January 5, 1861 (Saturday)

Churning

Letters from the South

"The secession is engineered by the politicians and poor whites; the slaveholders are compelled to fall in with it for fear of having their property confiscated.  The largest slave owner in this State was warned, the other day, that if he gave vent to his Union sentiment, he would be lynched and his property confiscated.  He took the hint and left the State.  In the present state of feeling, they cannot declare themselves without running more risk than they care to encounter.  The hope of us slave-holders, is, that the Government will at last do something to check the present revolutionary tide, so as to give us a chance to organize a reactionary party without endangering ourselves, our cotton, or our necks.  If people here felt certain that the United States Government would fight vigorously, a submissionist party would soon make itself heard.  It is the belief that Mr. Buchanan and his Cabinet are on the side of secession, and that no resistance is to be feared, which gives courage to the enemies of the Union.  I have very little hope, myself, in the future.  If I could sell my slaves I would go North; but I could not sell now without losing sixty percent, at least on their cost.  So I must swim with the tide and bear what fortune brings along."  (Alabama County, A Whisper of Truth, New York Times Editorial)

"Mr dear Father:  You will probably have learned that we have literally taken the 'bull by the horns.'   Hurrah for Major Anderson!  We have a man that is not afraid of responsibility, and who had more judgment and a better sense of duty than have ordinarily guided public men.  Major Anderson has been delighted with the temper and spirit of this little command, not a man of which would have flinched from any struggle that might have befallen us.  Tomorrow morning the stars and stripes will be hoisted over our new position, although the sight will sting South Carolina to the quick."  (Letter from a Prominent Citizen of Charleston, New York Times editorial, January 5, 2010)

"You ask me for my candid opinion of our condition, and I will venture to give it to you.  I could not publicly utter the sentiments of this letter without risking my life.  The leaders of the Convention, like their prototypes of the French Revolution, are beginning to be terrified at the fruits of the seed they have sown;

...What may bring these men to their senses is the tax system they have adopted.  When a per capita sum is levied upon negro slaves, those who began and have driven forward this miserable business will feel, in their own purses, that which is now afflicting men in my situation.  They will be brought to their senses; for it stands to reason that we can no more maintain a permanent military force without immense and burdensome taxation than we can eat our own cotton, or trade with Europe with Uncle Sam's fleet in our harbor.

I have never seen anything so silly and childish as that of the men who control our Convention.  They are not statesmen; they are lunatics, and seem to have no thought of the morrow.  Their whole design is one of haste and hate, and even you, who have your opinion of our fire-eaters, would be surprised to see how much more indiscreet and inexperienced they are than you have believed them to be.  These men appear to forget that, while they may prevent an American man-of-war from crossing our bar and coming into our port, and enforcing the United States law, they at the same time exclude all commerce from us. 

I want no war, for no man would suffer more, or could afford to suffer less than he who pens these lines, but it is clear that unless the federal Government shows its teeth, and tells these men that it will enforce the laws made in pursuance of the Constitution, they will go on until they wrap the whole of the Gulf States in a general conflagration."  (Letter from a leading citizen of Charleston, New York Times article, January 5, 1861)