Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
Little is known in contemporary history about Hinton (Henry) Helper but his contribution to the sectional strife that led to the war is second only to John Brown's.
Henry was born on Dec 27, 1829 in North Carolina. Orphaned at an early age he received little education and was an indentured servant. He stole money from his employer and ran off to New York before joining the California Gold Rush. Returning unsuccessfully from out West, Helper returned to NY and wrote his infamous book, "The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet it." In the book, Helper contrasted economic and cultural differences of the South with incendiary rhetoric, false statistics and reasoning. He blamed the 'backwardness' of the South on the aristocracy of the plantation class. In the book, Helper called on the white non-slaveholders to oust the plantation owners from political power and abolish slavery.The book was so inflammatory that Helper initially had difficulty finding a publisher but it finally was published in 1857. It sold 14,000 copies in the North but was banned in the South. Ironically, even though Helper advocated the abolishment of slavery, he personally despised blacks and wrote a second book calling for 'the Negro out of America... and out of existence.' During the war, Helper was assigned to South America as a diplomat. After the war, Helper was an occasional lobbyist and political hanger-on. In 1909, penniless and bitter, Helper committed suicide.
I posted this somewhere else on the forum. In truth this does deserve a thread of it's own in a way but I am just too knackered to add anything to it right now
YMOS
tommy
WHO ENDORSED
THE HELPER BOOK!
WHO WERE THE INCITERS TO BLOODSHED?
"The Unconditional Abolition of Slavery,"
"Peaceably, if we can; Violently, if we must."
READ! READ! READ!
In the year 1857, an individual named Hinton Rowan Helper, who had been forced to leave his native State, North Carolina, in disgrace, published a book, of which he was the reputed author, entitled "The Impending Crisis," The book recommended direct warfare on Southern society, "be the consequences what they might." It was so extravagant in tone, and so diabolical in its designs, that it was at first generally supposed to be the work of a fool or a madman. No one could believe that any sane or civilized person really entertained any such devilish purposes as it professed.--What, however, was the surprise of the public when the book was actually adopted by the Republican party as a campaign document, and its atrocious principles endorsed by SIXTY-EIGHT Republican members of Congress and all the influential members of the party! Below will be found an abstract of the principles it advocated, taken from the large edition of the work, published by A. B. Burdick, No. 145 Nassau street, N. Y., 1860, and the names of their endorsers, &c:
1. We unhesitatingly declare ourselves in favor of the immediate and unconditional Abolition of Slavery.--Page 26.
2. "We cannot be TOO HASTY in carrying out our designs."--Page 33.
3. "No man can be a true patriot without first becoming an Abolitionist."--Page 116
4. Against slaveholders, as a body, we (that is, the Republican signers and endorsers) wage an EXTERMINATING WAR.--Page 120.
5. Slaveholders are nuisances, and it is our imperative duty to abate nuisances; we propose, therefore, to EXTERMINATE SLAVERY, that which strychnine itself is less a nuisance.--Page 139.
6. Slaveholders are more criminal than COMMON MURDERERS--Page 140.
7. All slaveholders are under the shield of a perpetual license to murder.--Page 141.
8. It is our honest conviction that all the pro-slavery slaveholders, who are alone responsible for the continuance of the baneful institution among us, deserve to be at once reduced to a parallel with the BASEST CRIMINALS that lie fettered within the cells of our public prisons.--Page 158.
9. Were it possible that the whole number (of slaveholders) could be gathered together and transferred into four equal gangs of LICENSED ROBBERS, RUFFAINS, THIEVES, AND MURDERERS, society, we feel assured would suffer less from their atrocities than it does now.--Page 158.
10. Once and forever, at least so far as this country is concerned, the internal question of slavery must be disposed of. A SPEEDY AND ABSOLUTE ABOLISHMENT of the whole system is the true policy of the South, and this is the policy which We propose to pursue.--Page 121.
11. Slaveholders! It is for you to decide whether we are to have justice peaceably or by VIOLENCE, for WHATEVER CONSEQUENCES may follow, we are determined to have it, ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.--Page 128.
We Unfurl Our Banner to the World.
Inscribed on the banner which we (W. H. SEWARD, HORACE GREELEY, and the other endorsers,) herewith UNFURL to the world, with the full and fixed determination to stand by it or DIE BY IT, unless one of more virtuous efficacy shall be presented, are the mottoes which, in substance, embody the PRINCIPLES as we conceive should GOVERN us.
The Mottoes on Our Banner.
1. Thorough organization and independent political action on the part of non-slaveholding whites of the South.
2. Ineligibility of slaveholders; never another vote to the trafficer in human flesh.
3. No co-operation with slaveholders in politics, no fellowship with them in religion no affiliation with them in society.
4. No patronage to slaveholding merchants; no bequest to slave waiting hotels; no fees to slaveholding lawyers; no employment to slaveholding physicians; no audience to slaveholding parsons.
5. No recognition to pro slavery men, except as ruffians, outlaws, and criminals.
6. Immediate DEATH to SLAVERY, or if not immediate, unqualified proscription of its advocate during the period of its existence.--Pages 155 and 156.
7. Thus, terror engenderers of the South, have we fully and frankly defined our position: we have no modifications to propose, no compromises to offer, nothing to retract, Frown, sirs, fret, foam, prepare your weapons, threat, strike, shoot, stab, bring on civil war, dissolve the Union, nay, annihilate the solar system if you will--do all, this, more, less, better, worse, anything--do what you will, sirs, you can neither foil nor intimidate us; our purpose is as firmly fixed as the eternal pillars of Heaven; we have determined to ABOLISH SLAVERY, AND SO HELP US GOD, ABOLISH IT WE WILL.--Page 187.
How did the Hinton Helper book do anything to encourage danger in the South?
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Tricky wording of your question. I do not think the book in and of itself was much of a threat per se. What was a very valid danger was the fact the Republicans took an obscure and failed piece of literature and turned it into a manifesto. Used in that regard it was indeed a serious danger. As with John Brown, Jim Lane, Immigrant Aid etc. "Peaceably, if we can; Violently, if we must." That is not even mentioning the rest of the hate filled diatribes in the book.
The same could be said today. There are dozens of anti abortion books that say the same things. Basically, "Peaceably, if we can; Violently, if we must." Advocating violence etc. The power they have is almost non existent of and by themselves.
Yet say a party in power stood up and signed it. Paid to have a million copies distributed. Is it the book and it being full of invectives to violence the danger? The advocating violence etc. The power the books alone have are virtually non existent. Is it the book itself that is the danger or the fact it is being used by a political party and is full of invectives to violence? Is the danger the direct approval given to the book by a governing body?
You are stating the Republican Party was IN power, i.e. in the majority in Congress at the time of the printing of the Hinton Helper book? Explain that to me please.
Sincerely,
Unionblue
PS Good to see you back on the board, you were missed.
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Just to bring this old thread back to the top for those who have not seen it.
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
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