February 26, 1861 (Tuesday)

Fanning the Flames

Thoughts written this day:

"The people of the Southern Confederacy are by no means as harmonious and well contented as their leaders predicted they would be after they 'seceded' from the Union.  Like unruly boys who run away from comfortable homes on account of fancied indignities, before they are fully able to take care of themselves, they find themselves surrounded with unexpected embarrassments which they are illy prepared to encounter.  The question of taxation, always a delicate one, is now necessarily attracting their earnest attention.  To properly sustain the independent attitude to which they aspire a large amount of money must annually be expended.  They have long complained that 'the North' imposed serious burdens upon them for its aggrandisement, but the sum they have contributed heretofore to the present National Government has been but trifling, when compared with the amount that will be required from them before the machinery of the new Confederacy can be put into complete and successful operation. 

South Carolina, too, appears to be sadly displeased with her loss of the power to make war, attack forts, and create as great a disturbance as possible in various ways, which she assumed before the new Confederacy was formed.  She is becoming almost as rebellious in feeling against the Montgomery government as the Washington government.  If she can't rule her new associates, she will not care how soon the new movement is broken up and runined."    (Troubles of the "New Confederacy", The Philadelphia Press, February 26, 1861.)   Hat tip The American Interest--The Long Recall

"From the New York Tribune:  'We are credibly informed that stocks have been sold in Wall-street for several days past, by parties who had received information, on which they relied, that he [Lincoln] would be killed before reaching Washington....'  New York Times responds to this article at the link. 
("A Golden Opportunity Lost", New York Times rebuttle article to the Tribune, February 26, 1861.)

"...the society in the North is not so much divided upon slavery by geographical lines as is generally supposed...it is the Puritan element of the North now in majority that desires to make war upon the social system of the South.  There has always been a powerful minority who, from their cradles up, have refused to bow the neck to this spiritual despotism...we are not surprised to see these people throwing down the gauntlet to the fanatics who threaten coercion of the South.  And, let us add, once convice these gentry that there will be fighting upon their own soil, and they will become meek, patient and forgiving."  (Northern Patriotism, Richmond Daily Dispatch, February 26, 1861)   Hat tip The American Civil War.