Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1861-04-03
Prom The London SATURDAY Rsview.J=i
The Motives of Secession.

Aho mOtAFoS VI oecchbtOnA
Much as the disruption Of the United
States has been discussed. it still seems to
be little understood. If any ten English
gentlemen were asked what mcsites had
led the Southern States to propose Secs,
sion. it would be a great chance if two of
them could tell. At first sight. It looks
u~naecountable that a third of the people
of that country should break off from
their allegiance simply because a President
has been elected whose principles dife
from their own. This seems still m re
strange when We remember that he has
neither the will nor the power to lay the
lightest finger upon any part of their in
stitutions. |I
In the Southern States, social position
almost entirely rests, not on birth, not
even upon general wealth. but upon the
possession of slaves. The man who has
not . niger at his command is looked up
on with as much contempt as the poor
wretch spoken of by Juvenel. who could
MT call himself the owner even .'uaius
tycerG." But despised as the mean whites
are. they will not put themselves on the
level with the slaves by engaging in manu-
al labor. They would rather i've in pen
ury than work for their bread. Their COL
den day dream is to have a niger of their
Owl to wallOp. Now hitherto, the North
ern States in conjunction with the breeding
States, have been able to keepin check this
longing for cheap slaves. In the last two
or three years. however, the WHITES of the
Southern States have grown restless under
this yoke, and now their r~esolute determi-
nation is to open up a trade in slaves with
Africa, and thus reduce the price of ne
groes. Nor is this only with the view of
increasing their private wealth and impor-
lance. Their idea is, that by covering new
Territories with negroes they shall build
up a great c~onfederacy Of Slave States oc-
cupying the whole Southern portion of
North America. This thirst for an Afri-
can slave trade has been the chief motive
that has influenced the SecessiOnists, and
which make a compromise almost impossi-
bic. The Northern States would be too
glad to make any reasonable. and perhaps
unreasonable concessions, but nothing. We
believe, would induce them to acquiesce in
legalizing that atrocious traffic.
And yet one might have thought that
even the strong appetite for gain would
hardly have blinded the white men of the
Southern States to the great loss and the
great risk which they are about to incur.
To our minds the loss would seem to be
enormous as far to outweigh any pecuniary
gain. They would at once cease to belong
To one of the greatest nations of the world.
and sink into members Of a comparatively
small State. with no history. no
no prestige. All the traditions that gath
er round the great North American people
and of which that people has been so
proud. would cease to be theirs. But if
patriotic pride does not sway them, still
we cannot help wondering at their readi-
ness to incur the heavy taxation which a
separate cOnfederacy must entail. 1t will
be necessary for them to maintain a feet
and an army, unless they choose to lie ex-
posed to insults from their Northern neigh
bors. The whole coast of the Civil Admin
istration, hitherto divided between the
North and South. will fall upon them
But more than all this, there is the risk
that, should civil war breaS out, the ne
grces might take part in it against their
masters; and that in any case the neigh
borhood Of 4 Free State. whose enmity to
81 very has been inhamed by these dissen-
siOns, will render insubordination and'de-
s%ertiOns far more frequent among the slaves.
No event of our day has been half so
wonderful as the one before US. Who. a
priori, could have believed that in the
nineteenth century a new State should be
organized, by the grandsOns of Englishmen,
solely on the principle of preser wing and
extending a system of Slavery! A more
ignoble basis for a great C~onfederacy it is
impossible to conceive. nor one in the long
run more precarious. The permanent re-
nunciatiOn of sound principles and natural
laws must In due time bring ruin. No
great career can lie before the Southern
States. bound together solely BY the tie of
having a working class Of negro bondsmen.
Assuredly it will be the Northern COnfed-
eracy, based on the principle of freedom,
with a policy untainted by crime, with a
free working class of white men, that will
be the one to go on and PROSPER, and be-
come the leader Of the New World.