Chp. 4 - Antebellum Times in Grenada - A Christian Heritage
Michael Maxey
Tom Wooldridge
people would agree that the major factor was
slavery and the fear of the South that it would be abolished. (I have
a book at home called "The Road to Disunion" and
I could probably answer this better if I'd read it). Among the major
factors that I can give are the Wilmot Proviso to outlaw slavery
in the territories taken from Mexico (which failed) exited a lot of
fear in the South. The compomise of 1850 quieted things down
for a while until it broke down (at least the doctrine of popular
sovereignty did--allowing the states to vote themselves free or slave
on admission to the union) with the Kansas-Nebraska fighting.
Complicating things were the breakdown of the national
Whigs and thing splitting on a regional rather than party line. The
rise of the Republicans (all anti-slavery) and their success in
elections in the midwest & NE in the 4-6 years before the Civil war
terrified the Southerners as did John Brown's raid. Finally there was
the
nomination of Lincoln and the (probable) over-reaction of the South
(as best I can tell he never said he was for dismantling slavery
where it was legal, but many in the South feared he would try to do so
if elected). The Democrats then blew it by nominating multiple
candidates
and splitting their vote. In the NE particularly the abolitions
progressively became more successful in inflaming feelings against
slavery, with Uncle Tom's Cabin etc. The actual vote for secession in
MS was something like 83-15 but the "real" elites (Adams & Warren--the
two
wealthiest counties) were mostly not in favor (with some exceptions,
like ex-Gov Quitman, who had already died). When the vote came as
I recall Jeff Davis was in the NE making speeches as to how he thought
the Union could be preserved. Interestingly the vote for secession
was much closer in AL something like 55-45. After the vote, tho, most
of those opposed got on board.
Hope this is of some interest.
Tom Wooldridge
On Dec 13, 3:35 pm, Michael Maxey <maxeycof...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Time for bed but I wanted to post a note or two about Chapter 4 of "A
> Christian Heritage" -- the history of Grenada's First Baptist Church.
>
Michael Maxey
Mississippi
["Journal of the State Convention", (Jackson, MS: E. Barksdale, State Printer, 1861), pp. 86-88]
A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.
In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.
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.
That we do not overstate the dangers to our institution, a reference to a few facts will sufficiently prove.
The hostility to this institution commenced before the adoption of the Constitution, and was manifested in the well-known Ordinance of 1787, in regard to the Northwestern Territory.
The feeling increased, until, in 1819-20, it deprived the South of more than half the vast territory acquired from France.
The same hostility dismembered Texas and seized upon all the territory acquired from Mexico.
It has grown until it denies the right of property in slaves, and refuses protection to that right on the high seas, in the Territories, and wherever the government of the United States had jurisdiction.
It refuses the admission of new slave States into the Union, and seeks to extinguish it by confining it within its present limits, denying the power of expansion.
It tramples the original equality of the South under foot.
It has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union, and has utterly broken the compact which our fathers pledged their faith to maintain.
It advocates negro equality, socially and politically, and promotes insurrection and incendiarism in our midst.
It has enlisted its press, its pulpit and its schools against us, until the whole popular mind of the North is excited and inflamed with prejudice.
It has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation in the States and wherever else slavery exists.
It seeks not to elevate or to support the slave, but to destroy his present condition without providing a better.
It has invaded a State, and invested with the honors of martyrdom the wretch whose purpose was to apply flames to our dwellings, and the weapons of destruction to our lives.
It has broken every compact into which it has entered for our security.
It has given indubitable evidence of its design to ruin our agriculture, to prostrate our industrial pursuits and to destroy our social system.
It knows no relenting or hesitation in its purposes; it stops not in its march of aggression, and leaves us no room to hope for cessation or for pause.
It has recently obtained control of the Government, by the prosecution of its unhallowed schemes, and destroyed the last expectation of living together in friendship and brotherhood.
Utter subjugation awaits us in the Union, if we should consent longer to remain in it. It is not a matter of choice, but of necessity. We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede from the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other species of property. For far less cause than this, our fathers separated from the Crown of England.
Our decision is made. We follow their footsteps. We embrace the alternative of separation; and for the reasons here stated, we resolve to maintain our rights with the full consciousness of the justice of our course, and the undoubting belief of our ability to maintain it.
--
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Tom Wooldridge
I forgot to mention the fugitive slave law (affirmed by the Dred Scott
case and, I believe,
codified in the compromise of 1850), though as the State Journal says,
it was effectively
"nullified" and not enforced (except by slave catchers) in many of the
Northern states. The
entrance of California and Nevada as putative free states without
counterbalancing slave
states was also frightening to the south
Tom Wooldridge
On Dec 15, 5:04 pm, Michael Maxey <maxeycof...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Tom,
>
> Thanks for that summary. There is also a good narrative on the path to
> secession that was written by Clay Williams, Director of the Old Capitol
>
> read more »