Richmond Enquirer Quotes
The address was couched in the cool, unimpassioned, deliberate language of the fanatic…pursuing the promptings of fanaticism even to the dismemberment of the Government with the horrors of civil war.
This is a wonderful quotation which illustrates the polarization which had taken place in America as a result of the slavery issue. Lincoln’s address—which history and most people have adjudged to be such a moderate attempt to find common ground, and which offended many of his constituents because he was compromising and temporizing on the slavery issue—was seen as the radical attacks of a “fanatic”. There is probably no policy that Lincoln or any other President could have followed that would be even marginally acceptable to the slave owners and their economies and the abolitionists and their economies. In the final analysis, slavery was the kind of issue that is not susceptible to compromise. No nation can exist half slave and half free. The Civil War was inevitable unless the South would give up slavery or the North would accept it.
Richmond Enquirer, Editorial on Lincoln’s first Inaugural Address, March 7, 1861
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Hunton was an old West Point classmate of Sherman’s and was also a Tennessee slave holder, who wanted his escaped slaves back under the Fugitive Slave Act. Actually, Army Commander McClellan had issued an order just a few days before, prohibiting the Army of returning fugitive slaves to their rebel owners who were guilty of treason. See {619337} Sherman however wrote his friend and made a moral and ethical argument that transcended the law and at the same time pointed out the ethical hypocrisy of the treasonous Confederates.
Few Islamic leaders have publicly made such unequivocal statements about the problem of extremism and fanaticism.
This quotation is often given by those who believe that nothing has really changed regarding the Arabs and non-Islamic Westerners in the last century. While the support of dictators, Israel and support for that democracy, the artificial Western imposed borders, 9-11, or the Iraq war is often cited as the cause of Arab hostility and murderous aggression, as this quotation demonstrates, the problems and attitudes and behaviors existed long before any of these occurred. The borders were not set until after WWI and all the other causes occurred almost 50 years later, Yet there was still the propensity for fanaticism and violence. Sikes actually was one of those who was to determine the Arab borders, making one of the first “suggested” maps of the area for the English.
It would be almost 30 years until Jackson would have been proved correct and the Civil War had begun.
The Richmond Examiner, a newspaper which was published before and during the American Civil War under the masthead of Daily Richmond Examiner, was one of the newspapers published in the Confederate capital of Richmond. Its editors viewed strong executive leadership as a threat to the liberties of its subscription readership. The paper published staunch and increasingly vitriolic opposition to the leadership and policies of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Historians often consult the pages of the Examiner for insights into the growing problems faced by the Davis administration and the South as they faced the increasing prospect of defeat in the Civil War.
