“There
was no room for uncertainty as to the significance of the election of
Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, in 1860, by a party exclusively
sectional in organization, and upon a platform, which virtually declared
the Union, as then constituted, in opposition to justice, humanity and
civilization.
The
real danger to the South, involved in this election, was that it was a
sectional triumph – a victory of North over South, in a contest where
the South risked every thing, the North nothing. From time immemorial
sincere patriots of both sections had deprecated the formation of
sectional parties, organized upon geographical interests, or upon ideas
confined to limited portions of the Union.
Washington, in his farewell
injunction, admonished his countrymen of the deplorable results which
must follow the presentation of such issues.
The
Chicago platform was more than a menace to the South; it was a defiance
of law, a declaration of war upon the Constitution. The election of
Lincoln was both a legal and moral severance of the bonds of Union.
While he received the united vote of the north, save New Jersey, he did
not receive one electoral vote from the South.
His
shaping of his administration was consistent with the character of the
party which elected him. All his constitutional advisors were Northern
men or Southern Abolitionists; social outlaws in their own section, in
consequence of their notorious personal depravity, and infidelity to
their immediate fellow-citizens. Of like character were the subordinate
appointments of the Federal Government in Southern communities.
Nor
was there reason to doubt the policy of the Government under its new
management. Mr. Lincoln had been sufficiently communicative of his own
bitter hostility to Southern institutions. In fact, with much show of
justice, his admirers claimed for him the original suggestion of the
idea of an “irrepressible conflict,” afterwards so elaborately
pronounced by William H. Seward.
Public
announcements, from prominent speakers of the successful party, amply
revealed the feast to which the South was invited. Wendell Phillips . . .
pointedly defined the situation: “No man has a right to be surprised at
this state of things. It is just what we have attempted to bring about.
It is the first sectional party ever organized in this country. It does
not know its own face, and calls itself national; but it is not
national – it is sectional. The Republican party is a party of the North
pledged against the South.”
'
Read more at: http://www.ncwbts150.com/RepublicanPartyCauseOfWar.php
