Disunion Feed

"As far as the South is concerned, it is much like having the gap closed after the wolves have devoured all the sheep; it is but little satisfaction to her to know that she had a right to what has been stolen from her [...] "Agitation is not good for the South," says her self-appointed physicians; "she needs repose." Nay, answer we, not when repose is death."

The Delta quotes the New York Times and the Herald at length and draws the conclusion neither did: the decision hands the anti-slavery side the only solid foundation it has ever had for a national party. It also names the year the reckoning will come — 1860.

Read it in the original — New Orleans Daily Delta, Mar 19, 1857 ↗

Next post: Charleston Mercury, Mar 27, 1857 →

"Poor deluded mortals, they tell us, too, that we shall acquire, by the decision of the Supreme Court, not one right more than they granted to us before -- not one foot of slave territory more than we would have acquired without it. How much that will be, let the late history of our Government answer."

Three weeks on, the most extreme Southern paper in the country turns on the victory it had just claimed. Its argument is that a court opinion changes nothing on the ground, and that the South is being lulled by "Union-savers" into mistaking a paper triumph for security. Written as sustained mock-scripture — the millennium has come, peace reigns, and none of it is real. The line is what the Northern papers "tell us", quoted inside that sarcasm.

Read it in the original — Charleston Mercury, Mar 27, 1857 ↗