Disunion Feed

"To our mind there is no more prospect of a reconstruction of the old Government than there is of a return of Northern arrogance and fanaticism to right reason and self-sacrificing justice, a thing that they are incapable of doing, even if they had the disposition. [...] This new government is no visionary phantom, as some may seem to think—it is a living actual reality, its machinery is already in motion—it has its mission to perform and its destiny to realize"

Three weeks before the guns, the Confederate capital's own paper kills the last northern hope out loud: there will be no reconstruction, no stray sheep returning to the fold. The essay is aimed inward as much as outward — it scolds Southern Unionists for keeping the North's illusions alive. Two passages joined with [...]; the second is preceded in the source by an em dash. Fetched from the AHA "Sixteen Months to Sumter" archive.

Read it in the original — Montgomery Weekly Post, Mar 26, 1861 ↗

"One of the most sensible, prudent, and praiseworthy acts of the government of the United States, which has come under our observation, for a long time, is that of sending Captain G. V. Fox, formerly of Massachusetts, on a secret mission of observation to Fort Sumter, to ascertain and report, from actual personal inspection, the practicability of reinforcing that fortress, as well as the present ability of Major Anderson to sustain himself and his men within its walls."

The secret mission is in the newspaper. Gustavus V. Fox had visited Sumter on March 21 and reported that the fort could be resupplied by sea; his plan became the expedition that sailed in April. A paper praising the mission's prudence is also, unavoidably, announcing it. One contiguous passage, no splice.

Read it in the original — Boston Daily Courier, Mar 29, 1861 ↗