- Joined
- Jan 12, 2016
- Location
- South Carolina
A fellow poster had in one of his posts this quote from Abraham Lincoln, when discussing causes of the war:
Let the South go? Where then shall we get our revenue?
Other posters then said the quote was likely not accurate. I don't know one way or the other, so I went looking for the source and found this passage, among others.
The South resisted this wholesale robbery, to the best of her ability. Some few of the more generous of the Northern representatives in Congress came to her aid, but still she was overborne; and the curious reader, who will take the pains to consult the "Statutes at Large," of the American Congress, will find on an average,-a tariff for every five years recorded on their pages; the cormorants increasing in rapacity, the more they devoured. No wonder that Mr. Lincoln when asked, "why not let the South go?" replied, "Let the South go! where then shall we get our revenue?"
Admiral Raphael Semmes, Memoirs of Service Afloat, During the War Between The States
The original source may well have been this issue of the Baltimore Exchange from April 23, 1861. See the 5th column about halfway down under the heading "The Peace Mission".
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83009573/1861-04-23/ed-1/seq-1.pdf
Mr. Lincoln replied that, mathematically speak ing, the troops could not crawl under Maryland,
nor could they fly over it, and consequently they would have to come through it. It he was to fol
low the advice of Dr. Fuller, he would have no Government at all. France and England would
recognize the Southern Confederacy, and his revenues would be broken up, and the Government
would be worth nothing. Dr. Fuller assured him that he thought diti'erently himself, and believed
that there could be a strong Government in the South and another one in the North, who might
live in alliance. Mr. Lincoln thought differently, and said that South Carolinians were now march
inn through Virginia for the purpose of hanging him. Dr. Fuller then told the President that"tho
impression bad been created among the people, ho did not know whether it was erroneous or not, that
his Cabinet were principally disposed to have peace, and that Gefferal Scott bad counselled peace, but
that he was the man who desired war. Mr. Smith, Secretary of the Interior, here came forward and
stated that he felt it to be his duty to state that the Cabinet entirely approved of Mr. Lincoln's course in this matter.
The wording is not the same, but the general idea is the same.
My question is this: what is the general consensus on this quote? If it's false, how do we know it's false? If it's true, how did it get from the summary in the newspaper to the quote that Semmes and others used?
Let the South go? Where then shall we get our revenue?
Other posters then said the quote was likely not accurate. I don't know one way or the other, so I went looking for the source and found this passage, among others.
The South resisted this wholesale robbery, to the best of her ability. Some few of the more generous of the Northern representatives in Congress came to her aid, but still she was overborne; and the curious reader, who will take the pains to consult the "Statutes at Large," of the American Congress, will find on an average,-a tariff for every five years recorded on their pages; the cormorants increasing in rapacity, the more they devoured. No wonder that Mr. Lincoln when asked, "why not let the South go?" replied, "Let the South go! where then shall we get our revenue?"
Admiral Raphael Semmes, Memoirs of Service Afloat, During the War Between The States
The original source may well have been this issue of the Baltimore Exchange from April 23, 1861. See the 5th column about halfway down under the heading "The Peace Mission".
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83009573/1861-04-23/ed-1/seq-1.pdf
Mr. Lincoln replied that, mathematically speak ing, the troops could not crawl under Maryland,
nor could they fly over it, and consequently they would have to come through it. It he was to fol
low the advice of Dr. Fuller, he would have no Government at all. France and England would
recognize the Southern Confederacy, and his revenues would be broken up, and the Government
would be worth nothing. Dr. Fuller assured him that he thought diti'erently himself, and believed
that there could be a strong Government in the South and another one in the North, who might
live in alliance. Mr. Lincoln thought differently, and said that South Carolinians were now march
inn through Virginia for the purpose of hanging him. Dr. Fuller then told the President that"tho
impression bad been created among the people, ho did not know whether it was erroneous or not, that
his Cabinet were principally disposed to have peace, and that Gefferal Scott bad counselled peace, but
that he was the man who desired war. Mr. Smith, Secretary of the Interior, here came forward and
stated that he felt it to be his duty to state that the Cabinet entirely approved of Mr. Lincoln's course in this matter.
The wording is not the same, but the general idea is the same.
My question is this: what is the general consensus on this quote? If it's false, how do we know it's false? If it's true, how did it get from the summary in the newspaper to the quote that Semmes and others used?