Quotes Leading Up to the War

[unionblue]

"But are we entirely blameless in this matter, my fellow countrymen? I give it to you as my opinion, that but for the policy the Southern people pursued, this fearful result would not have occurred."

Alexander H. Stephens, November 14, 1860.

Unionblue

[unionblue]

"Sir, we believe that the only security for the institution to which we attach so much importance is secession and a southern confederacy."

Senator Iverson of Georgia, during a debate in the Senate, 1861.

Unionblue

[unionblue]

"I disavow all intention on the part of the Republican party to harm a hair of your heads anywhere. We hold to no doctrine that can possibly work an inconvenience on you. We've been faithful to the execution of all laws in which you have any interest. It's not, then, that Mr. Lincoln is expected to do any overt act that would injure you. You won't wait for any. Anticipating that the government may work an injury, you say you'll put an end to it. This means that you intend either to rule or ruin this government. That is what your complaint come to; nothing else."

Senator Wade of Ohio, in debate, 1861.

Unionblue

[unionblue]

"The only question is...can the Union and slavery exist together."

William Henry Trescot to William Porcher Miles, Feb. 8, 1859.

Unionblue

[thea_447]

"The parties in this conflict are not merely
Abolitionists and slaveholders, they are Atheists,
Socialists, Communists, Red Republicans, Jacobins on
one side and the friends of order and regulated
freedom on the other. In one word, the world is the
battleground, Christianity and Atheism the Combatants,
and the progress of humanity the stake."
--Dr. James Henley Thornwell
THORNWELL, James Henley, clergyman, born in Marlborough district, South Carolina, in 1812; died in Charlotte, North Carolina, 1 August, 1862. He was graduated at South Carolina college in 1829, and entered upon the study of the law, which he soon abandoned to devote himself to the ministry in the Presbyterian church, he was chosen, in 1836, professor of logic and belles-lettres in South Carolina college, in 1842 professor of the evidences of Christianity and chaplain, and in 1852 its president. In 1856 he became a professor in the Presbyterian theological seminary at Columbia. For a short time he was pastor of the Globe street Presbyterian church in Charleston. Dr. Thornwell was one of the ablest men that the south has ever produced. To logical and metaphysical faculties of a high order he added a fine literary style, and an easy and effective address. He was an uncompromising champion of the old-school Presbyterian theology, and in politics advocated extreme southern views. He was the author of several published sermons and addresses, " Arguments of Romanists Discussed and Refuted " (New York, 1845)" "Discourses on Truth" (1854)" "Rights and Duties of Masters" (1861)" "The State of the Country" (1861)" and numerous articles in defence of slavery and secession in the "Southern Presbyterian Review." His collected works were edited by Reverend John B. Adger (2 vols., Richmond, 1874).

[unionblue]

"Here brothers fought for their principles, here heroes died to save their country, and a united people will forever cherish the precious legacy of their noble manhood."

Legend on the monument built by the State of Pennsylvania to its dead at Vicksburg.

Unionblue

[thea_447]

In the 1830's Alexis de Toqueville confessed that "in America he saw more than America." "I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or to hope from its progress." Sixty years later, Lord Bryce still viewed the United States as "an experiment in the rule of the multitude tried on a scale unprecedently vast, the results of which everyone is concerned to watch." Yet, he added, "they are something more than an experiment, for they are believed to disclose and display the type of institutions towards which, as by a law of fate, the rest of mankind are forced to move, some with swifter, others with slower, but all with unresting feet." (Civil War in the Making 1815-1860, Avery Craven, Louisiana State University Press, 1959, p.59)

[thea_447]

The planting of the cotton crop was financed by advances made by Northern firms, and paid for at harvest with drafts on New York banks. It was shipped in Northern vessels, insured by Northern companies, and handled by Northern factors. In fact, as Professor Foner says, "Down to the outbreak of the Civil War, New York dominated every single phase of the cotton trade from plantation to market." (Ibid. p.94-95)

[thea_447]

The Charleston Mercury spoke for the South: "The North and South are two nations, made by their institutions, customs and habits of thought, as distinct as the English and French; and our annual meetings at Washington are not Congresses to discuss the common interests, but conventions to contest antagonistic opinions and to proclaim mutual grievances and utter hostile threats." No two nations on earth are, or ever were, more distinctly separated and hostile than we are, " said Senator J.H. Hammond. "Not Carthage and Rome, England and France at any period." And when war came, the Reverend James H. Thornwell of South Carolina declared: "The parties in this conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders; they are atheists, socialists, communists, red republicans, jacobins on the one side, and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other. In one word, the world is the battleground, Christianity and atheism the combatants, and the progress of humanity, the stake." (Ibid. p.102)

[thea_447]

Among all these bitter feelings of the differences between the North and the South arose sympathy for all the workers and it was intense.

"There is not a state's prison or house of correction in New England where the hours of labor are so long, the hours for meals so short, and the ventilation so much neglected, as in the cotton mills with which I am acquainted," wrote Dr. Josiah C. Curtis in his report to the American Medical Association. "Could any beast of burden bear the duration of toil imposed on the factory operative?" asked another editor, and then added, "How much better is a horse than a woman." "Where is humanity?" asked another. "It is swallowed up in gain--for the almighty dollar; and for this, poor girls are enslaved and kept in a state little better than the machinery, which, when it gets out of repair, is taken to the repair shop and restored: but not so the human machinery--that is kept in a constant motion until the motive power is brought to a stop, and what of it then? It is laid to one side and new (human) machinery procured." And what became of the girl who was laid aside? The Daily Democrat tells us that "while those who reaped the profits" dropped "their heads on cologne scented handkerchiefs in prayer and thanksgiving every Sabbath day," the poor mill-girl came "to Boston to die in a brothel." (Ibid. p.14-15)