The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-06-06
WHAT THE SoUTH EXPECTED.
The Hopes and Intentions Of secessionist
Leaders IA Stated Before the War.
An ~Innnhlished after from William Gilmore

The Hopes and Intentions of Secessionist
Leaders as stated Before the War.
IAN Unpublished Letter from William Gilmore
Simms.l
WOODLANDS, January 20, 1S6l.-My Dear
Mr.. Bockee: My letter was a long one and 1t VIII
be quite impossible for me to rewrite 1T. Think
ing that you desired TO put the letter in clrcu,
lation. / elaborated it carefully and considered
not only all the points indicated IN your let
ter. but a variety besides. which have been
preached IN the letters OF other 1rlehus;
After / had written 1t my friend, General
Jamison. persuaded me TO expand IL stl
further and publish it in one of our papers.
did so. and il was published a week. or 80
ago in the Charleston Mercury, making no
less than FIVE columns in that paper. VI
course this was q measure greatly beyond the
letter sent you: and much OF the sharper mat,
ter is what 1 should not have sad 10 you sun
the publication was contained IN the form Oh
the letter addressed 10 Mr.. Is. If ! can get
copv of the paper / will send 1t to you.
but it hardly matters now, written III antlcl-
nation of secession aud originally concerning
that event. The act being passed, a new con-
dition of things follows which comparatively
renders the former letter useless. Five states
are now out of the Union, soon TO De 1oho"eu
bv Iouisiana. Arkansas and Texas.
IF no attempt is made at coercion the COM
merce and communion of these with the
Northern States will be resumed as before. III,
however. the continued insanity OF Black re
publicans determines not TO suffer the escape
Of its victims | Will tell you WhaC Will 10 II
consequence of war.
We will make our ports free TO the com
merce of Great Britain, France. Spain, Hol-
land and all the European states, ana ais,
criminate by heavy duties against the edeiai
States of the North. Great britain ana
France must have our produce, cotton espe-
ciaIly. which they can only get by coming and
taking it. They will relieve us from blockade.
Weshail. besides. cover the ocean with our
nrivateers. under our letters OF marque,
which will prey upon Northern commerce.
We shall have none Of our own 10 suner; we
shall get our supplies from Europe under the
faes of Great Britain and France. and their
manufactures will come TO us at an average
of 80 per cent. cheaper than those OF the
Yankees.
And after the war what will remain to the
North? 1t will not only have failed TO Keep
ms in the Union. but it will SO have enraged
onr people that the trade between the two
| sections must be cut off forever. Meanwhile,
does the trade Of New England or that Of
PENNSYLVANIA compensate you for the loss OF
the South?
New England has nothing to supply New
York with, nor has pennsylvania. On the
contrary. YOU are rivals of one another for
this very trade of the Southern people, whom
YOU Black Republicans have driven TO des-
Meanwhile how does an agricultural people
stand war. as compared with q commercial
people? We raise our own provisions ana
supplies. We sell nothing but our surplus
crop.
For example: Take my case for the pre-
sent year. | have 20 negroes 10 support, OF
whom only 35 do any work. Yet have TO
feed, clothe and physic the whole 20. Now,
my present stores in hand amount In round
numbers to 5000 bushels of corn, 100 bush
els of rice. as many of peas and potatoes. L
have 100 acres of rye and oats now grow
ing. killed sixty head of hogs this winter.
have already killed four beeves. | have so
head of cattle, 200 more OF hogs, growing
for another season. ! have my own bricklayer,
| carpenter and blacksmith. In July a new
CROP of corn will be made, amounting, l trust
and believe, to 1000 bushels. | shall make
with Gods favor. / hope, 125 bags of cotton
land this only for EXPORT; all the rest IS re-
served for domestic consumption. say
nothing of small crops of wheat. made my
own flour this year; of turnips, cabbages and
other vegetables, which we regularly Guilt
yate. and / am not a successful planter.
There is hardly one planter, large or small,
i'm all this precinct, who Is not quite as well
provided. and most of them better, for en-
countering the dangers of famine, which
| see is one of the thousand lies daily re-
tailed to your people by the Black Republi-
CHI ~ . ~ ~ NAAtA 80
vail with them to hope against hope
till after Lincoln's Inauguration. for what
these rascals now tremble at ~ the dreaded
loss of the spoils of Office, should the truth
be known They try to persuade your
people that starvation will drive us back to
the sheepfold. There is no danger Of It
here. Our people are united to q man and
our forces already exceed 5000, and of
these hardly a man IS not a good horse
man and a deadly shot; Send the Black
Republicans forward. They have brought
the country to the present crisis, and should
show themselves as resOlute IN battle as they
have been impudent at safe distances from
danger. Send the Summers and the Beechers
and the Wilson's and the Webbs, and the
Greeleys and the Raymonds, helpers to help
them out.
Let them comet
They come like sacrifices in their train.
And TO the tire-eyed maid OF smoky war
All hot and bleeding will we offer them.
They will have their hands full conquering
as provinces eight States and blockading their
harbors. Their hands will be more full of
work than their Golfers of money. The seced-
ing States have deliberately counted the cost,
and prefer open war to incendiaries, and a
warlike enemy to an insidious one. Better die
in harness Of war than perish by
in Northern pulpits and presses
by the poisoning of our fountains
where our m drink and by the
burning of houses in which our children
sleep. Be sure of this, my old friend. that
war may glut the rage of a faction, but will
never reunite us in bonds of amity with them.
They may give us trouble and spill our blood,
but will that better them; will it sell their
stocks, restore trade and make their COM
merce flourish? Think for yourself. The
South Is at last in concert and as one man.
Yours truly, as ever,
W. GILMORE SIN