Will Secession Preserve Slavery?
Herald and Torch (Hagerstown, Md.), March 13, 1861:
| The Baltimore Sun, which is the exponent of the
extreme sentiments of the Southern rights men of Maryland, as
they call themselves, says that “secession and union with
the South is the only thing that can preserve” the
institution of Slavery in Maryland. Thus, the cloven-foot is very
plainly shown by the Metropolitan organ of the BRECKINRIDGE
politicians. It virtually assumes as a fact that the North has
become permanently Republicanized in the partizan acceptation of
that term, and from this very questionable hypothesis, proceeds
to argue that slavery will be insecure in the Border States if
they remain in the Union with that North as an insignificant
minority, but it utterly fails to show how that institution in
Maryland would be more secure in a Southern Confederacy. We do
not believe that a majority of the Northern people have willfully
and deliberately determined to crush out Slavery, or that they
are not prepared at this very moment, could they be heard through
their ballot-boxes, to do us ample justice. But suppose the Sun
is right in its uncharitable opinion of those people, what
protection can JEFF. DAVIS’ Confederacy extend to the
institution of Slavery in Maryland that it does not now enjoy
under the Constitution and in the Union which our forefathers
framed and cemented and bequeathed to us as the most priceless of
legacies? Release those Northern people from their constitutional
obligations to us, and what is to prevent them from striking down
Slavery wherever it can be reached? and what is to prevent them
from reaching it in Maryland but an imaginary division line of
nearly two hundred miles in length? We think the people of this
State will require some further information upon this subject
from the Sun – some additional rays of light from this great
Southern luminary – because they are prepared to accept its
proposition that “secession and union with the South is the
only thing that can preserve the institution of slavery in
Maryland,” or before they are willing to believe that such a
suicidal step would not put that institution in the course of
very rapid extinction in all the border States. This text was taken from Robert Moore's excellent blog, Cenantua's Blog. |
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| Source: Scanned image of archived newspaper. |
| Date added to website: On or
before August 1, 2019 |