Disunion Feed

"The most inveterate and sanguine Unionist in Georgia, if he is an observant man, must read, in the signs of the times, the hopelessness of the Union cause, and the feebleness of the Union sentiment in this State. [...] Some of the southern States see, in the tremendous popular majorities which have elevated LINCOLN to the Presidency, the huge mountainous waves that are beating down on the South with resistless force [...] With them the question is, secession from the Union, and a self-defending, homogeneous southern Republic, or submission to the Union, and the fate of Jamaica and St. Domingo."

A Georgia secessionist paper answering Gov. Joseph E. Brown's message; 'the fate of Jamaica and St. Domingo' invokes emancipation and slave revolt (Haiti 1791–1804; Jamaican emancipation 1834) — the core fear that remaining in the Union means the end of slavery. Text from the AHA "Sixteen Months to Sumter" reproduction of Dumond's Southern Editorials on Secession (transcription; original newspaper scan not cross-checked). Fragments joined with [...].

Read it in the original — Daily Constitutionalist (Augusta), Nov 16, 1860 ↗

Next post: William Lloyd Garrison, Nov 16, 1860 →

"The election of the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, to the Presidency of the United States, has operated upon the whole slaveholding South in a manner indicative of the torments of the damned. [...] Will they secede from the Union? Will they jump into the Atlantic? Will they conflagrate their own dwellings, cut their own throats, and enable their slaves to rise in successful insurrection? Perhaps they will — probably they will not! By their bullying and raving, they have many times frightened the North into a base submission to their demands — and they expect to do it again! Shall they succeed?"

Ten days after the election and six weeks before South Carolina's ordinance, Garrison reads Southern secession threats as theatrical intimidation the North has repeatedly caved to ('there is method in their madness'). He does not here welcome secession. Verified at fair-use.org (clean transcription; masthead Vol. XXX No. 46). Fragments joined with [...].

Read it in the original — The Liberator, Nov 16, 1860 ↗