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)