Saturday, April 18, 2015

Northern Opponents of Lincoln’s Jacobins

 

Though abolitionists found much of their strength in New England, Democrats in that region sided with the South in its determination of be free of the North. After this editorial of the Bangor Democrat appeared, a pro-Lincoln mob burned the news offices and printing presses. The editorial was re-printed in the New York Evening Day-Book of 18 April 1861.
Bernhard Thuersam, www.Circa1865.com

Northern Opponents of Lincoln’s Jacobins

“Throughout the broad land of the fair South, the rising sun is no longer welcomed with the cheerful song of the husbandman wending his way to the toil of his peaceful field, but is greeted with the drum-beat that summons to arms the gathering hosts of war. From Carolina to the Rio Grande all is hasty preparation for a fearful conflict of arms.

There, to-day, are no peaceful, happy and quiet homes, for the invader is on their soil, and the government which was created to protect and defend them, has ruthlessly turned its guns against their altars and firesides.

Gray-headed fathers, stout-hearted husbands, and fair-cheeked youths, are taking a tearful adieu of their wives, their children, their mothers and their sisters, and buckling on their armor, and hastening away to the battle-fields from which many, many may never return to gladden their homes again.

This, reader, is no fanciful picture; it is a stern reality. To-morrow, in thousands of homes, wives, mothers, daughters, and little children will gather in mournful silence around the family board no longer cheered by the presence of their natural guardians and protectors.

Why is all this?

It is because that old Tory party, which under a multitude of names and disguises, first resisted the independence of America, and after its Government had become an established fact, has been unceasing in its efforts to get possession of it, and after having gained possession of it, by hypocritically assuming the garb of freedom, it has undertaken to convert the Government into an instrument of tyranny, and to use all its powers to overturn the very bulwarks of liberty itself – the Sovereignty of the States.

Yes, Abraham Lincoln, a Tory from his birth, is putting forth all the powers of government to crush out the spirit of American liberty. Surrounded by gleaming bayonets at Washington, he sends forth fleets and armies to overawe and subdue the gallant little State which was the first to raise its voice and arm against British oppression.

DEMOCRATS OF MAINE! The loyal sons of the South have gathered around Charleston as your fathers of old gathered about Boston, in defense of the same sacred principles of liberty – principles which you have ever upheld and defended with your vote, your voice and your strong right arm. Your sympathies are with the defenders of the truth and the right. Those who have inaugurated this unholy and unjustifiable war are no friend of yours – no friends of Democratic Liberty. Will you aid them in their work of subjugation and tyranny?

When the Government at Washington calls for volunteers or recruits to carry on their work of subjugation and tyranny under the specious phrases of “enforcing the laws,” “retaking and protecting the public property,” and “collecting the revenue,” let every Democrat fold his arms and bid the minions of Tory despotism [to] do a Tory despot’s work.

Say to them fearlessly and boldly in the language of England’s great Lord, the Earl of Chatham, whose bold words in behalf of the struggling Colonies of America in the dark hours of the revolution, have enshrined his name in the heart of every friend of freedom, and immortalized his fame wherever the name of liberty is known – say in his thrilling language:

“If I were a Southerner, as I am a Northerner, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I would never lay down my arms – never, never, NEVER!”

(Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait, Herbert Mitgang, editor, UGA Press, 1989, pp. 256-257)

6 comments:

  1. "under the specious phrases of “enforcing the laws,” “retaking and protecting the public property,” and “collecting the revenue,”"

    Wait! Where is "freeing the slaves"? I had this argument with some Yankees just this week. They had never heard that the war was actually started over "collecting the revenue". They were bound and determined to say that "Saint" Lincoln went to war to free the slaves. When faced with the evidence, in typical Yankee fashion they turned to insult and "might makes right".

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    1. The best I've heard is after many years the two sections of the country no longer had anything in common, and it was time for a divorce. As I remember, the two sides couldn't even agree on how to expand the capitol. :)

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  2. The Slavery Issue was cited in every Secession Statement, most in the first paragraph.
    Explanation please!

    Verdict: The 20th Century VINDICATES Lincoln and the Union Victory period

    the only reason I'm 'Anonymous' is because I'm not listed with any of your other sources, I AM Tony Licursi, Virginia and formerly of Georgia, an adopted Son of the South from NYC, Hardcore Conservative and very disappointed with the Hardcore Confederates who hold tightly to a Lost Cause that deserved to lose.

    I actually support Divorce today... but the issues are much different than in 1861.
    If you take away the issue of slavery in 1861, the South was right!
    the problem is... you can't take away the issue of slavery.
    That Moral Cause, adopted LATER! in the War, pushed by Julia Ward Howe is the unavoidable, inescapable Supreme Decider. That War Aims can be altered during the course of a War is hardly unique to the War Between the States- it's a regular thing throughout history and y'all wanna say it ain't so.

    Shame on y'all for believing The Lie... America became better AFTER the South lost.
    Ironic, that it is The South that will preserve America's Founding into the future.

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    1. The Slavery Issue was cited in every Secession Statement, most in the first paragraph. Explanation please!

      You need to furnish an explanation since your statement is incorrect.

      NC: "We do further declare and ordain, That the union now subsisting between the State of North Carolina and the other States under the title of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved, and that the State of North Carolina is in the full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State"

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      The 20th Century VINDICATES Lincoln and the Union Victory period

      Yes, both Stalin and Hitler idolized the Tyrant Lincoln.

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      the Hardcore Confederates who hold tightly to a Lost Cause that deserved to lose.

      Kiss my ruddy, red rectum, Carpetbagger. :)

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      America became better AFTER the South lost.

      Certainly, we now have a Marxist President/government. How right you are....................

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  3. Did he say adopted? Doesn't that make him like a bastard son or something?

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