Howell Cobb Quotes
The separation is perfect, complete, and perpetual.
Cobb had been elected president of the convention, and this was his part of his opening remarks.
Howell Cobb, 1815-1868, U. S. Congressman (Democrat, GA), Speaker of the House, Secretary of the Treasury, Confederate General, Convention of states that had seceded, Montgomery, Alabama, February 4, 1840
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This was a decade before there was a Civil War. Secession and war had been advocated by many Southerners for years before. Most people are not aware that the move toward secession did not suddenly appear when Lincoln was elected President. It had been festering for over a decade. The other importance of the quotation is that the Southernors knew perfectly well that their actions would lead to a civil war. Some Southern apologists claim that the South never saw their actions as treason, rebellion or the cause of a civil war. This quote shows that they well knew what they were doing and the result was exactly as most Southern leaders expected.
When the first Southern States seceded, each appointed a whose job it was to persuade the other Southern States to also secede. In this case Hale was marketing secession to Kentucky which with Maryland were the only two Southern States to reject what they regarded as treason and rebellion. The importance of the quotation however is in his argument which was all based on enmity to racial equality and abolition. Later Southern apologists would argue that the Civil War was fought, not about slavery and racism butt about different philosophies of government. See {623715} .
Howell Cobb was an American political figure. A southern Democrat, Cobb was a five-term member of the United States House of Representatives and Speaker of the House from 1849 to 1851. He also served as the 40th Governor of Georgia (1851–1853) and as a Secretary of the Treasury under President James Buchanan (1857–1860).
