GDG- Re: Gettysburg Digest, Vol 37, Issue 20

[Batrinque at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/11/2007 10:24:44 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
Biggsk at aol.com writes:

I would  refer you to the words of the secessionists themselves, who are  the 
 
men that I mentioned "FELT" that the Federal government had done so.   I  
won't 
speak for them when they can do so on their own - and it was  their  
perceptions that matter anyway, not  mine.




Let's see.  From South Carolina we have:
 
"The  people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 
26th day  of April, A.D., 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the 
Constitution  of the United States, by the Federal Government, and its 
encroachments upon the  reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in 
then withdrawing  from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and 
wishes of the other  slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise 
this right. Since  that time, these encroachments have continued to increase, 
and further  forbearance ceases to be a virtue ..."
 
And from  Mississippi we have:
 
"Our  position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery -- 
the  greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product 
which  constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of 
the  earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical 
 regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black  race can 
bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become  necessities of the 
world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and  civilization. That 
blow has been long aimed at the institution , and was at  the point of reaching 
its consummation. There was no choice left us but  submission to the mandates 
of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose  principles had been 
subverted to work out our ruin  ..."
 
And  from Georgia:
 
"The  people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the  
Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and 
 the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten 
years we  have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our  
non-slave-holding  confederate States with reference to the subject of  African slavery 
..."
 
And  from Texas:
 
"We  hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, 
and of the  confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, 
for  themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in 
their  establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior 
and  dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this 
country  be rendered beneficial or tolerable  ..."
 
 
I  have no doubt that these perceptions as expressed in 1860 and 1860, at the 
 actual time of secession and not years or decades later, were sincere.  And  
they were pretty darned clear as to what motivated the secessionist to 
exercise  what they saw as their legitimate right.
 
 
Bruce  Trinque
Amston, CT



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