Who Bankrolled the Abolitionists? A Prediction

James Lutzweiler

Sergeant Major
Joined
Mar 14, 2018
Fellow Posters,

I have been meditating on another question for years with no hard answers. I seek you comments and contributions, if the subject interests you. I am pointedly not asking any one to do my homework Edited argumentative. I ask only if you enjoy the pursuit. I certainly do.

As you all know, the 17-year deadlock over the first transcontinental railroad was broken in July 1862, when Lincoln & Company began to build it --and note, to build it while fighting a war where that Midwestern muscle power could have been used to beat up on Rebels. This deadlock was bound to come sooner or later; and for all practical purposes, it was Secession that enabled it to happen. Long gone were those who objected to the Midwestern footprint.

In this connection, I have wondered something very cynical but nevertheless relevant and worthy of pursuit. In short, were there any businessmen in the North who deliberately funded abolitionists, believing that Secession would follow their screams about the immorality of slavery, and thinking to themselves, "If the South secedes, the deadlock will be broken. Then we can build the TRR and become powerful enough to retake the South, if it does indeed secede. Let us divide and conquer."

That, of course, is what lawyers do --divide and conquer; and many of the Seceshers and Congressmen were just that. But lawyers have no corner on this methodology. I have seen it happen in real estate at the microcosm level. And it no doubt happens at many levels.

I have not yet gotten deeply into this subject. What prompted a rekindling of this question was a recent discovery that William Seward was one of the bankrollers of the abolitionists. We also know that Seward was heavy into the idea of a TRR. Was he possibly one such businessman who thought along these lines? My guess is that if he had already expressed himself as literally as I expressed the thought above that someone would have discovered it and written about it by now. That being said, Seward does not exhaust the industrialists who craved to build that 8th wonder of the world. What about the Tappans? Jay Cooke? Prospective European bankrollers? Anybody?

Prediction: I predict that somewhere out there language to this effect will show up. Who will join me in the chase for it? Anybody? "Who bankrolled the abolitionists and why?" is the question. How could a bunch of pious Protestants in the North condemn slavery, while not railing against and atoning for the extermination of Indians? I sniff a disjunction.

Again, I am not looking for extermination versus slavery discussions. Please limit posts to the names of the bankrollers and their motives insofar as you can comprehend them.

Thanks for the engagement, if any. And remember, on behalf of the non sequiturer, I am NOT asking for anyone to do my homework. I am asking if anyone finds that homework interesting. If you come up with the data, you can keep it to yourself, write your own essay, and forget that I suggested the idea or that I even exist. Just let me know where you plan to publish it so I can read it.

James
 
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