconian laws restricting the lives and rights of its black inhabitants.  A year earlier violence had broken out and a state senator, David Broderick was slain in a pistol duel with state Supreme Court Justice David Terry.  Broderick's dying words were reputed to have been: 'They killed me because I was opposed to the extension of slavery and the corruption of justice.'

Many Californians reasoned -- should it not be its own nation?  Let the old states fight their old battles; In early 1861, -- with the word 'pacific' taking on a newly ironic double meaning -- the moment for the Pacific Republic seemed to have arrived.   It was argued that California should secede -- taking the opportunity to seize for themselves 'our vast resources.'   A congressman,  Rep. Charles L. Scott , said: 'Let us set up for ourselves, and in a half century we will indeed have a grand, glorious, and mighty Republic, founded upon the sad experience of the past, but which will endure until time is no more.'

The flag did not stay on the flagpole for long.  It was cut down mysteriously and a new flag in its place:  a bear against a backdrop of California mountains with an enormous eagle hovering above, with talons outstretched -- and the terrified bruin scampering toward a patch of chaparral."  (The Bear Wars, by Adam Goodheart, Disunion, New York Times, January 14, 1861)

January 14, 1861 (Monday)

Treason....

"Vermont-born Judge David Allen Smalley, presiding over the U. S. District Court charged his Grand Jury to investigate all possible acts of treason under their jurisdiction.  His charge was studied and direct.  While certain states probably had grievances against other states in the crisis, this did not excuse the overt acts of treason against the United States of the past weeks.  Treason, he reminded them, included, 'giving aid and comfort', and provided a clear definition.  This action caused excitement since many New York businesses were trading with the South at the time. (By John Osborne, From his bench in New York City, U.S. District Court Judge David Smalley defines high treason, House Divided--A Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College)

**********************

"The following paragraph from the Charleston Mercury shows that Disunionists in South Carolina neither halt nor hesitate in carrying their doctrines to their legitimate results:

'Arrest for Treason:  J. N. Merriman.
Collector of the port of Georgetown, S. C. was on Monday last arrested by the people of Georgetown on a charge of treason against the State.  A letter was found written by him and addressed to Mr. Buchanan, stating that he (Merriman) had just cleared vessels in the name of the United States, and that he would continue to do so.  The letter calls upon the President to send a boat and men to collect the Federal revenue, and informs him of the progress made in the construction of the works near Georgetown, and promises to keep him posted from time to time in relation to the same....'

Officers of the Government of the United States have thus been arrested and committed to prison for obeying the laws of that Government.  They are to be tried for treason against South Carolina.  If convicted, they will either be executed or owe their lives to the clemency of the sham Government of that State.  It strikes us that the Administration at Washington cannot well avoid meeting the issue thus raised.  No Government which has any self-respect, or any desire to preserve the respect of the world, can fail to protect its own officers in such a case."  (Disunion Leading the Way, New York Times editorial, January 14, 1861.)

January 13, 1861 (Sunday

Defiant

Talk given at Duke University by Stephanie McCurry on her book, Confederate Reckoning:  Power and the Politics in the Civil War South (Harvard University Press, 2010). 

"The founding of the Confederate States of America was a signal event in the history of the Western world.  What the secessionists set out to do was entirely new in the history of nations.  They wanted to build an explicitly pro-slavery and anti-democrat nation-state, dedicated to the proposition that all men were NOT created equal.

No other class of slave holders tried this.  In the age of nationalism, this kind of pro-slavery national independence movement had no peer.  Confederates were all caught up in the turbulent currents of history that roiled the Western hemisphere in the age of emancipation.  White Southerners acted out of confidence; these guys were flush with power and money.  They acted in complete defiance to the spirit of the age.

They believed they could launch this pro-slavery republic and sustain it, even if it came to war.  They were emboldened by the failure of emancipation in the Western world.  The confederacy was simply a gamble, a huge gamble on the future of slavery.  And with secession, white Southerners went all in.  It was a poker game...they put all their chips in."

                                      *************************

Another article depicting slavery as "advocating hell on earth."  There is a shocking anecdote about "breeding" between master/slave relationships.     Charles O'Conor, a pro-slavery New York Democrat, justified slavery as just, right and beneficent--he was taken to task in this article.  ("To advocate Hell upon Earth", Seven Score and Ten, January 12, 1861)

January 12, 1861 (Saturday)

A Baptism of Blood

"Having submitted my own opinions on this great crisis, it remains only to say that I shall cheerfully lend to the government my best support in whatever prudent yet energetic efforts it shall make to preserve the Union, advising, only, that it practice as far as possible, the utmost moderation, forbearance and conciliation.

I know that we are in the midst of alarms, and somewhat exposed to accidents unavoidable in seasons of tempestuous passions.  We already have disorder, and violence has begun.  I know not to what extent it may go.  Still my faith in the Constitution and in the Union abides, because my faith in the wisdom and virtue of the American people remains unshaken.  Coolness, calmness, and resolution, are elements of their character.  They have been temporarily displaced; but they are reappearing.

Soon enough, I trust, for safety, it will be seen that sedition and violence are only local and temporary, and that loyalty and affection to the Union are the natural sentiments of the whole country.  Whatever dangers there shall be, there will be the determination to meet them; whatever sacrifices, private or public, shall be needful for the Union, they will be made.  I feel sure that the hour has not come for this great nation to fall.  This people, which has been studying to become wiser and better as it has grown older, is not perverse or wicked enough to deserve so dreadul and severe a punishment as dissolution. 

This Union has not yet accomplished what good for mankind was manifestly designed by Him who appoints the seasons and prescribes the duties of States and empires.  No, sir:  if it were cast down by factions today, it would rise again and reappear in all its majestic proportions tomorrow.  It is the only government that can stand here.  Woe!  Woe!  to the man that madly lifts his hand against it.  This nation shall continue and endure; and men, in after time, shall declare that this generation, which saved the Union from such sudden and unlooked for dangers, surpassed in magnanimity even that one which laid its foundations in the eternal principles of liberty, justice and humanity."  (Speech of Senator William Seward, January 12, 1861, The Richmond Daily Dispatch)

"If, without damage to the sacred cause

Of Freedom and the safeguard of its laws----

If, without yielding that for which alone

We prize the Union, thou canst save it now

From a baptism of blood, upon thy brow

A wreath whose flowers no earthly soil have known,

Woven of the beatitutdes, shall rest,

And the peacemaker be forever blest!"

(John Greenleaf Whittier, poem to William Seward, A Baptism of Blood? by Daniel W. Crofts, New York Times, January 11, 2011)