Year: 1861

10 snow the state OF IeeilnS al the oOutn aLnC15
the people, not the politicians, we give extracts
from two letters, one from North Carolina and
the other from Tennessee, written in the freedom
of private correspondence from one friend to
another for personal information and without any
intention of publication The writers of both
letters are business men, deeply interested in the
preservation of peace and stable Government,
which fact gives value to the sentiments they ex-
press and the representations they make of the
existing state of feeling among what may be re-
garded the conservative men of the border slave
States. They will well repay perusal by all who
desire to be informed as to the sentiment of one
section of the country upon the issues which
threaten to dissolve the Government:


MUEFzEEssoEo', n. c., January Is, 1851.


Political matters engrossing the attention
of every body in this usually quiet section of our
country and the feeling in favor of secession and
a Southern Republic is the general one felt by the
people They seem to have lost all confidence in
RepubIicanism- They have adopted the opin-
ion that the Northern aversion to slavery and
to the Southern people points alone to hatred and
aggression in the future, the part OF the North
10 the South, and if that is to be the case, the
universal feeling is for immediate and lasting Sc
cession. Such Is the feeling here in conservative
North Carolina, and it is worse in other sections
of the South. Before the 4th of March, it is my
opinion we shall see either the secession of every
Southern State, excepting, possibly, Maryland;
and after the 4th of March coercion will be the
beginning Of, and, indeed, civil war itself. Lin
coin may not be einaugurated-the chances are all
against him-and let some violent Southern ia
natic asss sssinate him, and the fendish spirit of
discord and strife will hurry country into
civil war, with all its untold and unimagned
horrors. The Republicans have the union and
peace of our country in their hands, and my
opinion is it is in bad hands.


/ see South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Geor-
gia, &C.. propose Immediately forming provi-
visional Governments, and sending ambassadors
to European Government for the purpose of
forming treaties Of amity and securing the assist
ance, in case of war, of such foreign nations
These States offer to such foreign nations free
trade"-a boon of the greatest price and value to
any foreign power. These seeding States are
the producers, and the chief producers, of cotton
an article of necessity to all the world. VIII not
foreign nations readily assist these States such
termsl They will, in nv opinion, do so without
fail. Why is France, through Louis Napoleon,
making such remarkable preparations for war?
In my opinion it is for the exclusive purpose of
aiding the great cotton States of America in re-
s;sting an aggressive and Constitution breaking





conclusive proof to my mind that such is the
design of France, One is, that her (France's)
chief preparations are in the increase of her navy,
and the other fact is the assurance made to me
personally, by persons of ultra Southern procliv-
ities and claiming to know the facts in the case,
that Louis Napoleon has made such promise to
South Carolina, and other seeding Southern
States There is yet another reason-the crown
ed Kings and Emperors of Europe would be the
more securely established in their thrones by the
overthrow of the American Republic-the last,
greatest, and most noble attempt of man at self
government And will the Republicans act as
to establish full and complete fruition of such
plans and schemes, and the total ruin Of true lib
erfy2 While they pretend to be lovers of free
dom, assure you the signs of the times to my
mind point to a certain and lasting overthrow Of
our Government, and not only to that, but tc
civil war; and in such event, what viii or can the
North make by coercion? The whole of the
Southern States will become united, and can the
North coerce the whole of the SouthT No
never. And can the North coerce both the South
ern States and Fance, and possibly other strong
nations? The North, through the mad hatred o.
the Republicans for the South, / tell you, arr
Fastening these results upon themselves, and upor
the civilized world The great powers of Europe
are too dependant upon the cotton States o
America to be Indifferent or idle in the drama tn,
Republicans forcing ahead. Would that
could speak to every man in the North and caus
him to see the certanties in the future to resul
from the Republicans and the North's attemp
and dream of ability to coerce the South. If
could, every man in the North loving his country
and having sentiments of common honesty, wou
cheerfully and hastily accord to the South, and q
the Southern States, equality of rights in al
our territories Indeed, nothing can be lost Z
freedom, but everything of true freedom game
thereby Fanaticism is now ruling our country
<<<x1
of success-a success that will eventuatc, afte
years of blood spilled, and innumerable woes en-
dured, in the total overthrow ,f the liberty of tn
whole American people; ano the result to tn
Northern States themselves viii be, as you say
"military despotism," in place OF the gloriou
rights and privileges of the liberty we now enjo,
Such result has been the experience of th
world, and common sense tells US that peopl
crushed to death by the horrors and sufferings {
war, will accept the rule of any power capable
giving them peace and all its joys.


Ny interests are all in the Northern States-m
sympathy is with my whole country, and its unio
is essential to the preservation of its present hig
degree of freedom as well as of its general pros
perity and believe il would be wise for us
make any sacrifice claimed by the extreme Sout
rather than have a Union dismembered and il
volved, as such a divided Union must be, in tn
horrors of a civil war.





gaining for the poor negro in the course they al
pursuing: Their action will either lead 10 Il
annhilati0n of the negroes or the more effectu
and severe enslavement of them; even in liber
minded North Carolina the feeling is often fel
and have heard it often expressed by inhuenti
men here. that it is right and proper to ensla,
the free negroes of the State or drive them out
let civil war come, and one of these things vi
be done. But If the negroes of the South cou
be freed, what benefit would result to any part,
The South, with her sentiments and habits won
Immediately enslave every one remaining wi
them, and granting that the great body of Il
four millions of slaves should escape to Il
Northern States, what advantage would the
presence be to these Northern StatesG who wan
these negroes? who or what State? Does n
State OF Iowa want themg or does Mass>-husei
want theml They would suit the latter Sta
better than any other portion of the Unit,
States; she Massachusetts, could then have Sc
eral thousand of marriages of white persons wi
negroes every year rather than only some fft
seven, the number of such marriages the pa
year.


slaves or slavery; but tell you, and would th
could tell every Republican in the North {
fact, that unless they allow the Southern Stat
equal right of occupying the common property
the nation with all their property rights uniI
paired by any act Of the General Government
the Northern States, secession and total al
lasting dissolution of our Union is the cons
quence. Now when the Republicans saw tn
will not grant this equal right to the South, let
be remembered they thereby say they-the r
publicans-are willing to accept dissolution
our Union and the destruction of the Go
ernment under which now live, and the Repu
hcans themselves become responsible for SUI


consequences. i waive the right wrong of q
Demands Of the Southern States whether such d


minds are right or wrong the consequences fowil
from the act of the Republicans is disunion; d


Republican leaders know this fact, and KNOWN


haxeso little regard for the preservation of o


Union rhey refuse to make the sacrifice for


preservation absolutely necessary to be made.


have dealings with man who claims more TIN


his due, and knoto that If tell him he is