 | Henry L. Benning, Georgia politician and future Confederate
general, writing in the summer of 1849 to his fellow Georgian, Howell Cobb:
"First then, it is apparent, horribly apparent, that the slavery
question rides insolently over every other everywhere -- in fact that is the
only question which in the least affects the results of the elections."
[Allan Nevins, The Fruits of Manifest Destiny pages 240-241.] Later
in the same letter Benning says, "I think then, 1st, that the
only safety of the South from abolition universal is to be found in an early
dissolution of the Union."
| Albert Gallatin Brown, U.S. Senator from Mississippi, speaking with
regard to the several filibuster expeditions to Central America: "I
want Cuba . . . I want Tamaulipas, Potosi, and one or two other Mexican
States; and I want them all for the same reason -- for the planting and
spreading of slavery." [Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 106.]
| Senator Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia: "There is not a
respectable system of civilization known to history whose foundations were
not laid in the institution of domestic slavery." [Battle Cry of
Freedom, p. 56.]
| Richmond Enquirer, 1856: "Democratic liberty exists solely
because we have slaves . . . freedom is not possible without slavery."
| Atlanta Confederacy, 1860: "We regard every man in our midst
an enemy to the institutions of the South, who does not boldly declare that
he believes African slavery to be a social, moral, and political
blessing."
| Lawrence Keitt, Congressman from South Carolina, in a
speech to the House on January 25, 1860: "African slavery is the
corner-stone of the industrial, social, and political fabric of the South;
and whatever wars against it, wars against her very existence. Strike down
the institution of African slavery and you reduce the South to depopulation
and barbarism." Later in the same speech he said, "The
anti-slavery party contend that slavery is wrong in itself, and the
Government is a consolidated national democracy. We of the South contend
that slavery is right, and that this is a confederate Republic of sovereign
States." Taken from a photocopy of the Congressional Globe
supplied by Steve
Miller.
| Keitt again, this time as delegate to the South Carolina
secession convention, during the debates on the state's declaration of
causes: "Our people have come to this on the question of slavery. I am
willing, in that address to rest it upon that question. I think it is the
great central point from which we are now proceeding, and I am not willing
to divert the public attention from it." Taken from the Charleston,
South Carolina, Courier, dated Dec. 22, 1860. See the Furman
documents site for more transcription from these debates. Keitt became a
colonel in the Confederate army and was killed at Cold Harbor on June 1,
1864.
| Methodist Rev. John T. Wightman, preaching at Yorkville,
South Carolina: "The triumphs of Christianity rest this very hour upon
slavery; and slavery depends on the triumphs of the South . . . This war is
the servant of slavery." [The Glory of God, the Defence of the
South (1861), cited in Eugene Genovese's Consuming Fire (1998).]
| From the Confederate Constitution:
 | Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 4: "No bill of attainder, ex post
facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro
slaves shall be passed."
| Article IV, Section 3, Paragraph 3: "The Confederate States may
acquire new territory . . . In all such territory, the institution of
negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be
recognized and protected by Congress and the territorial
government." |
|
| From the Georgia Constitution of 1861:"The General Assembly
shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves." (This
is the entire text of Article 2, Sec. VII, Paragraph 3.)
| From the Alabama Constitution of 1861: "No slave in
this State shall be emancipated by any act done to take effect in this
State, or any other country." (This is the entire text of Article IV,
Section 1 (on slavery).)
| Alexander Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, referring to
the Confederate government: "Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone
rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man;
that slavery . . . is his natural and normal condition." [Augusta,
Georgia, Daily Constitutionalist, March 30, 1861.]
| On the formation of black regiments in the Confederate army, by promising
the troops their freedom:
| Howell Cobb, former general in Lee's army, and prominent
pre-war Georgia politician: "If slaves will make good soldiers,
then our whole theory of slavery is wrong." [Battle Cry of
Freedom, p. 835.]
| A North Carolina newspaper editorial: "it is abolition doctrine .
. . the very doctrine which the war was commenced to put down." [North
Carolina Standard, Jan. 17, 1865; cited in Battle Cry of Freedom,
p. 835.]
| Robert M.T. Hunter, Senator from Virginia, "What did we go
to war for, if not to protect our property?" |
| |
| Alfred P. Aldrich, South Carolina legislator from Barnwell:
"If the Republican party with its platform of principles, the main
feature of which is the abolition of slavery and, therefore, the destruction
of the South, carries the country at the next Presidential election, shall
we remain in the Union, or form a separate Confederacy? This is the great,
grave issue. It is not who shall be President, it is not which party shall
rule -- it is a question of political and social existence." [Steven
Channing, Crisis of Fear, pp. 141-142.]
| During the 1830's occurred the Gag Rule controversy in Congress, during
which Southern politicians tried to block even the presentation of petitions
on the subject of slavery. The following quotes come from speeches made in
the House and Senate during this time, taken from William Miller's book, Arguing
About Slavery:
| John C. Calhoun, Senator from South Carolina: "The defence
of human liberty against the aggressions of despotic power have been
always the most efficient in States where domestic slavery was to
prevail."
| James H. Hammond, Congressman from South Carolina: "Sir, I
do firmly believe that domestic slavery, regulated as ours is, produces
the highest toned, the purest, best organization of society that has
ever existed on the face of the earth."
| Hammond again, from later in the same speech: "the moment
this House undertakes to legislate upon this subject [slavery], it
dissolves the Union. Should it be my fortune to have a seat upon this
floor, I will abandon it the instant the first decisive step is taken
looking towards legislation of this subject. I will go home to preach,
and if I can, practice, disunion, and civil war, if needs be. A
revolution must ensue, and this republic sink in blood."
| Henry Wise, Congressman (and future governor) from Virginia:
"The principle of slavery is a leveling principle; it is friendly
to equality. Break down slavery and you would with the same blow break
down the great democratic principle of equality among men." |
| | |
| From the diary of James B. Lockney, 28th Wisconsin Infantry, writing near
Arkadelphia, Arkansas (10/29/63): "Last night I talked awhile to those
men who came in day before yesterday from the S.W. part of the state about
120 miles distant. Many of them wish Slavery abolished & slaves out of
the country as they said it was the cause of the War, and the Curse of our
Country & the foe of the body of the people--the poor whites. They knew
the Slave masters got up the war expressly in the interests of the
institution, & with no real cause from the Government or the
North." [This diary is on-line at: http://userdata.acd.net/jshirey/cw186310.html.] |
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