A
primary cause of secession was constant and irresponsible agitation by
fanatical abolitionists who fomented slave rebellion. A last straw for
the South was the realization that prominent Northern leaders and
Republican politicians had supplied John Brown with money and weapons as
well as legal support after his capture. Not forthcoming from the
abolitionists was a reasonable, peaceful and sincere solution to African
slavery in this country.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Abolition Crusade Ends in the Sword:
Montevideo, Monday, November 7th, 1859
Rev. C.C. Jones to Mr. Charles C. Jones, Jr. (excerpt)
“The
Harpers Ferry affair proves to be more serious than at first it
appeared to be -- not in reference to the Negro population, for that had
nothing to do with it; but in reference to the hostility of large
numbers of men of all classes in the free States to the slaveholding
States, even unto blood, and their readiness to aid and abet such
attempts with counsels and money, and to employ reckless agents to carry
them out.
There
is a covert, cowardly, assassin-like heart in these men. Why do they
not arm and come to the field in open day? From the tone of the
abolition press in the free States, both secular and religious, there is
great sympathy for the prisoners at Harpers Ferry. Some go so far as to
justify the act, and only condemn the time and manner of it! The whole
abolition crusade which has been preached for thirty years ends in the
sword. The volunteering of counsel for the prisoners from the free
States is another proof of sympathy in their crime, and an insult to the
justice of the South.
Some
of the papers friendly to the South hope that the South will be
forbearing and magnanimous! Against the miserable lives of these men who
have plotted arson, robbery, murder and treason over a vast portion of
our country, who may weigh millions of property, millions of lives, the
virtue, the order, the peace and happiness of our people, the majesty of
the laws, the sacredness of religion, our constitution and our Union?
There
is no place left for forbearance---no ground for compromises. The
magnanimity of the South must not be exercised towards public criminals
of the deepest dye, but towards herself in all her greatest and best
interests, and towards our common country. Such sparks like these,
struck to produce a universal conflagration, should be stamped out
immediately. Such enemies should be met and overwhelmed without quarter
in a moment.
If
the conservative and loyal men of the free States, who we believe do
now possess the power, are willing and ready to rule down this spirit of
treasonable and violent aggression upon an unoffending and invaluable
section of our country, we shall be most happy to see them do it.”
(The Children of Pride, Robert Manson Myers, editor, Yale University Press, 1974, pp. 525-526)
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