My thoughts

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Hm. Always wondered what the "straw man's" name was. I think it's "Hinton Helper!"

 

[DanF]

But I would have to see some hard evidence that Hinton Helper, or anyone else, came anywhere near convincing the non- slave holding majority that the abolition of slavery and the embrace of the Republican party was in their economic and social best interest.​

​

I did not say that helper or anyone else actually convinced non slave holders of anything., I said the slave holding classes FEAR was that a republican party would be established in the South by Southern men. The nucleus of which would be "turncoat" southerners recipients of offices under the Federal patronage system. And they feared it would begin in the border states where slavery did not have the grip it did in the deeper south.

The slaveholders took Helper's book VERY seriously and with their usual penchant for over reaction suppressed it. Their reaction almost caused an armed standoff in the congress itself. Southerners were opposed to John Sherman being speaker of the House, their chief complaint was he had endorsed Helpers book. ( a signed endorsement) They were serious enough about preventing him from being speaker that they even plotted with South Carolina Governed Gist. William Porcher Miles contacted Gist with the Southern plan of (If elected speaker) Sherman would be driven from the House by armed southerners who would then take over the house. Miles requested of Gist troops to assist them if this occurred. Gist promised to send troops.

 

[OpnCoronet]

As noted by DanF, one of the great fears of the slave owning oligarchy of the south, was that the non-slaveowning majority would one day, might realize that their's and the oligarchy's interests, were not be the same.

 

[OpnCoronet]

As noted by DanF, one of the great fears of the slave owning oligarchy of the south, was that the non-slaveowning majority would one day, might realize that their's and the oligarchy's interests, were not be the same.

 

[CSA Today]

As noted by DanF, one of the great fears of the slave owning oligarchy of the south, was that the non-slaveowning majority would one day, might realize that their's and the oligarchy's interests, were not be the same.

Nothing novel about that, you might say it's pretty much a universal reaction. The rise of the labor union movement, by working class whites, (mostly outside the South) was certainly a reaction to exploitive capitalism after the war.

"When the government fears the people there is liberty, when the people fear the government there is tyranny."

Thomas Jefferson