Hezekiah Niles Quotes
Shall we open the door to what may become the foulest proscription: state against state?
He was a Southerner who was opposed to Slavery. He understood both North and South and feared the Civil War 20 years before the event. See also his letter {615642}.
Hezekiah Niles, 1777-1839, Editor and Publisher of Niles’ Weekly Register, Editorial, November 4, 1820
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Niles shared with his close friend his great fear of a Civil War between South and North. He published in Baltimore (Maryland then being a slave state) and saw the slavery issue as leading the nation to national conflict three decades before it actually happened. As a distinguished Southerner he was respected and influential in the North where his Register was widely circulated. He himself however opposed slavery, and this made many of his attempts to prevent civil war ineffective as the more rabid Southerners saw anyone opposed to slavery as an enemy. See his editorial warning about the Civil War: {615640}.
the modern believe is that democracies are not prone to war, especially against other democracies. Seward, and some others believe that democracies can be pushed into war by politicians you do so for partisan political advantage. Politicians often have to show how tough they are.
King George did not want to give up the American Colonies and claimed the loss at Yorktown was just a loss of a single battle. The English soldiers had controlled New York, Charlestown and other places and American Tories wanted to fighting to continue. The French were having major problems elsewhere and the states were all broke from the war effort. Hamilton urged Clinton to offer all the New York offers and soldiers half pay tp be available to fight against the other ex-colonies represented in the Continental Congress.
As just one example of Southern States' reasons, see {583044}. Many of the Northern States had passed laws declaring everyone in the state was free and making it illegal to return or assist in the returning of escaped slaves. The Southerners got the Federal Fugitive Slave Act passed which required all Americans to assist in recapturing escaped slaves. It was the Northern States who claimed states' rights were being trampled. The South was vehemently opposed to States' Rights when it came to allowing individual states to decide who was free and who was not. The Southerners had only one fundamental reason for secession—the maintenance of the Negro slavery system on which much of their economy depended as did their sociology, culture, and way of life.
At the time his Vice President, John C. Calhoun, was expounding a theory of “nullification” by which the states could supersede and nullify federal law in their states. When Jackson finished his toast, it was Calhoun’s turn (See {635896}.) His toast supported the States’ Rights position over the federal government. In those days Presidents and Vice President’s were often political enemies or of opposite parties. The President’s advisors thought that his toast might be misinterpreted. So when they gave the toast to the press as “The Federal Union: It must be preserved.” That was the form in which the press reported the President’s toast and for many years that was the version most quoted even though it was never delivered that way. However Jackson was responsible for both versions.
- Born: October 10, 1777
- Died: April 2, 1839
- Nationality:
- Profession: Journalist, Editor, Publisher
Hezekiah Niles, was an American editor and publisher of the Baltimore-based national weekly news magazine, Niles' Weekly Register (aka Niles' Register) and the Weekly Register.
