- Joined
- Apr 4, 2017
- Location
- Denver, CO
And the Coming of the Civil War. In The War That Forged a Nation, Why the Civil War Still Matters, James McPherson, Oxford University Press 2015.
This Chapter begins at p. 15 of this collection of essays by James McPherson.
It is interesting to note how close the pro slavery politicians came to splitting the state into paid labor and coerced labor entities.
At page 25 he quotes the Charleston Mercury "There is no vocation in the world in which slavery can be more useful and profitable than in mining." This assertion provides significant evidence contradicting the natural limits argument that slavery could not expand beyond Texas.
See also page 29:
"All of the filibuster efforts [in Mexico, Cuba and Central America] to organize another slave state to offset California came to grief. They did succeed, however, in exacerbating the controversy over the expansion of slavery. Meanwhile, meanwhile Minnesota and Oregon came in as free states in 1858 and 1859."
On page 30 McPherson proposes that the pro slavery advocates extracted a heavy price from Stephen A. Douglas in order to get the state of Kansas in line for possible recognition, which impaired the 1850 compromise.
Thus when the pro slavery block thought they were maximizing the power of their coalition, they may have creating enemies in California and the Midwest unnecessarily. If they had remained silent about the extension of slavery and backed the central route of the transcontinental railroad, they might have prevented the rise of the Republican Party, and slavery could have been left alone for a very long time.
This Chapter begins at p. 15 of this collection of essays by James McPherson.
It is interesting to note how close the pro slavery politicians came to splitting the state into paid labor and coerced labor entities.
At page 25 he quotes the Charleston Mercury "There is no vocation in the world in which slavery can be more useful and profitable than in mining." This assertion provides significant evidence contradicting the natural limits argument that slavery could not expand beyond Texas.
See also page 29:
"All of the filibuster efforts [in Mexico, Cuba and Central America] to organize another slave state to offset California came to grief. They did succeed, however, in exacerbating the controversy over the expansion of slavery. Meanwhile, meanwhile Minnesota and Oregon came in as free states in 1858 and 1859."
On page 30 McPherson proposes that the pro slavery advocates extracted a heavy price from Stephen A. Douglas in order to get the state of Kansas in line for possible recognition, which impaired the 1850 compromise.
Thus when the pro slavery block thought they were maximizing the power of their coalition, they may have creating enemies in California and the Midwest unnecessarily. If they had remained silent about the extension of slavery and backed the central route of the transcontinental railroad, they might have prevented the rise of the Republican Party, and slavery could have been left alone for a very long time.
Bringing the